Artificial Intelligence and the Fridge
Comment of the Day

April 16 2015

Commentary by David Fuller

Artificial Intelligence and the Fridge

Here is the opening from an amusing, edgy article by Maija Palmer for the FT Connected Business section:

Could an internet-connected thing — a smart fridge, a thermostat or a home-help robot — become a millionaire? This is not as ridiculous a question as it may seem.

If we do indeed move toward a world in which devices are connected to the internet and performing mundane chores, it is likely that many of them will be connected to some kind of bank account.
For maximum efficiency, the smart fridge that orders your milk should also be able to also handle the payments to the supermarket. You may not hook the fridge directly to a current account — worried perhaps a software glitch might cause the fridge to accidentally put you in debt by ordering £20,000 worth of dairy products in a single day. But you might set up a pre-paid account with a set amount of milk money that the fridge can access.

David Fuller's view

The article is an imaginative journey towards the trouble we can get into if we devolve too much responsibility to machines.  The simple solution – go out and buy your own milk. 

There are excellent links in the article and also in the ‘More’ column to its left.

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