What artificial intelligence doesn’t understand Posted on : Jun 02 - 2018

This is speech-making season. I have found myself in front of audiences for graduations, retirements and award celebrations. All this speechifying has taught me, forcefully, the limits of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

I have been giving what used to be called “occasional speeches.” This does not mean, as some might hope, that they happen only occasionally, but rather that their purpose is to respond to an occasion or event, to meet and match a moment.

What kind of moments have I encountered?

These bright-eyed, or maybe bleary-eyed, kids are about to leave a sheltered environment and enter the world, now at last pursuing happiness fully guided by their own lights. What kind of world will they find? What tests and trials will they discover?

Or: This man is retiring. On the basis of what kind of performance? What life has he crafted? What rewards have been earned by the worry lines deeply etched in his brow, and by the laugh crinkles beside his eyes?

To meet and match these moments, a speaker has to register the wants and needs, interests and motivations, hopes and fears that have brought everyone into the room, or onto that open campus greenway. This family member has never been to a college graduation before; that one has generations of graduation pictures on the walls of the study at home. This one is struggling with anxiety and barely even made it to the graduation ceremony with clothes in order and tickets in the pocket or purse. That one has been working extra shifts steadily to achieve an oasis of security. All of them wonder what to make of the turbulence of the world. All of them want to find a way to do right for their loved ones—to find equilibrium—despite the gyrations and confabulations of famous and powerful people.

But how to name the moment and point to a worthy path? This is the challenge.

To master it, a speaker must understand and answer the question presented by a roomful, or a field full, of upturned faces. The relevant question arises from the synthesized aggregate of the life experiences, sources of pride, hopes and fears, questions and concerns brought to the fore by the occasion. What human question is on the table at this time in this place? On this occasion?

What we often call the vibe in the room is that human question, pulsing.

In a few quick minutes, in registering that vibe, human beings process an infinitude of data — emotional, social, experiential, political, broadly contextual. We read the room, as they say, like a book, something we learn how to do well at least in part by reading books. Literature, history, philosophy. View More