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Showing posts from November, 2017

Selling Artificial Intelligence

Why License Plate Recognition is not A.I. I got a fine yesterday. No, sorry, not a parking fine , it's a bill from Wilson Parking Enforcement Services (the "Border Force" for shopping car parks). The bill is for liquidated damages . In other words, the shopping centre could have had another car, people and fresh buyers using the same bay. Oh it was all very clever, really. But it's not A.I. Wilson Parking has automated its Parking Enforcement Service . Without people being involved, I was auto-fined. To be fair, a person did leave the infringement notice under my wiper. I'm sure one day that will be a long-armed robot. Today? A human with a thankless job. A perfect fit for A.I. Let machines do all the work, so that people have time to think. [IBM's Pollyanna Principle (1977)] Let's get one thing straight License plate recognition technology is not A.I. License Plate recognition (Optical Character Recognition) has been around since 1978 - we'

If they don't want it, don't sell it to them

Take note hard-sellers I get a lot of people coming up to my pop-up roof restoration table asking, "How much for a roof restoration?" I explain why I can't answer that question. I don't have the skills. Only the boss can do quotes. We have to see the state of your roof first. How big is the roof? What kind of tiles do you have? Is it Colorbond? Do you want tucking and pointing or do you want the whole gamut of latest technology cleaning, painting and roof protection up there? "It's why I have to send the guys around to give you a quote." At this point, about 50% of the people leave. They don't want "guys coming around" is the only reason why. Many times more people ask me where the toilets are. That's easy. "Over there" I point. Some of this bugs me. I know a lot of sales people who take it personally when they don't get a sale. Boo hoo . . . Wha-? I spent a whole day in Bali (back in 2000) with a guy trying like bla