Is AI in Danger of ‘Jumping the Shark’?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Artificial Intelligence  

I want to talk about toilets. (There’s something you didn’t expect to read when you got up this morning!)

Specifically, I want to talk about one particular smart toilet that I recently saw advertised. It comes with a remote control, an app, built-in Alexa, a heated seat, automatic cleaning, a self-opening and closing lid, LED lights and speakers. The list price is US $11,500. For a toilet.

It's an example of the “smart” craze gone to ridiculous extremes, following close on the heels of app-enabled toothbrushes, a fork that warns you if you are eating too quickly, and an egg carton that sends a message to your phone when you are getting low on eggs. (Yes, those all really exist.)

I am aware that I am not the target market for any of those products, but to me they are clear evidence that smart technology has “jumped the shark”—or “gone too far” past its original intent (the phrase refers to an infamous episode of a popular American TV show of the 1970s).

And now we have artificial intelligence, which—based on current evidence—is boldly going where no smart technology has gone before. And it’s determined to get there as quickly as possible, no matter how absurd the resultant products and services are.

Why? Because it’s AI, and people will buy it for that reason alone. Even as you read …

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