A conversation with Statistical Probably Machines CEO, David Freeman. Interviewed by Charlie McCulloch of the Washington Mail

Charlie McCuloch: “As a leader of one of the world’s leading AI Companies how would you describe the current state of the technology and the industry?”

David Freeman: “Well I think one of the problems people are facing when confronted with AI is the question, ‘What is intelligence?’ Many would say it is the question of the times. How do we define it? How do categorise what it is naturally? Artificially? If you are using what is being describe as an AI Product the question of what Intelligence is can be extremely pertinent.

Many point out that the majority of the products out there are basically what the name of our company describes, Statistical  Probability Machines. And to that I would offer is what humans do, taking a cognitive leap to deduce what comes next, any different?”

 Charlie McCuloch: “You answer has me confused. Do you believe what we are describing, the products from companies like yours, is Artificial Intelligence or not?”

 David Freeman: “Our products are not the discussion, it’s the use of the word ‘Intelligent’ that I am curious about. Do we consider viruses intelligent? When you get the flu, do you wonder what it is thinking? How about measles and how clever it is to infect you and get into you despite the effort of your immune system. Is that intelligent? I mean its dangerous, people die from it, but I am not thinking it can answer philosophical questions about the nature of the universe.

This is the problem with so many in the industry when they talk about intelligence, thinking actions of sophisticated software repeating patterns it has been instructed on in one way or another is actually intelligent. A mimic is just a mimic, following a pattern it has seen, not creating new patterns on its own.

Surrealism was an act of creation, software imitating what it’s been trained on is not, but promoting it like that will get you some business but more importantly a lot of press. And when you need a high share price, the press is far more important than actual value or utility.”

Charlie McCuloch: “Given your comments about the use of the word ‘intelligent’ in regards to software how would you describe the use, and in some cases, reliance on the software being marketed as AI?”

David Freeman: “Well, as I have said much of what out there is really working from Statistical Probability, and that is not exact certainty. It is highly likely, almost certainly, and in this world, in these circumstances, that is good enough. Are we saying you should trust your life with it? Your entire future? Of course not. What sort of idiot would do that?  But not everything has to be certain, has to be exact. If that last few years have taught us anything it’s that accuracy is only sort of needed. If it sounds good, looks good, it’ll do. I mean if you want accuracy, if you want something done the best way, wouldn’t you want the best, no matter what?

Look at it this way, if you need a surgeon, a pilot, a scientist, do you care what their skin colour is, their appearance, their sexual preferences, their gender identity? Of course not, none of that has any relevance to if they are good at their job, if they make the scientific discovery, if they can fly the plane, if they can complete the surgery that will save you or your loved ones life.

Anyone who thinks different is obviously an ignorant idiot.  So I ask you, what sort of world would we trust our most important situations to a probability. That is not what we do. We give you the tools to complete those things that are never perfect, never exact, never relied upon in any important or essential way, just look at how undervalued the work has been, how little people are willing to pay for it, isn’t that a sign of how unimportant it really is?”

Charlie McCuloch: “But if it’s that unimportant, that undervalued, how can you expect to make a profit from it.”

David Freeman: “Well, that’s the trick isn’t it?”

Charlie McCuloch: “Your main products, Write, Listen and See are all focused on the creative industries. Do you have any other products for any disciplines?”

David Freeman: “We have one product we haven’t released called Index, a search and analysis agent. It will search for information you request, compile a database of relevant information and then be able to refine your information requests down into specific details from the assembled database. Unfortunately we have found some verification issues due to the nature of what is published digitally these days, I mean we all know the infamous cheese glued on pizza story. We have also found similar issues with the data feeds available being susceptible to satire and disinformation, so that product is still in development.”

Charlie McCuloch: “Any others?”

David Freeman: “Another developing program is called CEO. As long as you set the parameters, like profit, growth, influence, power, you can have it run your company like any other CEO would. As long as you have financial and analyst teams feeding it data, it can weigh al that against the targets you are looking for and make the same type of decisions that have been made in the business world in the last century or more. I mean its not like it was hard to compile the data. More than enough Annual Reports, combined with Wall Street share data and SEC Investigations to easily mimic the actions of any CEO of any of the top 100 companies in the world.”

Charlie McCuloch: “And has that software garnered any interest?”

David Freeman: “Not really. Most CEO’s aren’t willing to hand over the reigns and have boards concerned it will replace them as well. Which isn’t something we had planned on, but given the suggestion, we are more that willing to look into.”

Charlie McCuloch: “Your existing products, being digital and only needing to be copied and licensed, have been reported to be listed as out of stock for the last few months. Would you like to discuss that?”

David Freeman: “Well, yes. As you or anyone following the industry would know, a lot of this software is very resource hungry. And given that we want to ensure our existing customers suffer no degradation in their experience, and are able to maintain reasonable expenditure on our products, we have closed our sales for the time being so we can properly provide the service we promised at time of sale. What sort of company would we be to promise one thing, and then once you’ve integrated that product into your business, change the conditions and costs so drastically that you might have issues continuing as a business, let alone being able to use our product. That not only would be bad business practices, but not make any sense at all. It would be like selling you a car, and then taking the wheels. Ridiculous.”

Charlie McCuloch: “There are critics of your products in the artistic community have been very vocal about their opinion of your products, with many now adopting the slogan ‘A Prompt a Day Takes the passion away’ How would you like to respond?”

David Freeman: “Oh, that’s a good one. That was clever. You have to love a good writer. And that’s what Write does. It loves a good writer, supports them, encourages them, enhances what they do. With our product Write a good writer with a few lines can create paragraphs, chapters, entire books with a few simple ideas and phrases. Shakespeare wishes he could use what we now have.”

Charlie McCuloch: “Well, that certainly sums that up. I see that we are about all out of time. I thank you, David Freeman, CEO of Statistical Probably Machines, for this frank and forthright discussion.”

David Freeman: “You’re welcome.”