Extraordinary innovations in technology have forever altered the way we see, hear, think and live. Beginning with fax machines, then moving on to computer imaging that transformed typewriters into visual powerhouses, mobile phones, emails, texting, websites, televisions that replaced going to the movies, and, of course, social media, these advances revolutionized our lives.

So how can we know when or what the next wave of “new” is coming and understand if it will make our lives better or worse.

AI as a term has been around for a while – and then bingo it is real – as in really right now on your computer or phone. Just a simple download and you have entered the new world of Artificial Intelligence that has powerful ramifications for every business and will impact every aspect of our lives.  Smart forward-thinking corporations are already setting up entire teams to focus on AI.

There have been rants from artists and writers and content creators and purveyors of truth that AI will ultimately corrupt the social order and change our culture. Pretty dramatic.

Lucy is taking a class in June on AI and marketing and will share what she garners from it.  We want to understand how this new beast of technology will affect us. So, we decided write about our favorite subject – Fashion.

Writing about fashion is tough. Writing is sometimes fun because you can take anything you see or read or hear and look at it with fresh ideas or perspectives. But other times writing is a struggle.  We decided to turn to a “friend” called “Chatbot”,  something new that a subscriber recommended at the beginning of the year.

In its simplest description, Chatbot is a software application that mimics human conversation. It can be in a text or voice. We wonder if this is cheating that we have turned to AI to help us. But let’s see what we can do with it.

The first thing we did is download the app and then, because we did not know what to ask it to do, we decided to ask it to describe AI:

“AI or Artificial Intelligence refers to development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making, and language translation. These systems are designed to learn from data and experiences and improve their performance over time.”

Then we decided to see how AI will help the fashion industry. The following list is what we learned:

1. Personalized shopping experience: AI can help customers find the right products and provide personalized recommendation based on their preferences and shopping history.

2. Predictive analytics: AI can help fashion retailers predict customer behavior and trends, allowing them to optimize inventory management, pricing, and marketing strategies.

3. Design and product development: AI can aid in design process by generating designs based on customer preferences and historical data.

4. Supply chain optimization: AI can be used to optimize supply chain management by predicting demand, reducing waste and improving logistics.

5. Sustainability: AI can help fashion companies reduce their environmental processes and reduce waste.

Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize the fashion industry by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and providing a better shopping experience for customers.

That is the answer that our query to Chatbot gave us. But it isn’t like we did research and wrote this. Chatbot wrote this for us. Think about this and you can begin to imagine its impact.   Please read this article from the New York Times:

Open AI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing

There is also a disturbing story about a recent paper from researchers at Microsoft that suggests that newer developments in Artificial Intelligence find that there is the capacity of AI to have human reasoning.   Should we wonder if this means that humans may become redundant? It is worth paying attention to.  The developers of AI as well as Congress have no idea where or how to legislate rules and regulations for this new technology.  The challenge is that, for every rule and regulation, there are those who will use AI for malicious purposes. 

Will AI make our lives better?  Will it forever change how we live?  And will we find ourselves in a better world or in a sci-fi world about which we have no concept? We would like to know what you think.

Ciao

Lucy and Claudia