In the wake of the pandemic, much is of Mental load the speech. A big term for the many little things that have to be taken into account in everyday life, apart from simply coping with one’s existence. In addition to paid work, it is important not to forget the birthdays of distant relatives, to manage the social contacts of the children and, in the best case, to ensure that there is always enough milk and vacuum cleaner bags in the household.
The overwhelming share of this ungrateful and largely invisible work, it is said, is done by women or mothers. In the best case scenario, the male counterpart would wait for instructions, which would then be carried out half-heartedly. Initiative? Nothing.
In this respect, it is fitting that a new AI model that is supposed to help users get information more quickly bears the name “Mum” of all things. The abbreviation stands – somewhat less prosaically – for what Google recently introduced Multitask Unified Modelthat is set to revolutionize the way people use search engines in the near future. Because in the world of large technology companies you can never stand it for long without superlatives, Google says that the new technology is “a thousand times more powerful” than the previously used model. But that also means that so much name cabalism is allowed, not “Mum”. But “Bert”.
Put simply, the AI should have a “more comprehensive understanding of information and knowledge” and also be able to overcome language barriers. Relevant facts should not only be drawn from text, but also from videos or images.
Long-running search queries: Am I good in bed? Will i get rich?
This is relevant because search engines are no longer just a tool for fact research. Instead of looking for numbers, names or events, it is more and more common these days to write a formulated question in the input field. According to the 2020 annual review published by Google itself, these are a colorful mixture of obscure and current problems. In first place, for example, an urgent “Why were Kellogg’s cornflakes invented?” In the further course of the top ten: Questions about Xavier Nadoo, toilet paper, menthol cigarettes, George Floyd or the great shortage of yeast.
According to surveys, however, long-term favorites are always the very big calibres of human existence: Am I good in bed? Will I be rich someday? What is the meaning of life? Or, downright touching: do I get liked by others?
Google, it seems, has taken on the roles of oracle, psychotherapist and priest in equal parts. The only problem is that users trust the technology far too much. While the search engine appears to be all powerful, its ability to meet our deepest needs is clearly limited. The wish of people that they could do so reveals a lot more about ourselves than about technology. We are all secretly looking for a higher authority. Anyone telling us what the goddamn thing to do.
The machine should carry more cognitive load
“Mum”, according to the developer Pandu Nayak responsible for Google, will make it easier to satisfy the “fuzzy information needs” that people have in their daily lives, but which they have not yet formulated in concrete questions that they have can research.
As examples, he cites parents who are wondering how to find a school that suits their child, or people who feel the need to start a new fitness program for the first time. With today’s search engines, you have to “convert that into a series of questions that you ask Google to get the information you want,” says Nayak. In the future, he suggests, this cognitive load, or in modern terms, will be used Mental loadto be carried by the machine. This then allows for “much more complex and perhaps more realistic user needs”.
So finally you would have time for the really important things. However, Nayak did not answer the question of what people should do when Google thinks for them. Probably watching an ad or something.