电脑让我们变得没意思

Speaking of modern life, we often let phones and computers help us make decisions.

For example, today is Friday.

You want to go out to eat with friends.

But, you don't know which restaurant to go to.

At this moment, what will you do?

Many people will take out their phones.

They will ask their phone: "Where is the best place to eat tonight?"

The phone is very smart.

It knows which restaurant is the most famous.

It knows which restaurant has the most people.

It also knows which restaurant's food everyone thinks is the most delicious.

So, the phone quickly tells you a name.

It says: "You should go to this restaurant, everyone likes it here."

You listened to the phone.

You went to that restaurant.

The food there was indeed very delicious.

The waiters there were also very polite.

The tables and chairs there were all very beautiful.

You feel very happy, right?

But, please think for a moment.

Your friend also asked the phone the same question.

The phone also told him to go to this restaurant.

Your classmate also asked the phone.

The phone also told him to go to this restaurant.

Finally, although this city is big and there are many restaurants, everyone went to the same place.

Everyone ate the same dishes.

Everyone drank the same tea.

This is the problem we want to talk about.

There are some American teachers who did a research study.

They wanted to know the difference between people choosing things themselves and computers helping people choose.

They looked at many people's choices.

They discovered a very interesting thing.

When computers help us choose things, we become more and more alike.

Why is it like this?

Let me explain a bit.

Because computers like the "best" things.

In the computer's view, "best" means "most people like it".

So, the computer always presents the most famous and popular things to you.

It hopes you are happy, so it doesn't give you different things.

Slowly, everyone's clothes become the same.

The movies everyone watches are the same.

The music everyone listens to is also the same.

We each don't have any differences anymore.

This is the first situation that teacher spoke about.

There is also a second situation.

Computers nowadays are smarter.

It recognizes you.

It knows what your name is.

It knows what you bought last year.

It knows what you like to eat.

For example, the computer knows you like to eat apples.

Next time, when you want to buy fruit, the computer will tell you: "Buy apples, you like apples."

The time after that, it still says: "Buy apples."

Although you really like apples, you will never buy bananas.

You will also never buy watermelons.

You don't know if watermelon tastes good because the computer didn't tell you.

Your world becomes very small.

You only do things you have done before.

You only watch things you have watched before.

You don't go to new places anymore.

Although the computer wants to help you, it makes you become very "boring".

"Wúliáo" means uninteresting.

The most interesting thing about humans is that we are all different.

Some people like red clothes, some people like white clothes.

Some people like eating sweet things, some people like eating salty things.

Sometimes, we will choose wrongly.

For example, we go to a bad restaurant and the food tastes bad.

But, this is also a kind of learning.

This is also a part of life.

If we always listen to the computer, we won't choose wrongly.

But, we also lose the opportunity to discover new things.

That American teacher said we shouldn't always listen to the computer.

Sometimes, we need to think for ourselves.

We need to choose for ourselves.

Even if that restaurant isn't famous, even if no one watches that movie.

Maybe you will discover something very good.

Maybe you will become different from others.

This is the real you.

So, next time the phone tells you "This is the best restaurant", you can think about it.

What does "best" mean?

Is it just because many people go there?

You can choose not to go to this "best" place.

You can go to that small restaurant next door to try it out.

This is the thing we want to tell everyone today.

What we just spoke about is actually a problem regarding "Artificial Intelligence".

Artificial Intelligence is computer technology that is as smart as humans.

Nowadays, many people use Artificial Intelligence.

But research has found that Artificial Intelligence makes us lose our individuality and makes us become very much like robots.

So, we must be careful not to let technology make us uninteresting.