Is the AI Powering Your AI-Powered Gear Really AI?

It's that time of year again. As I write this, BirdDog is teasing "X", Blackmagic Design已经在NAB之前安排了一个直播公告, 在那里，每个人都能看到他们为市场带来的新装备，让每个人都感到惊讶. I'm getting releases from Canon, Sony, Ross, Haivision, Rhode & Schwarz, Western Digital, etc. The list goes on.

Streaming-capable gear is not something special anymore. It's common. Now all the buzz is around AI features. AI-this, AI-that, up to and including AI CEOs. 感觉就像行业从标准清晰度转向高清电视一样. Everything was HD-this, HD-that. I did a column called "HD Today" for six years. 甚至家用电器都是高清的，因为它们在某种程度上更好. 现在我们有了人工智能洗衣机和人工智能微波炉, so called ecause these devices can "sense" what to do.

But wait, weren't they doing that before AI?

It used to be called "if/then" programming. 就像你家里最基本的恒温器——如果温度超过75华氏度，就打开空调. There's also If This, Then That (IFTTT) 任何人都可以使用这些设备来实现家庭和系统的自动化. Machine learning is sort of an automated IFTTT, 比如Nest家用恒温器，它可以学习家庭日常生活，如果没有人在家, then it doesn't need to cool the house as much.

在人工智能出现之前，许多标榜“人工智能驱动”的产品都在做同样的事情. Motion tracking in PTZ cameras predates AI by over a decade. Even motion tracking that can follow a person, behind other objects, 即使他们远离镜头，在“人工智能”实现之前，他们就已经做到了这一点. But today, we have AI tracking that does the same thing.

Video mixers that could auto switch, 甚至自动跟随说话的人——也比人工智能早了十多年. 我们过去称其为Video Follow Audio(视频跟随音频):剪切到与音频最大的麦克风相关的视频. But today, it's an "AI" feature. 因为这种标签使同样的技术看起来新鲜和创新.

采用“人工智能”技术的高分辨率摄像头会自动跟踪并动态调整帧的大小以包含人物吗? Apple calls this their Center Stage feature. Is this AI? No. It's pre-programming: If there's a face or two, if there's movement around or connected to the face, 然后调整活动裁剪的大小，让主体填充整个画面。. IF, then.

AI is really located where the answers can't be preset. Can't be pre-programmed. Where it is simply not known. 然后，它需要智慧来创造一个新的答案、行动和解决方案. Whether computer or human generated, it's the unforeseen answer, the result that pushes in a new generation. 这就是人工智能真正发挥作用的地方，这确实存在. But AI is way more limited than the many solutions claiming "AI."

NAB is one of the biggest broadcaster & streaming shows in the world, and it kicks off this weekend. We'll see and hear a lot 各种各样的产品“集成了人工智能”，让生产者的工作变得更容易. If you step back and look at the market, however, 你会发现很多这些被吹捧的解决方案在这个流行词出现之前就已经存在了, 解决方案本身通常可以简化为“如果-然后”编程. If the signal is not there, then put up this graphic, is not AI.

Using computer tracking to follow a soccer ball that then mistakes a bald referee's head for the ball, is not innovation; it was trying to save the cost of a real camera operator who would not have made that mistake. It was not intelligence at al. It was if/then programming gone wrong.

There will certainly be a lot of innovation, at NAB and beyond. 只是一定要评估工具和解决方案，看看它们能为你做什么, 而不是看它们是否有字母A和I. 关键是要确定创新真正带来价值的地方, increased usability, reduction of workload, or improved deliverables. 然后根据这些答案，运用你的自然智慧做出决定.