We all know how machine learning plays the game. We search for something online, talk about a topic on Facebook, buy something on Amazon or even have a real conversation near our phones and within moments related ads will start popping up. In theory, these ads are based on algorithms that track our interests and present us with items that we might actually be interested in buying. Sometimes, this might well work very well and you’ll see exactly the backpacking tarp you never knew you needed. However, other times it might be clear that the algorithm is either drunk or badly written. For example, if you’re talking about private jets for some reason, it would be silly for your phone to present you with deals on the latest Gulfstream. Yet, exactly this has happened. Clearly there is some context missing.
Let’s take a less extreme example. We’ve mentioned that TARTLE works on a Sherpa model. We help others achieve their goals, just like the Sherpas at Everest help others make the dangerous and rewarding climb. Let’s say this sparked an interest in Sherpa culture and we were searching eBay for books on the subject. Then, over on the sidebar, up pops an ad for a Sherpa jacket. Seriously? Wanting to learn about Sherpas doesn’t mean you want to dress like one. This just goes to show that artificial intelligence is a lot more artificial than intelligent.
How does this happen? Quite simply, the algorithms take a lot less into account than you think. They very often work on keywords, focusing on one or two particular data points. They then try to apply that to another type of product that you aren’t already looking at. It’s a cross-marketing strategy designed to get you to spend as much as possible. So in this case, eBay’s algorithms keyed into the word Sherpa and fed that into the different businesses they have data sharing and marketing deals with. Through cross referencing the Sherpa keyword with all the products in the database the best they came up with was a Sherpa jacket.
Now, based on that model, it’s an understandable error. How could they do better? How could they provide ads within a meaningful context? There are a few ways. One is to provide ads for more books on Sherpas, or maybe a documentary or two. After all, if you’re searching for information, what you want is (wait for it)… information. That’s something eBay can do internally, or maybe with the aid of a deal with a distributor. Or, they could write a better algorithm that takes more variables into account. What sort of variables? Past purchase history is an obvious one. If someone is searching for books on Sherpas, have they ever purchased anything else Sherpa related? Or even the amount of money a person would tend to spend is important. If the customer in question has never spent more than $60 on a single item online then that Sherpa jacket is probably going to be beyond that price point. For that matter, the algorithm should be smart enough to figure out whether or not you even buy clothes online.
What if eBay isn’t the only place you shop online? Plenty of people buy almost everything off Amazon. That would be an excellent source of data to help figure out the best possible ads to put up. However, do we really want these different companies sharing our data like that? If you have been around TARTLE at all you know that we aren’t cool with that. That data is yours and you should be the one deciding whether or not eBay gets to see it. If you are synching your accounts with us then your data is encrypted and stored on our servers, allowing you to choose to share or not. Even better, if eBay is trying to figure out the best way to market additional items to you, then they can actually run some options by you first. Then they would learn quickly that you have no desire to dress like a Sherpa. However, that nice new documentary from NatGeo might look pretty good. That’s what we are doing at TARTLE, connecting businesses with customers in a way that respects and benefits both.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
