Comments on: Human-Computer Information Retrieval in Layman’s Terms

By: John

John — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 02:19:50 +0000

For illustration purpose, here’s an example of a human-computer information retrieval system.
http://www.scuup.net/search/1/book/0/1

By: Daniel Tunkelang

Daniel Tunkelang — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:37:03 +0000

I was too lazy to seek out better ones. Einstein, perhaps? My point is that some of the best scholars are those who recognize–and step up to–the need to communicate beyond their inner circle of peers. I think that point stands, even if I haven’t supplied the best evidence to defend it.

By: Daniel Lemire

Daniel Lemire — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:24:23 +0000

Of course, both Pauling and Feynman are extreme examples. And maybe not very good ones.

By: Daniel Tunkelang

Daniel Tunkelang — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:29:31 +0000

Chris, you’re right that there’s a broader concern here than HCIR. Tasks like identifying sites with malware (which at least covers one of your recent companies) probably fall outside the traditional domain of information retrieval. But the term “AI” has its own baggage. But you express the sentiment elegantly: ask what are computers good at, and what are humans good at–and try to divide the work up accordingly.

Gene, I’ve only seen the term “mixed initiative” used in the context of natural language dialog systems. Is it used more generally that that?

By: Gene Golovchinsky

Gene Golovchinsky — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:43:11 +0000

This topic is sometimes referred to as “Mixed Initiative” where people and the computer are free to initiate interaction on their terms. The system can make a suggestion, the person can ignore or act on it; the person can tell the system what needs to be done (but the system should not ignore that — it’s not completely symmetrical).

The two can work independently but in concert. AI is not necessary for this kind of HCI, but it can make system behavior more interesting than just generating occasional alerts.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:49:42 +0000

Thanks for the explanation Daniel. But why is it just Human Computer Information Retrieval? What about working on the larger problem of how to best divide general AI tasks between humans and computers? We didn’t have a name for it, but I feel like that’s a lot of what me and my colleagues thought about at my last 2 companies. We would always ask – what are computers good at, and what are humans good at, and try to divide the work up accordingly.