Causality for lot of problems in the world doesn’t matter. We often question the “Why”. Its in human nature. We are curious as species. I was listening to Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia on Acquired — a highly recommended business podcast. The context was AI and deep learning models. 

His words : “Well, for a lot of problems, we don’t care about the causality. We just care about the predictability of it. Like do I really care for what reason you prefer this toothpaste over that? I don’t really care the causality. I just want to know that this is the one you would’ve predicted. We just want to know whether we should wear a sweater or not, isn’t that right? Causality for a lot of problems in the world doesn’t matter. We just want to emulate the system and predict the outcome. “

I can so much relate to this. Humans are a form of AI. We learn and we predict what might happen. For instance the moment I get a scratchy throat, I am sure that I am getting cold. Few more symptoms would emerge in next day or two. First the throat will get worse, I will have mild fever, and then the cough. I can predict this because this has happened so many times. “Why” I got cold is irrelevant. And “Why me” is even more irrelevant. 

 “Why” is a profound interesting question. Don’t get fixated on it though. Should you carry an umbrella or not is more important. AI is boring.