Imagine you’re having difficulty finding the right study for you. You’ve looked at a long list of possible studies at different universities, but you’re still not sure what fits you best. Wouldn’t it be great to have some help deciding which direction you should to go?
Anderson, an IBM engineer, created a real-life version of Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat. The goal of this hat was pure entertainment for his children, but the functionality can be stretched to real life use once it is further developed and possibly disrupt many existing practices.
Anderson’s Sorting Hat runs on IBM Watson’s Natural Language Classifier: a service used for understanding the intent behind text and responding in an appropriate manner, often used in chatbots nowadays (IBM 2017). It can place you in Hufflepuff if your speech proves honesty, or in Gryffindor when he detects courage.
Could this technology be used to help you choose what to study, perhaps even to test your intelligence and group you in a specific education level after primary school (VMBO/HAVO/VWO)? Dozens of tests already exist to help you choose your study or to help you understand who you are. Brixer, for example, is a tool used to identify your personality and measure different types of intelligence, cultural values and core competencies via an e-assessment. This can help you figure out what kind of job would suit your strengths best and even identify companies with a matching culture. Another tool that exists can be found on the website www.16personalities.com. This website helps you understand yourself by labelling you as one of 16 personality types, based on the Myers-Briggs theory and includes the Big Five personality traits. It can even tell you what type your best friend generally is or with what type of personality you would be most happy with in your love life.
What do you think: Is IT smart enough nowadays with AI and deep learning to be able to help you choose a hobby, friends, a study or a job? Can we benchmark people’s ‘specifications’, like we do with devices such as phones or laptops, or even cars? Would you feel uncomfortable with being labelled, stereotyped or pigeonholed by a robot, or would it actually help you understand who you are?
Sources:
16personalities.com. (2017). Our Framework | 16Personalities. [online] Available at: https://www.16personalities.com/articles/our-theory [Accessed 30 Sep. 2017].
Hoekstra, F. (2017). Rapport van assessment voor Vincent van Leeuwen – Brixer. [online] Brixer.nl. Available at: https://www.brixer.nl/profiel/1/publiek/ [Accessed 30 Sep. 2017].
Ibm.com. (2017). Watson Natural Language Classifier. [online] Available at: https://www.ibm.com/watson/services/natural-language-classifier/ [Accessed 30 Sep. 2017].
Muoio, D. (2016). A dad made a real-life ‘Harry Potter’ sorting hat using IBM’s Watson — here’s how it works. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/real-life-harry-potter-sorting-hat-uses-watson-2016-6?international=true&r=US&IR=T [Accessed 30 Sep. 2017].