Mistaken Identity
... defined by artificial intelligence as "... a situation where one person or object is incorrectly confused for, or thought to be, someone or something else."
My partner & I went out to dinner recently — rewarding ourselves at the end of a particularly trying week. From a menu bulging with options, I selected “tuna encrusted with sesame seeds, black and green peppercorns, pan-seared rare, finished with soy vinaigrette, served with sushi rice and honey lime Asian slaw.” Sounds delicious, right? And the tuna was delicious. Ditto the slaw, if a tad over-sweet. But the rice? Ah, the rice. It arrived like a missile that had improbably landed in a ramekin — with the look, heft, and solidity of a perfect snowball. I took only one bite — a sticky, gummy spoonful that was reluctant to part with the spoon — and that was enough.
As if he’d been watching to see how we liked our first tastes, our delightful waiter appeared instantly to ask how everything was. When I pointed out the deficits in the rice, he took one look, laughed, & went cheerfully off to fetch me a dish of the same wild rice my dining partner had ordered.
As our otherwise delicious meal wound down and we awaited the tab, I idly picked the gummy rice ball up from the bread plate it had been ostracized to, gave it a little squeeze … and then, inspiration: a few little pokes & a couple of pinches in just the right places … two pointy ears, string bean eyes obligingly provided from my partner’s plate, a short carrot nose and … Voila! Transformation! Like Gepetto, I was instantly quite fond of my little character. I half-expected it to surprise me by starting to laugh & play tricks. I couldn’t help wishing there were a few more globs of sushi rice awaiting sculptural treatment.
“This is for the cook!” I said, handing the dish to the waiter when he returned with our check. He seemed to appreciate my handiwork & answered, “Oh I’m definitely taking this to the kitchen right now for the head chef!” and off he went. When we departed the restaurant, we had enjoyed not only a delicious dinner but a fun impromptu art experiment.
Once back at home, I opened my phone to see how the photo had turned out. I noticed the same little “i” ikon appear that appears with certain photos of plants — and a clickable option labelled “Look Up Food.” It identified my creation as Karami Mochi. Mochi is made from glutinous rice pounded into a gooey glob, and is used in sweet and savoury dishes alike. Karami mochi generally refers to mochi topped with grated daikon and soy sauce, and is also known as oroshi (grated) mochi. Other common toppings include katsuobushi flakes, nori, chili pepper and green onions. So, the app got some things right — my rice was indeed a glutinous gooey glob. And also it deserves credit for lumping (no pun intended) together rice and sculpture — just like my masterpiece.
According to Apple and other sources: “food-identifying apps on the iPhone are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). They use computer vision and deep learning models to process the camera’s image, recognize shapes and textures, and match them with massive databases of known foods … Besides plants and food, your iPhone’s AI (Visual Look Up and visual intelligence) can (or so say the ‘sources’) identify animals, architectural landmarks, famous art pieces, books, and even everyday objects like laundry symbols and car models.”
I picked out a few random photos on my phone to see how AI would do. Here’s what happened: It was pretty good at identifying animals, especially domestic cats. It also got porcupine right — but it wouldn’t hazard a guess on the dogs wearing protest signs.
As for car models, it wouldn’t even hazard a guess on any of my vehicle images, even the large side view of a moving van with UHAUL in huge letters across the side.
On plants: Romanesco cauliflower was correctly identified, but for the most part, there were many errors and outright bizarre interpretations. For example, a piece of knitting in progress:
was deemed to be a plant — labelled Dill in one photo, and in another, either an Air Plant, or Spanish moss! AI also identified a heart-shaped branch scar on a tree trunk as a bird (Brown Creeper) or a Western Honey Bee. A photo of icicles along the roof edge became “Staghorn Sumac.”
The most hilarious category is Famous Art Pieces. A watercolor doodle of mine
was identified as this:
If you view my painting upsidedown & use your imagination, you might see a remote resemblance between the two:
A watercolor by my friend Cynthia Crawford resulted in this far-fetched “identification”:
AI pointed to the painting below.
Do leave a comment & explanation if you see any connection whatsoever!
Last of all, I asked AI to identify this:
The image is featured on the website for my daughter Roseminna Watson’s Music In The Studio, the upcoming concert series held in the artist’s studio in Truro, MA. However, AI identifies it as this:
While I don’t expect a robot to be able to correctly recognize every artwork in the world, famous or otherwise, I do find it amusing & also annoying that it seems compelled to come up with an answer for everything — where any self-respecting human would simply say, “Gosh, I don’t know.”
At any rate … when you tire of all this AI business & want some real life excitement & connection, do check out Music In The Studio! There are ways to immerse yourself & participate even if you can’t make it to the Cape!
My first thought when I saw the cat-rice image was that you had an inventive chef! Delighted that it was your own creative interpretation.
And what an interesting art identification experiment. Yes, it’s worrying when AI doesn’t have the capacity to admit ‘I don’t know’!
I thoroughly enjoyed the picture of your rice creation, and the AI interpretations. Scary in my mind as so many are relying on the service for truth. Human ingenuity and creative processes are certainly suffering. Where will it all end?