Would you let your fridge plan your menu for the week and order your groceries?
It's a scenario that QUT artificial intelligence expert Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz thinks is fast approaching, as AI continues its march into Australian homes.
He says 'everyday AI’ is already helping smart household gadgets become smarter, ranging from kitchen appliances to security cameras.
Professor Kowalkiewicz is the Chair in Digital Economy with the QUT Centre for Future Enterprise and School of Management.
“People talk about social media algorithms, but we also have algorithmic chefs like the Thermomix, security cameras in our homes with algorithms that can alert us to trouble, and beautician algorithms that will choose the right shade of makeup for you,” he said.
“My vacuum cleaner has an algorithm that tells me when to replace its brushes, my car instructs me when to pump up the tyres, and my lawnmower asks for help when it gets stuck.
“Even my watch is telling me what run I should do in the morning based on my sleep the night before.
“I firmly believe that soon I won’t have to go shopping for coffee beans. My coffee machine will know when we’re running low and order them for me and they’ll be delivered by drone to my door.
“We probably won’t do any grocery shopping either because we’ll have a fridge that uses an algorithm to anticipate what we want – based on our tastes and seasons – and it will plan our meals for the week and order the groceries.”
An early adopter
Professor Kowalkiewicz has always been an early adopter.
When he was just seven, back in Poland in 1985, his parents bought his brother and him a brand new Atari 800XL.
They were among the first kids in town with a computer, and the Atari started him down a technology path that would lead to an international career specialising in the digital economy and AI.
“I still have my Atari 800XL … It has travelled the entire world with me - wherever I moved, it followed,” he said.
For the past nine years Professor Kowalkiewicz, his family and the Atari have lived in Brisbane.
He was appointed Chair in Digital Economy at QUT in 2015, after working in Silicon Valley, Singapore and Australia for global enterprise software company SAP.
His QUT research team works out in the field with large organisations to help them prepare for the future and better understand how technology will impact their business.
“There’s a lot of hype around artificial intelligence – but the reality is a lot of businesses don’t know how AI will impact their workforce, their leadership or how they operate,” he said.
“This is the question we are addressing in our research. We can help our partners and stakeholders solve problems and capitalise on opportunities that the future brings.
“Our team has recently worked with one of the largest banks in Australia to help them help their customers to avoid financial fraud. Those solutions are now rolled out at this bank and the customers are much safer.”
The 'digital games'?
Professor Kowalkiewicz believes Brisbane has a huge opportunity to showcase technology in 2032.
He thinks the Olympic and Paralympic Games can be the ‘digital games’.
“We have an opportunity to create an Olympics that will be most immersive ever,” he said.
“Imagine being able to put on a virtual reality headset and be in the tennis court right next to a world champion. Or how about a virtual race, on a treadmill, following the marathon runners?
“Who knows, perhaps eight years from now, watching the Games in front of a flat TV screen will be considered old-school.
“People read about early Olympic Games in the newspaper, then listened to them on the radio, then watched them on TV.
“I think the next step is immersion, which will bring us even closer … maybe we’ll be smelling the sweat of the athletes!”
Don’t fear the future
The Economy of Algorithms: AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions
Scenarios examined include:
*Jack Sweeney’s aeroplane tracking algorithm that shares real-time locations of private jets on social media, drawing the ire of celebrities including Elon Musk and Taylor Swift
*An examinations board algorithm in England that allocated lower-than-expected grades to final-year school students who didn’t sit exams due to COVID-19 lockdowns, sparking mass protests
*The #HustleGPT challenge where people followed ChatGPT’s recommendations on how to legally turn $100 into as much money as possible, as fast as possible
*The AlphaGo and AlphaGo Master algorithms that beat some of the world’s best Go players
*Driverless ‘robotaxis’ in San Francisco that were shut down in 2023 after one hit a pedestrian. (Since the book was published, robotaxis have returned to the city via another company.)
Professor Kowalkiewicz released his first book this year, The Economy of Algorithms: AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions.
The book is centred on the idea that technology, particularly AI, can be thought of as an army of helpful minions that can assist us with the boring jobs, rather than being an evil, omnipotent overlord.
In November, it was named Australia’s best technology book for 2024 at the Australian Business Book Awards.
It is a collection of stories that reveal how algorithms are becoming part of our everyday life, and how they can help or hinder us.
“I’m an optimist by nature and I get excited about technology – I’m not scared of AI,” Professor Kowalkiewicz said.
“But it’s important that people understand it.
“Algorithms are essentially the recipes that tell a computer what to do. All AI is made up of algorithms – but not all algorithms have that extra ‘independent thinking’ ability that is AI.
“From school students to senior citizens, we need to better understand how algorithms work so that we don’t take everything on face value – and so that we don’t shy away from utilising AI to make our lives better.”
Professor Kowalkiewicz said he wanted the wider community to embrace the digital economy and AI, and its myriad of possibilities.
“I’m a ‘possibilist’,” he said.
“It means I believe that it is possible for technologies to transform our world for the better.
“We’ve already transitioned to a digital economy, now we’re moving into an economy of algorithms.
“It’s up to us to learn how to best navigate this new economy and use it to our advantage and not be disadvantaged.”
His interest in AI started more than 20 years ago at Poznan University in Poland, when he was given the job of teaching an ‘Introduction to AI’ unit.
He said that, throughout his career, he’d always tried to maintain a balanced position on technology.
“It’s easy to be ‘all-in’, hyper-ventilating about the potential of technology … and it’s also easy to be ‘all-out’ – trying to prevent the changes that might have a negative impact on us,” he said.
“But the reality is somewhere in between – we need to identify what’s good, and amplify it. And also identify what’s bad, and try to limit it.
“It's our agency that needs to prevail – our ability to stay in control and make the big decisions.”
The road ahead
When Professor Kowalkiewicz worked in Silicon Valley, he was responsible for SAP’s developer culture – a role all about generating software developers’ enthusiasm for their jobs and how they were shaping the future.
“I was helping the tens of thousands of software engineers working for SAP to feel that what they do is ‘cool’,” he said.
And from his office in Palo Alto, he really could see the future.
“We were right across the road from Tesla's headquarters … I got to see some early models going for runs there,” he said.
His role at QUT is making the most of his own natural enthusiasm about the road ahead.
“I get to spend a lot of time with businesses and jointly shape their future with them, which is very exciting,” he said.
“And then I get to go back to my office at QUT and work with researchers and students on turning these insights into academic papers and content that helps our future leaders.
“I envision a future where advanced technologies enhance our humanity, shaping our work and lives as we desire.”
