What is 'AI washing' and why is it a problem?

Watch out for the various "washings" enacted daily by big corporations - there is never an end to hypocrisy. In addition to the famous"greenwashing," a soon-to-be legally actionable activity, and "rainbow washing," yet another attempt to gain support from the LGBT community without actually supporting it in any way, it is now mandatory to guard against "AI washing": the latest trend perpetrated by the big companies that seem to rule this world.

Recently added to the list, AI washing consists of the excessive proclamation of the use of artificial intelligence within the processes of a business, going out of its way to highlight the presence of cutting-edge technology that, in reality, does not play as important a role as extolled.

Let's take Amazon's "Just Walk Out" system as an example, which gives customers the ability to shop and walk out of the store without having to stop and pay. Technically, the AI should be able to calculate the cost and request the payment automatically, but in reality, about 1,000 workers had to manually check almost three-quarters of the transactions.