[Braggadocious]

targeting ads is only one teeny tiny use case for user data. Building general AI is a race and the more user data you have the faster your AI will learn. You definitely want to limit the amount of data your competitors have.

[kjeetgill]

The vast majority of the revenue for half of the biggest tech companies is one teeny use case?

It's the biggest one, followed by company specific recommendation engines.

[Braggadocious]

teeny tiny use case for general AI, yes.

[inetknght]

How users use computers has very little to do for a useful AI.

[brownbat]

Or... if most knowledge work happens on a computer, and you just want the AI to replace knowledge workers, then maybe how people use computers is the only thing the AI needs to know.

[Infinitesimus]

Probably true for AGI but the overloaded term "AI" could be applied to learn from how people use software to _carefully_ suggest improvements.

Usage stats could help you improve a user interface, teach users new skills (eg: "you always do this, here's a shortcut to save you time"), perhaps more personalized operating system interfaces and defaults.

You probably don't need a fancy pseudo "AI" system for any of these, but that's the current gold rush so someone's gonna do it

[dorkwood]

I look forward to the day when the term 'AGI' gets co-opted by marketers and we need to come up with a new term for true AGI (TAGI?).

[Braggadocious]

That's pretty absurd considering the average american has a screen in front of their face 8-10 hours a day. You're basically saying what people do for 8-10 hours a day, every day, for their entire lives isnt useful information to AI.