I recently heard the term “Cargo Cult” on a Y Combinator podcast 🎙️, and it got me thinking about the way some companies are approaching AI.
📦 Cargo Cult is a term used to describe people who imitate the outward appearance of a complex technology without understanding the underlying principles. This can be seen in the context of AI, where some companies are building AI features just for the heck of it, without considering whether they are valuable or not.
A cargo cult is a phenomenon that occurred in some Pacific island cultures after World War II. The islanders had seen American soldiers landing on their islands with cargo planes full of supplies, and they didn’t understand how the planes worked. But they saw that the soldiers were getting all this stuff, so they started building their own airstrips and control towers, hoping that the planes would start landing with cargo for them too.
Of course, the planes never came. The islanders were just imitating the outward appearance of technology without understanding the underlying principles.
In the same way, some companies are building AI features without understanding how AI works. They’re just imitating the outward appearance of AI 💻, hoping that it will make them look like they’re on the cutting edge 💯.
