The newest trend in technology is being coined “predictive technology,” and includes applications such as Google Now, Tempo AI, and MindMeld. Predictive technology is applications using your personal information to help predict what information you need or may need at any given point in time. This bears quite a bit of a resemblance to mind reading yes, but here’s the difference: this is real.
Predictive technology has already surfaced in our society. Some examples are health wristbands that athletes wear to tell them when they need to refuel, or the Mamori mouth guard that can tell whether a player has a concussion or not. These gadgets are just the foundation from which predictive technology can grow.
According to Tim Tuttle, the creator of MindMeld and CEO of Expect Labs, “Over the next few years you are going to see predictive tech and intelligent assistants begin to appear everywhere. Not only will they be in most apps you use — they will also be in your car, in your living room, and in your office.” The key to all this is that predictive technology is expanding and rising. Over the next 15 to 20 years, most, if not everyone, will be using some form of predictive technology in their daily lives.
The emergence of more predictive technology certainly has its benefits. Who wouldn’t want to have an app that can tell them what they are going to want or need before they know it? That feature alone would save time in everyone’s day, allowing global efficiency to increase on many levels across numerous disciplines.
Some of the great features of predictive technology are predictive search, displaying directions or finding restaurants for you without asking and alerting you that you need to email, call, or text someone. This list brings up another pro of predictive technology: non-programmed alerts. Usually, most people have to type reminders into their Smartphone apps to remember to do something, but this technology will alert you when there is something you need to do, even if you forgot to remind yourself to do it.
Let’s say you are a student and have been up all night working on a paper and you wanted to remind yourself to print it in the morning. If you have it in your calendar that your paper is due the next day, the app will predict that you need to know it is due that day and create a reminder. It will even alert you to print your paper without setting a reminder.
Another interesting feature of these apps, which is displayed prominently in MindMeld, is predictive information. MindMeld works by analyzing what you are saying in a conversation, and brings up information related to your conversation that you could potentially need to use. This is especially helpful when trying to plan vacations, corporate retreats, or any big event that requires a lot of planning. You could see some information that you would never have thought to use, and all of a sudden, your big event just became even bigger. Essentially, the main pros of predictive technology are helpful reminders, increased efficiency, and predictive information.
But with all of the aforementioned pros, there are some cons to predictive technology as well. Users have to give personal information in order for the technology to work effectively. Yes, the companies that own the apps promise to protect user information, but once personal information is out is susceptible to outside threats.
Additionally, predictive technology can only predict what it thinks we want or need, and sometimes that is different from what we actually want or need. This technology can only infer from the data we feed into it. Sometimes, the things we search for aren’t necessarily things we are going to want or need on a daily basis. Eli Pariser, founder of Moveon.org, sums this thought up best in telling Brain Pickings: “The set of things we’re likely to click on (sex, gossip, things that are highly personally relevant) isn’t the same as the set of things we need to know.” In the future, predictive technology needs to be guided more towards intelligent predicting. This would involve using only pertinent information to determine our wants or needs.
From a sports perspective, predictive technology is highly influential, especially in Major League Baseball. Hitters are always looking for ways to improve their skills. A huge advantage would be being able to know what the pitcher is going to throw next. There have already been some developments in that direction. According to an article by Taylor Bloom, “Joel Block and Andrea Gallego from Booz Allen’s Strategic Innovation Group have developed statistical models of pitcher behaviors and tendencies using pitch sequences thrown during the 2011-2013 MLB seasons.” These models have proven to provide an accuracy rating of 74.5 percent for predicting the pitcher’s next pitch.
With this model in mind, that gives hitters a huge advantage over pitchers. If the hitters know what pitch is coming next, then they can prepare for it and put a better swing on the ball. Obviously, they won’t be right all the time, but this will significantly improve their statistics because they will be able to guess right more often than not.
With this technology in mind, pitchers should be worried, and rightly so. However, pitchers can improve with this predictive technology as well. If they analyze their own performances through this model, they can see what they are predicted to throw in certain situations. Using that information in game planning meetings with their catcher, they can plan to throw different pitches than their tendencies in certain situations. This would potentially throw off the batter who is also armed with predictive technology. Pitchers can completely turn the tables on hitters this way, using their own information to their advantage and create a predictive technology arms race between batter and pitcher. Who can out guess who?
Predictive technology is the newest phase of the technology in sports era, and it will continue to grow as more and more data is gathered and converted into usable models and algorithms. Before we know it, our world could be completely run by computers knowing our every thought, need, and want. While this is shocking, with the current rate of innovation in our society, it is entirely possible. But as for right now, predictive technology is a cool new phenomenon that is going to have a huge impact on our society as a whole, especially in the world of sports.
Where do you see potential for predictive technology to impact the sports world? Let us know in the comments section below or on Twitter.