Last year I flew 15 hours to attend the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China.
And apart from my daughter… there was one area that dominated the display booths.
Artifical Intelligence
You had AI rice cookers… AI industrial machinery… and even AI toothbrushes.
I'm not kidding about that last one.
But as AI continues to perforate into all areas of life… we need a quick pause.
Because most of these products aren't actually using artificial intelligence for anything meaningful.
A rice cooker that adjusts temperature based on moisture sensors isn't using AI... that's a basic automation that's existed for decades… just rebranded.,
A toothbrush that tracks your brushing patterns through an app isn't AI... that's data collection with basic analytics.
But slap "AI-powered" on the marketing materials and suddenly you can charge 30% more for the same product.
And this is happening everywhere, not just at trade shows in China.
American companies are doing the same thing.
Adding "AI" to product names and descriptions for features that have nothing to do with machine learning or artificial intelligence.
Smart thermostats become AI thermostats…
Fitness trackers become AI health monitors…
Basic chatbots become AI customer service…
The problem is that real AI requires massive computational resources and sophisticated algorithms.
And the fact is… your rice cooker doesn't have a neural network... it has a temperature sensor and a timer.
This AI washing is creating a dangerous dynamic for investors.
Companies are using AI as a buzzword to inflate their valuations and attract investment... even when their products have no meaningful AI capabilities.
Investors who don't understand the technology are getting fooled by marketing language that sounds impressive but describes basic automation.
Real AI companies are building language models... computer vision systems... and autonomous decision-making platforms.
Fake AI companies are adding sensors to existing products and calling it artificial intelligence.
The difference matters enormously for long-term investment returns.
So when you're evaluating AI investments, ask yourself - is this company actually using machine learning to solve problems that couldn't be solved before?
Or are they just calling basic automation "AI" because it sounds more impressive?
Food for thought next time the CEO drops "AI" 30 times on an earnings call…
And this will be a key topic at this week’s Investormania conference in Tampa… where I’ll be showing everyone how to seperate signals from AI powered noise
Oliver