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[CleverSurveys]

Note: this is an alternate account (for anonymity), I'm not just here to promote my website.

I'm a researcher that works on machine learning. I wanted to put some of my academic skills to practice, so I made this website: http://www.cleversurveys.com.

I felt that, despite AI reaching a level where it can actually make extremely accurate and useful predictions, so much setup and technical knowledge is required to actually make use of it, that the vast majority of people will never get to use this ability. I made this website so people could take advantage of the predictive ability of machine learning without technical knowledge.

How does it work? Users can create predictors, which are trained by other users responding to a survey. This provides the predictor with training data. Once the predictor has enough data, it can offer predictions on the topic it was designed for. It's essentially a supervised learning system, wrapped up in a website that doesn't require technical knowledge.

Some example predictors that have been made:

• Which college major should you pick?
• Get a new challenge and goal for Dwarf Fortress
• Which class and race should you try in World of Warcraft?

A blog post that tries to explain how this works without technical jargon.

The biggest issue I've had so far, is people don't realize how sophisticated these predictors are, and instead write it off as another "Which Disney princess are you?" quiz website without giving it a chance.

P.S. Don't expect predictions to be 100% perfect. I'm not a wizard, just a scientist.

[Levi]

Neat.  It predicted my major successfully in the "What was your major in college?" survey.  (Either that, or its heavily biased towards computer science )

My recommendation though, is that you shouldn't require a login to press the up arrow/down arrow.

[Servant Corps]

Predicted Economics, followed closely by Political Science. Actual major was Political Science/History, but I did take some economics courses during college. I'm going back to school for Computer Science anyway, and that's ranked 7th (History is rank 11th, weird).

It might be sophisticated, but I think you need to increase the number of data points you're collecting. Maybe allow us to submit our actual major too, to help train your predictor? (I understand this can allow vandals to sabotage your Clever Surveys though.)

[CleverSurveys]

Predicted Economics, followed closely by Political Science. Actual major was Political Science/History, but I did take some economics courses during college. I'm going back to school for Computer Science anyway, and that's ranked 7th (History is rank 11th, weird).

It might be sophisticated, but I think you need to increase the number of data points you're collecting. Maybe allow us to submit our actual major too, to help train your predictor? (I understand this can allow vandals to sabotage your Clever Surveys though.)

You're right. The College Majors predictor does need more data points. As a matter of fact, with the number of data points it has now, it shouldn't even be allowed to make predictions. The reason it can is that early in this websites history (a few months ago), all predictors had the same threshold of 50 responses (data points) before activating. This was later changed to be based on the predictor itself. With the new system, that predictor would need at least 100 responses.

However, users can actually help train the predictor. The link for that specific predictor is here. That page can be reached from the predictor page, but maybe I should also have a link on the results page?

The website is designed to be as self sustaining a possible. So users create predictors, train predictors, and use predictors. There are systems in place to prevent "vandalism" as you put it .

My recommendation though, is that you shouldn't require a login to press the up arrow/down arrow.

This will take a bit of consideration. Honestly, I never really considered it because I can't think of a single website that allows ratings without users logging in. I imagine the main reason websites do this is to discourage fake votes. However, there are other (more effective) methods for that. The other reason I can think of is to encourage better votes. Since users are likely to put more thought into it if they have to create an account first, or are already a member of the website.

[acetech09]

I expected the predictor wouldn't get it right, and sure enough, engineering was the ~10th suggestion. I love the concept though.

[CleverSurveys]

I expected the predictor wouldn't get it right, and sure enough, engineering was the ~10th suggestion. I love the concept though.

Until that predictor get's more survey responses (data points), that will be a fairly common occurrence. The AI itself is well tested, and can be very accurate. At this point, the main limiting factor is data.

This is the survey that makes that predictor more accurate. If you checked the save answers box before you submitted the predictor, then the website will be able to fill in your answers for the survey.

[CleverSurveys]

Maybe allow us to submit our actual major too, to help train your predictor?

There is now a link back to the training survey on the results page. Along with a little message that you can help make it more accurate. However, unless you use the save answers feature, you'll have to re-input your answers. I'm going to look at temporarily saving the users answers from the predictor even if they don't use the save answers feature.

[freeformschooler]

Damn, it got me the first time. I didn't think it would because a lot of "non-smart" surveys would get the answer to college major wrong based on those answers. But maybe other people in the same major have similar traits that aren't part of our stereotype.