Google maps isn't so good because google is good* but because google feeds their maps with data from their users, which is a huge privacy concern that most people simply don't care about.
I use Apple's notably inferior maps because they're not feeding my data straight into their map and navigation products. It's a tradeoff most wouldn't be willing to make, but that tradeoff is why their maps are better.
It boils down to out of date maps are worse than worthless and google has a scheme to keep theirs up to date. It's a huge maintenance problem...unless your users are also the product.
So maps might be a bad comparison to ML/AI development.
*Google using their user data can be interpreted as google being good at it, sure.
As an aside, I stopped using Google maps/waze because I got the distinct impression I was being used as a guinea pig to find new routes during the awful commute I used to have. I would deliberately kill the app when I went to use a shortcut I knew about so that the horde wouldn't also find it via those tools.
I use Apple's notably inferior maps because they're not feeding my data straight into their map and navigation products. It's a tradeoff most wouldn't be willing to make, but that tradeoff is why their maps are better.
It boils down to out of date maps are worse than worthless and google has a scheme to keep theirs up to date. It's a huge maintenance problem...unless your users are also the product.
So maps might be a bad comparison to ML/AI development.
*Google using their user data can be interpreted as google being good at it, sure.
As an aside, I stopped using Google maps/waze because I got the distinct impression I was being used as a guinea pig to find new routes during the awful commute I used to have. I would deliberately kill the app when I went to use a shortcut I knew about so that the horde wouldn't also find it via those tools.