New AI Research Shows That Our World Is Becoming More Boring and Less Colorful

I wasgrudgingly agreed to watchTrolls 2 with my child. I quickly realized I didn't understand the movie. This was a great kids movie. The ending scene was the one that stuck with me the most.

The parents and kindergarteners should not read this at this time.

This is what happens. The 6 musical strings representing a troll tribe are damaged in a fight between the Pop Tribe and the Rock Tribe. There are thousands of vibrantly-colored trollies. They all looked the same.

No unique qualities. All around sad.

Our world is starting to look like the end scene of a movie, gray-toned, flat, and all the same.

The colors are disappearing. Thousands of items from the 1800s to now were documented in the study. About 15% of all items were black/white/gray in the 18th century.

The world is dominated by objects, items, and materials that are either black, white, or gray today. There isn't a pink in sight.

Cars are an example. Black, white, and gray are the colors of new cars. What about the inside? Gray is the most popular color for carpets. "Fog", "mist", and "linen" are some of the most popular paints.

In a data-driven world, everything is standardized because we know what people want. Our individual preferences change with the times. Our standards of beauty are also true. When you put together a large group of people's personal preferences for attractiveness, you end up judging a 32- image composite as the most attractive.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder is not what it used to be.

The average phenomenon is happening with brand typefaces. In the luxury space, the once unique ornamented logotypes have all been replaced with a black lettering.

The change was justified by market research and focus groups. There's a problem here. That is what you get when you use the data-averaging approach.

There is a valuable lesson for brands and businesses to learn. In his book, Godin encourages us to consider being weird. Godin states that being average and passing it off as new is worse than being average.

In the future, data and technology can be powerful. When we follow the rule of averaging numbers, we put our brands, businesses, and ourselves at risk of looking the same. I want our colors to stay.

In the end of the movie, Queen Poppy from the Pop Tribe leads the crowd in a sing-along about being unique. There is a wave of bright colors. We can only hope for the same outcome.