With explicit feedback, AI needs less data than you think

We've all come to appreciate that AI and machine learning are the magic sauce powering large-scale consumer internet properties. Facebook, Amazon and Instacart boast enormous datasets and huge user counts. Common wisdom suggests that this scale advantage is a powerful competitive moat; it enables far better personalization, recommendations and ultimately, a better user experience. In this article, I will show you that this moat is shallower than it seems; and that alternative approaches to personalization can produce outstanding outcomes without relying on billions of data points. How do Instagram and TikTok understand what you like and don't like?