AI has been the internet’s favorite buzzword this year. The old “All in AI” slogan almost feels literal now: artificial intelligence has shown up in app after app, and it is hard to avoid. I tried Baidu’s Ernie Bot and came away feeling that it was still a long way from “intelligent.” I wanted to try Microsoft’s ChatGPT offering, but I could not find an entry point, did not know how to get around network restrictions, and was intimidated by the setup guides, so I gave up.
I use MindMaster for mind maps regularly. It has added AI features too, but I had ignored them. I did not trust them, and I could not think of a situation where intelligent assistance would help. The app kept prompting me to update, though, and today it recommended a new version. The description on the page looked promising, so I ran a few tests—partly to see what the AI hype felt like in practice.
Test 1
Input: “Generate an outline of the history of economics, from ancient Greece to the modern era.” The result is below.
It was simple, but the logic held together fairly well, and the three-level structure was reasonably balanced. That was a small pleasant surprise. I could not tell whether the output was so sparse because my prompt was simple or because its database is thin and still needs feeding. So I tried something more detailed.
Test 2
Input: “Generate a mind map of the history of China’s economic reform, covering 1979 to 2022. Include land reform, factor pricing, opening of commodity markets, monetary reform, financial market development, institution building, and reform.” This time the request was much more specific. I expected a detailed map of China’s economic reform history, but the result was disappointing.
This was a straightforward logical failure. The structure was clearly not what I asked for, and the content was far too brief.
After testing, I found that MindMaster’s AI feature cannot yet handle complex mind map generation. Its knowledge base is seriously lacking, and the AI’s logic has clear gaps. For now it is only good for trying out the novelty; it is nowhere near the level of a productivity assistant. I do not know which company’s AI MindMaster is connected to, but I doubt it is self-developed. AI at this level is not worth paying for yet, and AI companies will probably have to stay in a money-burning growth phase for some time.