I used AI and Python to help me find the perfect engagement ring for Molly McDonald, MAcc 💍.
As you may have heard, there are four Cs to finding the perfect diamond: cut, clarity, carat, and color. In my case, I added a fifth C—cost. In the engineering field, this would be called a quintuple constraint. When you go to a store and they start throwing diamonds at you with all these stats, how do you know you’re getting a good deal? This is where AI and statistical principles come in.
What I did was pair a spreadsheet of each diamond’s five Cs and perform principal component analysis to simplify the five-dimensional complexity. Since I knew she wanted a princess cut, I was able to visit several stores around Memphis and make true apples-to-apples comparisons.
Psychology tells us that we have an upper limit on the dimensions of comparison we can hold in our heads when making heuristic judgments. Mathematics also shows that in higher dimensions, the Euclidean distance that is intuitive to us no longer suffices for accurate comparisons. If you look at the scatterplot below, you can see the challenge of using a Euclidean approach for such a task. This is why many AI researchers use a technique called cosine distance to create a well-ordered list of available points in a data set.
As you can see, identifying trends in the data from the scatterplot is challenging. Another method I used is relative comparison, illustrated through a radar chart. In this chart, the price indicator is inverted so that we can better assess the value from the buyer’s perspective. This approach allowed me to compare the relative surface areas of all factors equally, without applying weights. From there, I could identify the relative variance and which individual factors had the greatest effect on cost in my limited data set.
After that, I calculated weights to adjust for cost and other factors, aligning everything with my preferences. This analysis gave me confidence in my purchase decision.
Many decisions in life are complex and don’t fit neatly into a matrix, unlike AI diamond hunting. However, asking Molly to be my wife was the easiest decision I ever made.
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