Why A.I and machine learning is the key to unlocking creativity and productivity

A few weeks ago, the Royal Society of Machine Learning released a report considering the state of machine learning in the UK. It contained a lot of valuable information on the history, current implementations and future uses of A.I — I wanted to share my highlights of that report and investigate what it means for businesses.
As with many reports and studies around the ‘rise of the machine learning’ era the Royal Society of Machine Learning’s report shouts about the potential that A.I solutions can provide to every corner of our society, it also highlights legitimate concerns from the same societies that A.I technology is meant to benefit.
The report references a survey conducted by the society, which shows that there is an overriding concern, also aired in the national press, that jobs will be stolen by the machine, big businesses will increase profits and the unemployment lines will grow. Other concerns include the possibility for the machine to cause real harm due to a fallibility in their design, for instance, if an automated vehicle were to be hacked and used in a harmful manner or if a medical robot were to misdiagnose an illness harming the patient.
The survey also showed that there is a real concern that skill levels will be eroded and that there should be a focus on up-skilling in areas of data science and machine learning, to provide a career path to those who will be displaced by the application of these solutions.
That got me thinking, advancements and innovation have caused this kind of effect for centuries; take the invention of Abacus that through comparatively simple logic enabled merchants to trade great sums quickly, or the Archimedes screw that replaced the need to carry water uphill, providing valuable sustenance to hill top pastures. Both were mechanical advancements that put humans out of jobs, but it also enabled those same humans to grow more goods and, in turn, to grow their economy.
This is very familiar to current applications of machine learning and A.I. My team’s mantra is to ‘simply stop fraud’, and we do what we do because we ultimately want to use artificial intelligence to release human creativity. It continues the same trajectory as the Archimedes screw. Teams that are impacted using machine learning and A.I can now focus on growing their business and personal success.
As my team and I have found, the report draws upon the importance of data, both the quality, accuracy, descriptive ability and, most importantly, access to good data. Machine learning works best when you can build up a picture, much like a 3D model. One slice of 3D model will provide limited value or insight, but all or some of the slices layered on top of each other in the correct sequence, another descriptive layer, provides clarity.
Posted on 7wData.be.
