“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

Stephen Hawking

More about Machine Learning

(Part Two)

Machine learning IS in our lives…

Machine learning has moved from category of science fiction to reality, but sometimes we do not even realize the part it plays in our lives today and its impact on our future.

We are accustomed to search engines offering us to complete our search query with just the right words. It is possible because search engines are able to learn information about their users based on recent search queries. Spam in our electronic mail is not a problem anymore because of machine learning algorithm used to detect unsolicited electronic messages. If we are calling to a customer service, we tend to wait patiently on the phone because we are notified that “estimated wait time is 10 minutes”. How is it possible? Machine learning.

Furthermore, there are many applications for machine learning in medicine. An app called JustShakeIt was developed to predict strokes and seizures. It sends an alert to emergency contacts, if the smart phone is shaking. To detect actual emergency shakes from others the app uses a machine learning algorithm.

Another machine learning-based system was developed in Stanford. It predicts survival rates for cancer sufferers by looking at tissues under microscope. During the testing period the computer system discovered that the cells around the cancer are as important as the cancer cells themselves in making a diagnosis. This system provides more accurate results than results human pathologists can give. Thus, in this task machine outmatched its creator, human.

The next level of machine learning applications that exist today are driverless cars, driverless tractors, pilotless airplanes. Even though I cannot wait to have a driverless car, the suffix -less worries me. What if the new wave of revolutionary developments in technology will lead to less employment opportunities for people?

Forewarned is forearmed

Pew Research Center’s Internet Project presented a series of eight reports regarding technological advances and their effects on near future, by 2025. One of the reports addressed artificial intelligence and future of jobs. 1,896 experts (scientists, researchers, tech professionals) were asked to comment on the topic. In their responses, the experts have divided into two almost equal groups. One group (52%) think that “advances in technology may displace certain types of work, but historically they have been a net creator of jobs “. The other group of experts (48%) “envision a future in which robots and digital agents have displaced significant numbers of both blue- and white-collar workers — with many expressing concern that this will lead to vast increases in income inequality, masses of people who are effectively unemployable, and breakdowns in the social order.”

As for me, I believe that changes are inevitable and we need to be prepared for them. The best way to do that is to take a part in them by learning and applying machine learning to enhance people’s everyday experience.