An AI & Automation Explainer — for 6 to 99-year-olds!
Long reserved to science-fiction, Artificial Intelligence is now an important part of our lives.
Long reserved to science-fiction, Artificial Intelligence is now an important part of our lives Indeed, even if we are not always aware of it, we use it every day, whether for personal or professional use. AI and Machine Learning will impact our daily lives by 2025 and will profoundly transform cutting-edge industries such as transport, health, logistics, and customer service.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that puts in place techniques to allow machines to imitate a form of human intelligence. For instance, Artificial Visual Intelligence is a machine that determines the content of an image to classify it according to different criteria (eg. Google Images). There is also Vocal Recognition AI, a virtual assistant capable of transcribing what has been said in natural language and to treat requests (eg. Siri, Alexia, Google Home).
Automation consists of using a software service in an IT application. It has been influenced by cybernetics, the Internet of Things, and electronics. It is mainly used in the production process. For instance, there is Robotic Process Automation which is a technology that automates repetitive tasks based on AI and Machine Learning (automatic learning from AI). This can be used in the industrial sector, like in automobiles.
In order to help our readers understand better what AI and Automation are, here is an article we wrote including an interview with Maz Nadjm who is currently working as a Global AI and Automation Partner. You will find the interview at the end of this article.
We hope you will enjoy watching it as much as we did!
The exploitation of AI and Automation is now essential for the development of many companies. This meteoric growth is explained by many factors: the increased accessibility of knowledge, Data, and the development of powerful computers. In the pharmaceutical sector, AI is unavoidable within R&D activities, where it mainly finds applications in the pre-clinical phases of drug development. But AI is also used in everyday medical acts such as the diagnosis of cancers. For instance, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) has developed Watson Genomics. It makes the identification of cancer cells more accurate through AI. Tomorrow computers will be able to better predict the appearance of skin cancer than dermatologists.
AI has also proven to be effective in detecting the radiotherapy planning process in a very short time, allowing radiologists to significantly shorten treatment sequences and improve patient care. DeepMind Health, in collaboration with University College London Hospital, is creating Machine Learning calculations to improve the accuracy of radiotherapy planning by separating healthy from malignant tissue. Many laboratories today invest in AI research and prescience examination to re-process the history of an individual’s particular well-being. If this research is successful, it may lead to conclusions and streamlined treatment conventions.
Another example in the scientific domain would be the articulated robotic hand which uses the principle of anticipation of gesture of the human brain, and such as childhood learning, this kind of example uses the same concept as AI combined with Machine Learning to achieve the desired result.
“Marketing Automation is a rapidly growing industry set to expand by 8.55% this year, increasing market capitalization to $5.5 billion by 2019” (Albizu Garcia, “How AI Is Driving Marketing Automation”). Marketing specialists have already started implementing AI into personalized marketing, by analyzing their customers’ behavior, timeline, and preferences. By combining AI with Marketing Automation and predictive segmentation, the right media are sent for the right people, anywhere and anytime.
So, having a higher return on investment, better customer experience, increased loyalty, and greater customer value. Mr. Nadjm conquered with the growing importance of AI in the field: “One of the biggest challenges with marketing, which is understanding the person on the other side” which changes over time, and the world is producing so much content that the principal aim of Machine Learning is to get through all the existing content to catch one-person attention. He then highlighted the fact that automation was a good way to help with this challenge.
“The machines are coming for your job”, that was the fear that succumbed on employees at the beginning of the industrial age and the rise of AI and Automation process, in fact, manufacturing is one of the earliest industries to adopt AI and Automation, from the long productions’ rows to industrial robots. AI and Automation have reduced the human factor and therefore the human error.
The accident rates leading to safer plants and highly consistent quality of manufacturing. So, they reduced the human role in manufacturing, but they created a safer environment. Nowadays industrial robots are used to complete complex tasks like triage, packing, and dangerous tasks like welding and forging. AI and Automation are also particularly suitable for manufacturing. Robots can perform repetitive tasks around the clock, 24/7, with consistency, reducing the cost of production, and with less working time for man labor, it allows industries the potential to create higher profits, allowing them to expand.
When we asked Mr. Nadjm about the negative aspects of AI and Automation, he responded “Technology overall is scary to us.” He then talked about 3D printing and the fact that on the same day a start-up printed an instrument that can be utilized for patients and person printed elements to build a gun.
When developing an AI solution, companies need to be aware of GDPR. Indeed, GDPR can be different according to the country or region. Besides, lots of scandals have risen with companies not respecting GDPR. It is therefore highly monitored by governments and institutions. For instance, some companies use recruitment algorithms to select a candidate for a job offer based on their origin or gender.
Another good example of the potential danger of AI is well showed by the website https://thispersondoesnotexist.com. Using Artificial Intelligence, this website creates realistic portraits of fake people. The website was created to raise awareness about “A.I.’s ever-increasing power to present as real images that are completely artificial”. This AI-powered tool reminds Deep Fake videos, and it’s not difficult to imagine videos artificially made showing people encouraging violent actions, riots, or attacks.
AI is also problematic when it lacks precision. For example, some students at a university put some white and black stickers on a Stop sign. As a result, lots of autonomous cars confused it with a speed limit sign. To give another example of the incompleteness of this technology, some researchers have found a technique like the one mentioned above using futuristic make-up which consists of drawing random lines on their faces to bypass the government facial recognition cameras.
This same recognition method, used by many for unlocking their phones or tag people on Facebook is even banned in some cities like San Francisco, Oakland, or Boston due to ethical reasons or its lack of precision.
To highlight some automation limits, we are going to ask you, our readers, a few questions. How to automate soft skills? Would you rather talk to a program or a real person? Are you able to tell the difference?
The last caution we would advise our reader about AI and Automation would be not to demand or implement these types of solutions if you do not have a real need that applies with the use of these technologies. Indeed, creating an AI just to have an AI is not a solution. You first need to define your pain points and then see which solutions are suited best to resolve them. You need to think in terms of added value for your tasks.
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
Useful resources used in this article
‘This Person Does Not Exist’ Creator Reveals His Site’s Creepy Origin Story. danny.paez@inverse.com
“The impact of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on artificial intelligence”. Europarl
“GDPR and Artificial Intelligence”. James Alford, Milad Emamian, Emily Galik, Allie Gottlieb, and Lila Sevener, The Regulatory Review.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Consulting Services. IBM
“How AI Is Driving Marketing Automation”. Albizu Garcia.
“AI & Automation: benefits for business & industry”. Asavin Wattanajantra, Sage Advice.
“5 Positive Benefits of Automation in the Workplace”. meetsally, Medium.com
“Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence”. Sunil Komar, Medium.com
“Why We Need To Focus On The Positives Of AI”. Daniel Newman, Forbes.com
“Top Yandex engineer develops anti-facial recognition technology”. Victoria Zavyalova, ewdn.com
“Where in the world is AI?”. AI Global
