Board Member Alexs Thompson Shares His Experiences at KC AI Lab.
When Brian Curry approached me about leading the educational component of KCAIL, I was immediately intrigued. This experiment in disruption is most compelling because it aims to put the power of augmented intelligence in the hands of as many people as possible. Machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, embedded analytics, augmented intelligence — to most people these are just buzz words or unattainable goals. Learners and businesses struggle to distinguish between hype and genuine innovation. A quick scan of the requirements needed to become an expert in any of these fields is daunting: statistics, R, Python, Keras, Tableau, SQL, computer vision, graph theory, Hadoop…the list gets longer every day.
Solutions to that knowledge gap are popping up faster than the field is growing: there are online solutions, weekend certificates, executive master’s degrees, self-help books, and videos that attempt to dissect and recompile everything someone needs to become an expert in 1 hour of reading, 30 days of videos, or 2 years of classes. Interested learners are sinking a lot of time and money to get the knowledge they need to excel in the AI world.
KCAIL fills a few critical gaps in that educational environment:
1. it is free for members who are committed to learning a difficult field
2. it has experienced instructors who currently work in the AI industry
3. it has a robust community of learners who support one another in the quest for more knowledge
4. it brings in real-world data so students can experience the full range of a business problem, and
5. it works to solve difficult problems for businesses/individuals who do not have access to AI resources.
I am proud to be a part of Kansas City’s newest and most diverse tech start up. We look forward to becoming the most powerful AI community in the Midwest.
About The KC AI Lab: Our mission is to advance the development of AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning using our member owned education and development cooperative concept. We believe in the ability of Machine Learning and AI to commoditize knowledge, automate labor, disrupt outdated and dysfunctional capital flows and transform the human experience for the better. Find out more by contacting any of the following:
Alexs Thompson, Director and Chief Curriculum Officer
Tom Cook, Director and Chief Research Officer
Bob Lambrechts, Director and Chief Legal Officer
