What is AI doing to the education world?
AI is having an impact across all industries. In some industries — like education — initial progress has been slow, but it’s only a matter of time before the increase in computing power globally and connectedness of smart machines.
So what does this mean for educators entering the brave new world of automated and augmented learning?
CIO magazine has provided four ways to understand what this new environment will look like and how you can engage rather than react.
1. Educate yourself. This is the first step in handling any disruptive force. If you don’t know what you are up against, it is hard to win. You need to be able to sort the hype from the heart of the matter, and to do this you need some basic understanding of the beast. Do you have a fundamental understanding of machine learning and how it’s already being used in your industry? The reality is that machine learning has been around for years and is in use in many areas today, it’s just getting faster — and much smarter. Take some time to learn a little about what this Fourth Industrial Revolution is all about.
2. Identify a thought leader to help you shape your company’s involvement in the A.I. movement. Is this fundamental to your work? How does it impact your strategic plan? How many resources should you devote to it? Consider David Kenny’s comments at Davos. Kenny, the chief of IBM Watson, pointed out that this isn’t just an extension of your IT efforts, this is “fundamental to the most important decisions that you make. Anyone in your company who makes important decisions will need to understand this viscerally.” So, first you need a basic understanding, and then you need a thought leader to lead your company into this new age.
3. Data. You need data. Lots of data. Many of the initial A.I. efforts leverage machine learning. In the case of machine learning, having lots of data is a competitive advantage. One of the reasons Tesla is well positioned for the autonomous car market is simply because it has so much data. Instead of collecting data from a small number of specially equipped vehicles, Tesla collects data from every mass market car it has produced since October of 2014. Google collected 1.5 million miles of self-driving data in six years. Tesla collected 47 million miles in six months. The ability to use large amounts of data to train and test your predictive models is a significant advantage when it comes to artificial intelligence. So get your “data office” in line, build your data lake, and prepare. Hire people with the skills and understanding of how to bring your industry data to fruition for the purposes of the A.I. revolution. Artificial intelligence and analytics are both about making your business smarter.
4. Begin. First-mover advantages are huge during industrial revolutions. Ford had a significant first-mover advantage when it introduced the assembly line for large-scale production of automobiles in the second industrial revolution. Intel created the world’s first microprocessor in 1971 for the third industrial revolution, and today it dominates the market.
Of course, you could also learn all about this (and more) from Learnerd. The content in Learnerd’s alpha release comes from Hacker News, one of the web’s best sources for keeping up with the very latest in software and AI.
Try Learnerd today! Go to our Facebook page, click Send Message, and say hello!
