Technologyconvergence:IOT,dataandAI:whathappenswhentheseforcesconverge

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Episode summary

There is a lot of buzz in the industry around AI. It’s often difficult to tell what is real and what isn’t. There are four main types of AI. Reactive machines — where machines react to the data that it has been given. Limited memory — an AI that forms memory and acts on this historical recollection eg. autonomous vehicles. Theory of the mind — where an AI has awareness of things around it. Lastly there is full self-awareness of itself.

There has been a lot of progress in reactive machines. Hollywood however continues to sell general AI. This is depicted as pervasive, sentient and highly capable. This depiction is where a lot of the fear comes in given that these machines can do most tasks that humans currently do.

Machine learning is usually only as good as the data you have and so there is often a lot of human assistance. This human intervention can create biases. There are many political issues around self-driving and who an AI will choose to hit when an accident is certain. These are challenging our understandings and beliefs. Regulation will not be able to keep up given the pace of innovation. There are two camps, some are for general AI and some are against it, most notable Elon Musk.

There are two trends in IOT. On the macro scale there are Google and Facebook leading the charge on Internet connectivity with project loons and drones. These aim to democratise Internet connectivity. On the micro scale you have five nanometer microchip bots that can be used for collecting data. The companies that win in the future will understand how to leverage these exponential technologies.