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Could robots really be able to interpret our goals and help us achieve them? Keep reading to find out about what MIT researchers are doing to make this a reality.
Also in this edition, we dive into the extinction (?) of big data and how AI is used by businesses. Our weekly feature looks at the possibilities of technology within the next ten years.
The End of Big Data?
Data has driven the success of essentially every big name company out there like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. These companies have the manpower to access and manipulate extremely large pools of raw information, further emphasizing the well-known mantra knowledge is power.
This relatively recent obsession over big data seemed to flourish very closely with the deep learning and AI hype. This should come as no surprise due to AI algorithms driving our growing ability to gain meaning from this data but what happens when those same algorithms make big data worthless?
Big changes
Making big data worthless seems like a very extreme statement but certain advances in AI implementation may make this a possibility.
“My challenge is how can I help maybe 10,000 companies build and deploy machine learning models without having to grow Landing AI to have 10,000 machine learning engineers to do all this customization?” asked Dr. Andrew Ng, founder of Landing AI.
Ng’s research could signal a shift from big data towards “good data”, by filtering from experts within every field to determine specialized solutions. Neural networks, algorithms modeled after the human brain made to find patterns within data, would become a sort of equation rather than a completed solution.
Experts within various fields would be able to “solve for” solutions that fit their particular field without needing the coding and data structure knowledge. Does this mean the end of big data completely? The chances are slim but this does signify a possible change in the way we interact with data in our daily lives.
A Robot Who Cares <3
MIT researchers are studying how to teach robots to give each other a helping hand — or the opposite. Creating a framework teaching robots what exactly it means to help or hinder one another, these researchers train robots in a simulated environment to interpret the goals of its robot friends and either help or hinder them according to its own goals.
Here’s a more concrete example of how they make all of this work from one of the researchers:
"If you are a robot, and you want to go to location X, and I am another robot and I see that you are trying to go to location X, I can cooperate by helping you get to location X faster. That might mean moving X closer to you, finding another better X, or taking whatever action you had to take at X. Our formulation allows the plan to discover the 'how'; we specify the 'what' in terms of what social interactions mean mathematically."
What’s the point?
As robots become more ubiquitous in our world, giving them the ability to understand when and how to give help or intervene can be a significant step toward bettering human-robot communication and the human experience interacting with a robot. This can look like robots at care facilities creating a more caring environment by understanding when to give help and when to take action to intervene in other scenarios. While it’s true that learning how to give help is just a small part of learning how to socialize, as we work towards more socially sophisticated and “human” robots, this is a worthwhile step to celebrate (props to you, robot!)
How AI Can Transform Companies
AI’s effects on companies
Accenture CEO, Julie Sweet, in a contributing piece for Fortune Magazine, writes that artificial intelligence can reshape companies and redefine their industries.
“AI unlocks business value by changing what you can do in fundamental ways, from enabling new human-plus-machine ways of working and smarter systems to creating new products and services.”
According to Sweet, two years ago, most companies were starting to play around with artificial intelligence. For example, some of them used the technology to improve customer services. However, only a few companies implemented it on a larger scale.
Companies that invested in AI early on grew ahead of their competition after the COVID-19 pandemic. AI even became “a way to survive” for some companies. For example, a retailer based in the U.S. used AI technology to aid their post-lockdown strategy. This included identifying areas such as:
when/where to reopen stores
which merchandise to carry based on changing consumer preferences
how to revise pricing
which promotions would be most effective online or through brick-and-mortar sales channels
An AI Playbook
Sweet writes CEOs need an AI playbook—which includes these four strategies:
Integrating AI into their company’s business strategy
Establishing a dedicated AI team
Adopting a new culture for learning about AI and its impacts
Setting guidelines for responsible AI use
Sweet concludes her piece by writing that “tapping into the best of technology coupled with human ingenuity” will allow CEOs to “lead business into a new era of responsibility and possibility.”
Weekly Feature: Technology in Ten Years
From the advent of virtual reality to self-driving cars, it seems like our lives are becoming increasingly digital every day. This shift has left many wondering where this path will lead us — and what the world might look like 10 years from now? Much of the future seems unclear from where we currently stand, but we can be certain that advances in technology aren’t slowing any time soon.
Into the Metaverse
What’s the next big thing in technology? According to Mark Zuckerberg, it’s the Metaverse — a series of immersive virtual worlds that blend the physical and the digital into one. In this proposed metaverse, you might be able to attend a football game as a digital avatar and chat with other virtual users as if you were really there. "You will be able to do your shopping, you will be able to meet your friends, you will be able to work remotely with whomever you want, you will be able to share digital spaces, share music, share art,” explains Emma Ridderstand, founder of the software company Warpin. Some have speculated that this may be the most impactful technological advancement since the invention of the Internet. Facebook has already begun working on its construction, and according to Zuckerberg, our lives will be revolutionized by the metaverse by 2031.
However, some experts are skeptical about how practical and/or appealing the metaverse will be. After all, it would require users to spend extended amounts of time in cumbersome headsets, and the virtual spaces could be difficult for people to navigate. If these factors turn out to be major obstacles for users, there may be little reason for people to incorporate it in their everyday lives. In addition, Facebook’s extensive history of ethical controversies raises questions about whether such a potentially powerful platform should be headed by Zuckerberg.
While there are many uncertainties about the metaverse and what its impact might be, it is definitely a topic worth keeping an eye on for the future.
AI in the Workforce
As more and more companies start to incorporate AI in their operations, many human workers have begun to fear that this shift towards greater automation will leave fewer jobs for them. However, technology writer Azeem Azhar argues that instead of being a replacement for human labor, AI can help companies optimize their performance in other ways.
For example, AI could help banks make better decisions about loans or develop new medical treatments more efficiently. One reason why Covid-19 vaccines were developed so quickly was that companies like Moderna invested heavily in AI-based platforms that let them quickly determine which potential vaccines would be most effective against the virus. This improved efficiency may have positive implications for the human workforce. Azhar notes that during the pandemic, companies across a wide range of industries that started using AI generally became more competitive as a result of the increased efficiency that came with increased automation, and this actually allowed them to hire more workers than they would have otherwise.
However, it should be noted that the use of AI in decision-making raises another concern. As with any human creation, AI can be biased, which could have significant ramifications. For example, a biased program might systemically deny jobs to marginalized groups. Such concerns should be taken seriously as companies move forward with AI in the future. After all, with the rate at which the world is changing, these issues may not be as distant from us as we might think.
Written by Dwayne Morgan, Larina Chen, Ian Lei, and Michelle Zhang
Edited by Molly Pribble