The Brave New World of Machine Learning
The Rotary Business Breakfast on Tuesday 10th April addressed the very current and important, if some what frightening, topic of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Mixed Reality in Business. Edward Deane, Founder/Director of 2excel Web and Software Development (on the left in the photo) gave an overview of the very rapid development of computer power over recent years and highlighted the power of the smart phone that we all take for granted.Machine learning is the process whereby computers can "learn" from repeated observations with the result that they can, for some tasks, outperform the human performance in both accuracy and speed. The term 'artificial intelligence" is often used to describe this ability, although it is not the same as the intelligence that we ascribe to humans.
We have seen the increasing application of computing to routine tasks, in banking for example, with the resultant decrease in employee numbers. This is just the beginning, and there are many areas where the increasing application of increasingly capable computers will disrupt existing employment with resultant social impacts. In excess of 70 business people attended the breakfast and were keen to question the speaker following his presentation.