Our Christmas episode was recorded under the auspices of Janus, the god of all things related to time. Now into the month named after him, the SmallDataForum reviews its predictions and looks at the year ahead. Will Europe ‘take back control’, or will commercial pressures curb big tech's enthusiasm? Will 2018 be the breakthrough year for chatbots and DPAs (digital personal assistants), both in business and personal use? How will continuous technological and economic transformations affect … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 15 – Reining in tech: responsibility, regulation and education
AI
2018: the year of chatbots, AI and digital personal assistants
2017 was the year that artificial intelligence (AI) generally gained a greater consciousness in the public mind as well as in the minds of many professionals, not the least being those in the broad communication business – especially public relations, advertising, marketing and employee communication. Every time we see a robot mentioned in the mainstream media, there's either a photo of the Terminator or some human-looking machine which feeds our fear – adding to the uncertainty and doubt … [Read more...] about 2018: the year of chatbots, AI and digital personal assistants
SDF Podcast 14: Looking forward by looking back
As the Small Data Forum progresses through its early teenage years – our latest podcast is episode 14 already – regular co-hosts Thomas Stoeckle, Neville Hobson, and Sam Knowles are taking the opportunity to look forward by looking back. Patients of our own medicine, you might say, we’re using the year end and what we’ve observed and learned in 2017 to enter the predictive analytics business. We take our inspiration from Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, and time, after whom … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 14: Looking forward by looking back
For Immediate Release 100: Locked and Loaded
In the August episode of The Hobson & Holtz Report, Shel and I talked about these topics: The Society for New Communications Research has launched an initiative to assess options for the communications industry to address fake news. An artificial intelligence bot can detect plagiarism (85% of the time). Supporters of US President Donald Trump are amplifying their tweets through a little-known Twitter feature that lets you create and name a Direct Message group. And let’s talk … [Read more...] about For Immediate Release 100: Locked and Loaded
How to put AI into cognitive perspective
Among the big topics that will dominate the news in 2017, a prominent one will undoubtedly be artificial intelligence or AI. It's a huge topic, one that gathered momentum in 2016 to grab our attention and showcase both opportunity and risk with news and opinion often focused on a dystopian future that has plans to eliminate jobs currently done by human beings and replace them with robots. (Or maybe not.) Wherever you look, there's so much differing opinion on the impact of AI and … [Read more...] about How to put AI into cognitive perspective
The Fourth Transformation: A vision of the near tomorrow from Shel Israel and Robert Scoble
One of the things I like most about The Fourth Transformation, the new book from Shel Israel and Robert Scoble published in December 2016 that I just finished reading, is the way in which it will help you to join up the dots and begin to understand the fundamental, disruptive and accelerating changes we already see around us brought by advances in technology - notably, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) - and massive shifts in people's … [Read more...] about The Fourth Transformation: A vision of the near tomorrow from Shel Israel and Robert Scoble
Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings
The common, and recurring, view of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research is that sentient and intelligent machines are just on the horizon. Machines understand verbal commands, distinguish pictures, drive cars and play games better than we do. How much longer can it be before they walk among us? By Arend Hintze, Michigan State University The new White House report on artificial intelligence takes an appropriately skeptical view of that dream. It says the next 20 … [Read more...] about Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings
The automotive future isn’t self-driving… Not yet
When the topic of artificial intelligence and cars gets discussed - it's a topic of frequent discussion online these days - it's often in the single context of self-driving cars. While Google is a lead in many discussions about self-driving experimentation (where a car is largely driven and controlled by a wide range of technologies), electric sports car maker Tesla gets a lot of press due to its stylish sports cars that capture imaginations with their high speeds, market-leading battery … [Read more...] about The automotive future isn’t self-driving… Not yet