We often talk about Artificial Intelligence's applications – meaning, what we use it for – but we often forget to talk about a more crucial question:
How do we use AI effectively?
Many people misuse AI. They think they can simply plug in a dataset, press a button, and poof! Magically, an edge appears.
Most commonly, people lack the infrastructure (or the data literacy) to properly handle even the most basic algorithms and operations. And even before that - they haven't even properly assessed whether AI is needed in their business. Remember, AI is a tool, not the goal.
Even though this is the golden age of AI ... we are just at the beginning. Awareness leads to focus, which leads to experimentation, which leads to finer distinctions, which leads to wisdom.
Do you remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Ultimately, self-actualization is the goal ... but before you can focus on that, you need food, water, shelter, etc.
In other words, you most likely have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to be able to survive before you can thrive.
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science follow a similar model. Here it is:

Monica Rogati via hackernoon
First, there's data collection. Do you have the right dataset? Is it complete?
Then, data flow. How is the data going to move through your systems?
Once your data is accessible and manageable you can begin to explore and transform it.
Exploring and transforming is a crucial stage that's often neglected.
One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome at Capitalogix was handling real-time market data.
The data stream from exchanges isn't perfect.
Consequently, using real-time market data as an input for AI is challenging. We have to identify, fix, and re-publish bad ticks or missing ticks as quickly as possible. Think of this like trying to drink muddy stream water (without a filtration process, it isn't always safe).
Once your data is clean, you can then define which metrics you care about, how they all rank in the grand scheme of things ... and then begin to train your data.
Compared to just plugging in a data set, there are a lot more steps; but, the results are worth it.
That's the foundation to allow you to start model creation and optimization.
The point is, ultimately, it's more efficient and effective to spend the time on the infrastructure and methodology of your project (rather than to rush the process and get poor results).
If you put garbage into a system, most likely you'll get garbage out.
Slower sometimes means faster.
Onwards.
Thriving Through The AI Revolution
Artificial Intelligence is one of my favorite things to talk about ... It makes so much possible!
In a previous article, I mentioned that forecasts expect AI to impact or eliminate up to 50% of current jobs. Nevertheless, I think that is the start of the story. The ultimate impact will be more significant and more positive than most people expect.
Freeing humans to do more has always been a boon to society. Electricity put a lot of people out of work ... but, look what it made possible.
We'd be naive to think AI isn't going to influence the job market, but that doesn't mean you can't navigate that shift.
A Look At Industrial Revolutions
There are several turning points in our history where the world changed forever. Former paradigms and realities became relics of a bygone era.
Today, we're at another turning point.
Tomorrow's workforce will require different skills and face different challenges than we do today. You can consider this a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Compare today's changes to our previous industrial revolutions.
Each revolution shared multiple similarities. They were disruptive. They were centered on technological innovation. They created concatenating socio-cultural impact.
The fourth shares all the same hallmarks.
We're harnessing new technologies like AI, the IoT, renewable energy, and the blockchain. Automation will reach new levels in this revolution. But there also will be an explosion of new fields, new markets, and new necessary skillsets - it's going to impact the world as holistically as electricity did.
How will humans create value in an increasingly automated world?
One of the distinctions I've recently made about the industrial revolutions is that for a long time, technology helped humans act like robots. Think about a plow and a farmer, or a seamstress and a sewing machine. After that, it helped robots try to act like humans, which you've seen more recently.
I believe we're at another inflection point, where new capabilities will free up humans to be more human and to pursue more of what they really want.
Robots can do many things, but they've yet to match the creativity and emotional insight of humanity. As automation spreads to more jobs, the need for management, creativity, and decision-making won't go anywhere ... they may be bolstered by data analytics, but they won't disappear.
Our uniqueness and flexibility rightly protect our usefulness. AI and automation free us up to be our best selves and to explore new possibilities.
These are exciting times!
Posted at 09:03 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Gadgets, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Religion, Science, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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