The current hype around artificial intelligence and machine learning brings to mind Amara's Law. We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. … [Read more...]
Python tops programming language list
Python has topped the IEEE Spectrum list of top programming languages again this year---extending its lead in the process. The sources used to compiled the list cover contexts that include social chatter, open-source code production, and job postings. Obviously that list of sources isn't an accurate reflection of what developers are doing day-to-day in organisations. Any list of top … [Read more...]
Microsoft Research Open Data
Microsoft Research have released over 50 free data sets via their Open Data site. They include 38 million tweets from the 2012 US presidential election Profiles of 1 million celebrities (1000 with images) Are there actually 1 million celebrities now?! Maybe someone can analyze the data to confirm. As in all data science we'll need to start with firming up our definitions of terms---e.g … [Read more...]
Do you really need machine learning?
I have a lot of sympathy for the view expressed in the following tweet Good CS expert says: Most firms that thinks they want advanced AI/ML really just need linear regression on cleaned-up data.— robin hanson (@robinhanson) November 28, 2016 Many organizations who dive into machine learning haven't even started to extract value from their data. I understand why they want to get on the … [Read more...]
Google reveals performance of its custom AI chips
Google has just release performance data for its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) custom machine learning chips. TPUs are 15-20x faster than GPUs and CPUs when running deep learning applications 30-80x more power efficient (operations per Watt) frugal in terms of lines of code required to control them (their deep learning applications are implemented using 100-1500 lines) Google claim that … [Read more...]