The final talk from day two of Innovation Week came from Neil Stubbings from IV.AI who was here to tell us all what Artificial Intelligence is and where it’s going to go in the future. AI has already been a hot topic at Innovation Week with Google teaching us how to get creative with AI and a panel debate around Voice so it’s safe to say AI isn’t just a buzzword but something we all need to get on board with.
Artificial intelligence in its simplest form is predictive modelling through machine learning. AI translates inputs into data and numbers which can then be made into decisions which isn’t something new, the reason AI feels like a buzzword is due to the rate in which it’s developing with the technology now in a place where it has become useful on a day to day level. Whether that’s Spotify creating you a Daily Mix playlist of what you might want to listen to in the morning through to TFL recommending an alternative route to work due to train cancellations, AI is now a familiar part of day to day life.
The big question is how far can AI go? The government predicts that the annual GVA in 2035 will increase from 2.5% to 3.9% as a result of AI which shows the impact this technology can make if it is used properly and has the right inputs to analyse. The Harvard Business Review also wrote an interesting thought piece about how AI can impact Amazon’s business strategy and whether predicting consumers orders before they have ordered could be a viable model.
One closing thought which interested the room was how close we are to General Intelligence and whether this is something near to being a reality. Neil closed this with a firm no, even though AI is developing at pace it is still developing by humans telling it what to learn, it cannot teach itself and at least for the near future, he doesn’t see this changing.
