Machine learning may seem like science fiction, something out of a movie where robots can predict our every move and use that knowledge either for or against us. Sounds crazy. After all, robots aren’t ruling our lives. The truth is, though, that although you probably don’t have a robot butler offering you your slippers and a nightcap at the end of the day, your life is increasingly impacted and, yes, even run by robots and smart devices of various varieties. Machine learning is here and now, and it’s important to be aware of the many ways in which it has permeated our day-to-day.
Depending on where you’re living and the regulations being placed on smart devices and various technological advancements, machine learning, and artificial intelligence will have a different impact on your life. For example, in China, the government isn’t shy about using facial recognition techniques to track potential dissidents. A network of smart security cameras keeps track of nearly every city block. Not so in the United States or Europe, but we still enjoy our smart speakers (“play James Brown, Alexa!”), our smart devices (“what should I watch, Netflix?”), and the benefits we get from new and exciting healthcare treatments advanced by smart techniques. Whether you know it or not, artificial intelligence is all around you, and the state of machine learning in 2020 is exciting. Read on to learn about the most intriguing trends in machine learning.
Business Intelligence
According to the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant Data Science report, businesses are using machine learning in several exciting ways. These include tracking data to understand their customers’ needs better, using predictive analytics systems to predict their market and company’s future, and utilizing smart customer service options that can toggle between text, voice calls, and emails seamlessly. Compelling business intelligence solutions can integrate historical data with analytics and real-time streaming data as it occurs to give business leaders the ability to keep tabs on what their business is doing around the world at all times.
Healthcare
Biomedicine is one of the most incredible applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence to date. Some biotechnology companies can utilize machine learning to develop new medicines for dozens of diseases. The application of these forms of technology also allows healthcare professionals to keep tabs on the data (both historical and predictive) regarding patients’ scores. Some applications can predict who is a likely candidate to develop a disorder or illness and preemptively prompt them to make lifestyle changes before getting ill.
Security and Facial Recognition
Facial recognition is just one aspect of security that uses machine learning to help find miscreants. Basically, the machine learns all the characteristics of the faces in its database, and if you’re looking for someone in the database, the machine will locate them. The advances in machine learning allow the systems to be ever more sensitive to small changes or details in a face, and perhaps soon will even recognize faces from far away or in a slightly blurred picture. Cybersecurity also uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to advance past a simple firewall. Machine learning systems can recognize even the tiniest blips on the radar, and the smallest abnormality will alert the software that something may be afoot. This is increasingly important as more and more of our lives move online.
Finance
You don’t necessarily need a stockbroker now, and you don’t even need a financial manager—or at least, not a human one. Now that the algorithms being put to use can trade of their own accord, your funds can be managed by a robot with no human intervention necessary. Of course, this can be very problematic and offers very lucrative opportunities to miscreants if they can get past the cybersecurity algorithms and hack a financial institution. It’s a good thing that machine learning advancements are happening in every realm. As more opportunities present themselves, more security must be developed as well.
