Daily Archives: February 24, 2017

In many ways, the tech worlds AI arms race is really a fight for talent. Skilled engineers are in short supply, and Silicon Valleys biggest companies are competing to nab the best minds from academia and rival firms. Which is why it makes sense that Apple has announced its expanding its offices in Seattle, where much of its AI and machine learning work is done.

Seattle is home not only to the University of Washington and its renowned computer science department, but also the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Microsoft and Amazon are headquartered nearby, and AI startups are finding a home in the region, too. Last August, Apple even bought a Seattle-based machine learning and artificial intelligence startup named Turi for an estimated $200 million, and the team is said to be moving into Apples offices at Two Union Square as part of the expansion.

Carlos Guestrin, a University of Washington professor, former Turi CEO, and now director of machine learning at Apple, told GeekWire: Theres a great opportunity for AI in Seattle.

Guesterin said Apples Seattle engineers would be looking at both long-term and near-term AI research, developing new features for the companys products across the whole spectrum. He added: Were trying to find the best people who are excited about AI and machine learning excited about research and thinking long term but also bringing those ideas into products that impact and delight our customers.

As part of the news, the University of Washington also announced a $1 million endowed professorship in AI and machine learning named after Guesterin. Thats one way to give back to the AI community.

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Apple is expanding its Seattle offices to focus on AI and machine learning - The Verge

Like wood stacking up behind an arrowhead, Salesforce, Microsoft, Google and other tech titans are gathering behind artificial intelligence, or AI. More importantly, line-of-business executives (LOBs), the new shot-callers in tech, now expectAI to deliver real-world results, particularly in the contact center.

All of this means tectonic change is coming, and just about everyone better brace for the impact.

The contact center and other operations touching the customer are emerging as the sweet spots for AI in the enterprise. In a Forrester survey, 57 percent of AI adopters said improving the customer experience is the biggest benefit. Marketing and sales, product management, and customer support lead the AI charge.

In February, Salesforce unveiled Einstein AI for its Service Cloud contact center offering. Customer service agents will lean on Einstein AI to give them information about a particular customer when they need it, as well as escalating cases using machine learning. Managers will tap Einstein AI for insights about their contact center operations, in order to make changes and boost customer satisfaction scores.

AI in the contact center isnt new. At Dreamforce last year, Humana, a healthcare insurance company, showcased its use of AI for listening to customers in the contact center and flagging elevated tones. In turn, the AI bot Cogito informs the customer service agent to change tactics.

Related:Zero One: Are You Ready for AI?

Best use cases for deep learning and AI occur in contact centers with lots of historical customer service data, such as email transcripts and chat logs, said Mikhail Naumov, co-founder and president of DigitalGenius, an AI tech company. Contact centers dealing with lots of repetitive questions are also ripe for AI.

Microsoft, too, is driving AI into its core products, from Cortana Intelligence Suite to Dynamics 365. Speaking atChannel Visionariesin San Jose, Calif., in January, Larry Persaud, director of Azure strategy, gave an example of an AI chatbot helping an agent lock in a hotel reservation. Microsofts AI technology also improves the Uber customer experience by ensuring drivers match their profile photos and securing passenger information.

We want our partners to understand what this really means for the future [and] to learn about the business and technical aspects, Persaud said. Data and intelligence are very tightly coupled. Were adding machine learning aspects, readying AI into our data platform.

Related:Zero One: Can the Channel Pivot to Digital Business in the Cloud?

Theres no question AI tremors will be felt across the channel landscape.

My bet is well see huge progress in the next 12 months, said Tim Fitzgerald, vice president of digital transformation at Avnet Technology Solutions. It will impact substantially the as-a-service commerce, transaction experience and the ability to support localization and personalization on a specific customer level.

Echoing Microsoft, Googles Sergey Brin, speaking at theWorld Economic Forum Annual Meetingin Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, in January, said Googles AI technology called Google Brain probably touches every single one of our main projects, ranging from search to photos to ads to everything we do.

As major platform vendors embrace AI, particularly in the contact center, its important to maintain a little perspective, said Forrester analyst Ian Jacobs.

Todays AI chatbots in the contact center are good at basic tasks, such as delivering content, replenishing a pre-paid phone account, and handling information requests that require accessing a single knowledge source, Jacobs said. Complex problems, such as troubleshooting a router and reconnecting a smart thermostat to it, still require human agents.

In other words, LOBs shouldnt expect AI to replace legions of human agents and, in the process, bring about massive savings.

Using AI for basic blocking and tackling, rather than for moonshot projects, means brands will see tangible results much sooner, even if those results are somewhat more modest, Jacobs said.

Tom Kaneshige writes the Zero One blog, covering digital transformation, big data, AI, marketing tech and the Internet of Things for line-of-business executives. He is based in Silicon Valley. You can reach him attom.kaneshige@penton.com.

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Zero One: AI Transforms the Contact Center - MSPmentor

The News Journal Published 11:23 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2017 | Updated 5 hours ago

Red Clay School District has upheld a decision by A.I. du Pont High School Principal to remove the boys basketball team from consideration for the upcoming DIAA state tournament. 2/24/17 Damian Giletto/The News Journal

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DMA's commandant, Anthony Pullella, responds to accusations his students provoked an incident between A.I. players and fans during a basketball game last week. 2/24/17 JOHN J. JANKOWSKI JR./SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL

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Red Clay Consolidated School District will review a decision by the A.I. du Pont High School principal to ban the boys basketball team from participating in the upcoming DIAA Boys Basketball Tournament. 2/23/17 Damian Giletto/The News Journal

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Red Clay upholds A.I. principal's decision to end season

DMA commandant responds to incident at A.I. basketball game

A.I. du Pont principal, parents meet over basketball suspensions

A.I. duPont High School principal Kevin Palladinetti tries to answer questions from parents and political leaders about an incident after the team's 58-46 loss at Delaware Military Academy last Thursday that lead the team from participating in the upcoming DIAA Boys Basketball Tournament.(Photo: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal )Buy Photo

Red Clay Consolidated School District has upheld a decision by A.I. du Pont High School Principal KevinPalladinetti to remove the boys basketball team from consideration for the upcoming DIAA state tournament.

"We understand it was a difficult decision by staff at A.I. High School but we support that decision and stand behind it, said Superintendent Merv Daugherty. The district believes the disciplinary consequence fits the seriousness of the incident.

Jen Field, whose son is a senior on the team, told The News Journal that a group of those opposed toPalladinetti's decision will meet Friday night to discuss what, if any, next steps they will take.

Palladinettis decision stemmed from an incident following the Tigers loss at Delaware Military Academy on Feb. 16.

With 40 seconds left, an A.I. player was given a technical foul. At that point, A.I. head coach Tom Tabb said he told the players on the bench to skip the customary postgame handshake line. Instead, the coach told the team he would shake hands with the DMA team, and the players were to remain behind him and follow him off the court as a group.

When the game was over, a player started to walk and then sprinted, which caused a chain reaction where the other players followed, the coaches followed, parents followed, some DMA parents followed, Tabb said Thursday.

RELATED: More on the incident and reaction

FOOTBALL: Middletown product eyes NFL

Officials from both schools said the A.I. players ran toward a stairwell leading to thesecond level of the gymnasium, whereDMA students and fans had been watching the game.

DMA officials said they blocked the players from accessing the mezzanine while another teacher directed DMA students out through an emergency door.

Several parents of A.I. du Pont players have alleged that racial slurs were spoken by DMA players, fans and students during the game. But Palladinetti said Tabb, Assistant Principal Damon Saunders (both of whom are black)and the other A.I. assistant coaches did not report hearing any racial slurs.

DMA Commandant Anthony Pullella was at the game and said he did not hear any racial comments. Michael Ryan, the athletic director, said DMA officials conducted their own investigation, questioning parents, players, coaches and fans. He said no evidence was uncovered about any racial comment being used.

In a statement issued Friday, Red Clay officials said the district will also "continue to work with DMA to investigate allegations of inappropriate actions by their players and fans. The district has requested that DMA administration investigate from their school. Red Clay also requested a formal investigation from DIAA about the conduct of the fans during the AIHS/DMA game. We will share all investigative findings concerning fan conduct when we receive them from DMA and DIAA."

The district is taking the claims of inappropriate behavior from game attendees very seriously, Daugherty said. We do not condone the behavior in any way and will continue to work closely with DMA to uncover any acts of impropriety.

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School district upholds decision; AI's season over - The News Journal

Image: iStockphoto/ktsimage

As tech companies continue to dump mountains of cash into artificial intelligence (AI) development, the technology promises to greatly improve our digital lives. However, the AI ecosystem still has major problems to solve before it can advance, a new report said.

The report, released Friday from Edison Investment Research, said that AI has the potential to be a major differentiator but it is still in the early stages of its development. Most of what is referred to as AI, currently, is "simply advanced statistics," the report claims.

SEE: Understanding the differences between AI, machine learning, and deep learning

According to the Edison Investment Research report, there are three goals that must be solved for AI to move out of its infancy.

The company that performs the best in solving these problems is likely to move ahead of its competitors, the report noted.

For most companies, the initial investment in AI comes in the form of a digital assistant or chat bot. These tools are often being offered free of charge, or folded into other core products, in order to generate and collect the data needed to strengthen the AI behind them. Digital assistant are "a good first yardstick of each ecosystem's competence in AI," the report said.

AI is built on data, as is another product many people use everyday: Search engines. As such, it makes sense that companies like Google, Baidu, and Russia's Yandex are growing leaders in the AI space due to their focus on data-powered search. Under these leader, companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon are also investing heavily in their own AI efforts as well.

"Both Microsoft and Amazon have scope to earn a return on AI in their businesses that are not part of the ecosystem," the report said. "Apple appears to have voluntarily hobbled its AI development with differential privacy."

Facebook, however, was ranked much lower in the report. Edison researchers even called it a "laggard with one of the weakest positions in AI globally." The core issues that Facebook is facing have to do with its inability to properly leverage automation, and its late start in the market. Additionally, Facebook's disastrous attempt to automate the removal of fake news further demonstrated how weak its AI was.

"The net result is that without a human element, almost all of Facebook's services that depend on AI tend to fall over pretty quickly," the report said.

At this point, many of the tech playter investigating AI solution are struggling to make sense of their own data, the report noted. However, with investment ramping up in the space and competition increasing, the AI market is ripe for development.

"The big ecosystems are all very well-funded and so both their in-house R&D and their M&A activity is likely to increase in 2017," the report said. "AI is also likely to be the buzzword in many of the trade shows in the coming 12 months and for once, it will be more than just hype."

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Report: Why the big challenges in AI aren't close to being solved - TechRepublic

Forbes

AI Predicts Autism By Comparing Babies' Brains Forbes Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder in children is difficult, but that info can give families a wealth of new support options, not to mention a helpful new perspective. Thanks to some infant-focused AI, doctors may soon be able to reach that diagnosis ... and more »

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AI Predicts Autism By Comparing Babies' Brains - Forbes