Data Science
Data science is an interdisciplinary field that acts to interrogate data, often from multiple sources, to extract knowledge and insights. These insights and knowledge make informed decisions possible and enhance one’s ability to take appropriate actions in a range of unique situations.
Carefully considered data processing and analysis can positively impact product capability, the bottom line, and a customer’s perception of their supplier or business partner.
Machine Learning
Machine learning (ML) was defined by Arthur Samuel in 1959 as a field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. The potential of ML techniques has become more widely known in recent years. This is principally due to the availability of very large data sets (Big Data) and the computer processing power needed to execute ML algorithms.
Compared to the speed of human learning, a machine can progress at a much faster rate. However, contextual understanding and comprehension are not well developed at the machine level. Machine consciousness is still not a reality, despite some well-publicised but outlandish claims. In our own human context, the definition of consciousness is still described as puzzling and controversial.
Today, human beings are often required to make the final call, but they can now make it quickly and with more confidence than ever before with the help of machine learning.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fuzzy and malleable term. Its definition changes through time with the development of technology and our individual perception of its capability.
At one time a mechanical calculator filled with cogs and gears was considered to be artificially intelligent. These were hugely expensive machines that few people knew about let alone had experience with.
Digital versions can now be mass-produced at very low cost. They became so commonplace that we no longer describe them as being intelligent. Technology moves on and so does our perception; the once marvellous soon becomes ordinary and mundane.
Is the term AI useful when it is not well defined?