AI And Data At Dow Jones: Why Humans Are The Machine Behind AI

Machines are getting better and better at doing jobs that traditionally could only be done by humans. Largely this is thanks to advances in machine learning that have given us machines that are capable of using data to make decisions. As they are trained on more data – in simulated or real-world situations, they are able to do this with increasing proficiency. This is what we’ve come to refer to as artificial intelligence (AI) - the closest we’ve so far come to creating machines that are capable of learning, thinking, and deciding. 

 

So is this unprecedented situation going to result in widespread human redundancy, with the associated damage and disruption to society that this would seem to entail? There are certainly some who think so. On the other hand, some believe it will lead to a new paradigm in human work and productivity, where machines take care of all the dirty, boring, and dangerous jobs, leaving us free to spend time on more rewarding creative, fun or social pursuits.

As always, the truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle. We are already seeing robots threatening the livelihood of those in some low-skill applications – just take a look at Amazon’s cashier-less stores, or plans by McDonalds to introduce AI drive-thru restaurants. For a more general prediction, the World Economic Forum estimates that while up to 85 million jobs will be lost to AI and automation by 2025, 97 million will be created by the opportunities that AI brings in the same period.

Lawyers, accountants, doctors, computer programmers, web designers, writers, and geological technicians are among the countless professions where computers now perform tasks that previously were only done by people. But I think it’s unlikely that people have actually been made redundant from these roles yet, in order to be replaced by AI algorithms. This is because current trends indicate a firm belief in the business world that skilled subject matter experts working in partnership with sophisticated technological tools is the best recipe for success.

This was a point made by Ingrid Verschuren, head of data strategy for Dow Jones when I spoke to her about the subject recently. Humans are the real “machine” that drives AI. In nearly all cases, they are responsible for choosing the data that's used to train the algorithms, and they specify the outcomes that they want AI to achieve. That could be writing advertising copy that's most likely to lead to sales or looking at population heat maps to understand where pandemics are likely to break out. Machines simply predict the course of action that’s most likely to lead to the optimal outcome within the parameters we give them.