Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence This is the first of a couple columns about a growing trend in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is likely to be integrated in our culture. Computerworld ran an interesting overview article on the subject yesterday that got me thinking not only about where this technology is going but how it is likely to affect us not just as a people. but as individuals. How is AI likely to affect me? The answer is scary. Today we consider the general case and tomorrow the very specific. The failure of Artificial Intelligence. It didn’t work. Artificial Intelligence or AI, as it was called, absorbed hundreds of millions of Silicon Valley VC dollars before being declared a failure. The human speed bump. You see in today’s version of Artificial Intelligence we don’t need to teach our computers to perform human tasks: they teach themselves. Google Translate, for example, can be used online for free by anyone to translate text back and forth between more than 70 languages. Google Brain. 4) rinse repeat
How 'big data' is changing lives 25 February 2013Last updated at 20:08 ET Data is increasingly defining us - from the information we share on the web, to that collected by the numerous companies with whom we interact. Intrigued by the sheer scales involved, photojournalist Rick Smolan wanted to see how data was transforming the world. Take a look at his global snapshots - compiled in his book The Human Face of Big Data. Continue reading the main story To see the enhanced content on this page, you need to have JavaScript enabled and Adobe Flash installed. Click bottom right for image information and full credits. All images subject to copyright. Additional images courtesy Google Maps. Slideshow production by Jane Wakefield and Paul Kerley. Related: BBC News - What If? More audio slideshows: LED at 50: An illuminating history Reg Turnill - The Moon landing Wildlife photos: How to take the best shots
The Coming Era of Big Data for the Little Guy Big data is big news these days. Yet much of the discussion has been about how big data will help big business. At Intuit, we believe the biggest opportunity is giving consumers and small businesses the power of data. It is a new data era that we like to call Big Data for the Little Guy. Today, Intuit released “The New Data Democracy: How Big Data Will Revolutionize the Lives of Small Businesses and Consumer.” The report examines three key data trends that will impact small businesses and individuals over the coming decade: The New Data Democracy: Over the next decade, analysts expect the global volume of digital data to increase more than 40-fold. At Intuit, we are living on the front lines of many of these shifts. I encourage everyone to read The New Data Democracy. Intuit President and CEO Brad Smith has his head in the cloud. Rate: Loading ...
Sell your data to save the economy and your future Imagine our world later in this century, when machines have got better. Cars and trucks drive themselves, and there's hardly ever an accident. Robots root through the earth for raw materials, and miners are never trapped. Clothes are always brand new designs that day, and always fit perfectly, because your home fabricator makes them out of recycled clothes from the previous day. I can't tell you which of these technologies will start to work in this century for sure, and which will be derailed by glitches, but at least some of these things will come about. Who will earn wealth? Will they live gig to gig, with a token few of them winning a YouTube hit or Kickstarter success while most still have to live with their parents? This question has to be asked. How could it be that since the incredible efficiencies of digital networking have finally reached vast numbers of people that we aren't seeing a broad benefit? The medicine of our time is purported to be open information. Digitally unequal
Big Data | Technology Research Are you trying to figure out how your enterprise can benefit from big data and why it's important? Don't get left behind. Uncover the business opportunities you can derive from big data. You need to make the strategic decisions that will transform your business. Hear Gartner recommendations on how to improve your business performance with big data. IT is under pressure to tap into growing quantities of data to help the business make better, informed decisions by combining new sources of big data with existing enterprise dark data. Get more from your big data analytics with advice from Gartner. What are you doing with all of the data your organization collects? Learn how you can augment your underutilized data and deliver more value.
Wearable tech: why Intel thinks we should own our data | Technology "Even in San Francisco, a dude wearing Google Glass looks like a dick," a friend observed on Facebook last weekend. That neatly sums up one of the barriers to wearable technology and all that it implies: are we ready to get so intimate with technology that we're prepared to wear it? Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, says we should "approach these things from the point of view of what technology needs to be invented and made production-worthy, as opposed to a great idea for a pair of glasses". While Google Glass is a proof-of-concept device, it points the way to a paradigm that will become increasingly part of our lives. If you believe the vision of the future enthusiastically set out by Intel at its annual Research event in San Francisco, data is going to play a much bigger part in our lives via technology that we wear and which is connected not only to the web, but to other devices. Creepy?
A Reality Check on Big Data A Reality Check on Big Data By Peter Sweeney (@petersweeney) The fervor around big data continues to grow. The World Economic Forum and The New York Times are jumping on the bandwagon. While we share their enthusiasm for the potential, big data needs a reality check. Here are just a few of the how-do-you-get-there-from-here questions for anyone considering big data projects. Data costs Big data means high costs. Figure: Big data complexity Data-driven applications are inherently complex. Poor performance in the long tail Big data is plagued with small data problems in the long tail of interests. Privacy concerns Big data approaches need large amounts of detailed data about users and their usage patterns. Misleading statistics The vernacular of big data analysis—trends, correlations, inferences, and frames—betray their bias towards generalization over specialization. Talent shortages Perhaps the biggest bottleneck to big data is people. Time to market Primal’s Solution
Big Data's New Buzzword: Datafication Much like no serious business can run without electricity, few businesses today can run without data, or being "datafied." Big Data Analytics Masters Degrees: 20 Top Programs (click image for larger view and for slideshow) Just when you thought you had mastered all the data-riffic buzzwords out there, another rears its trendy head. Never mind big data, we're talking about "datafication," the notion that organizations today are dependent upon their data to operate properly -- and perhaps even to function at all. Wait, isn't that what big data is supposedly all about? "Datafication is a different concept," said Waitman in a phone interview with InformationWeek. Waitman drew an analogy between datafication and electrification, the build-out of electrical generating and distribution systems from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s in the U.S. and other industrializing nations. [ Big data has value that's often not reflected in the books. The evolution of data is taking a similar path.
Big Data : vers l’ingénierie sociale “La physique sociale, c’est ce qui arrive quand le Big Data rencontre la science sociale”, expliquait récemment Sandy Pentland à l’IdeaCast, le podcast de la Harvard Business Review, en évoquant son dernier livre Social Physics, comment les bonnes idées se diffusent. Pour Pentland, “l’extraction de la réalité” (reality mining) va rendre possible la modélisation mathématique de la société… Et c’est là une révolution scientifique qui s’annonce. Nous avons souvent évoqué les travaux de Sandy Pentland sur InternetActu.net. Il faut dire qu’il n’est pas n’importe qui. Qu’est-ce que la Physique sociale ? Pentland fonde son livre sur un concept appelé la physique sociale. La physique sociale se veut une méthode pour comprendre et mettre en oeuvre l’ingénierie sociale, c’est-à-dire mettre à jour les lois de la société, non seulement pour comprendre le fonctionnement de notre société, mais pour avoir un impact sur elle. Une nouvelle science ? “Le café est-il bon ou mauvais pour nous ?
What Big Data Will Never Explain “She told him that she loves me, which is an important data point.” I overheard those words a few months ago, and they stopped me in my tracks. I did not know the smitten and empirical young man who spoke them well enough to offer a correction of his way of talking about desire, but I was pleased to have stumbled upon such a blunt formulation of one of the shibboleths of the day. I refer to the messianic conception of data, or Big Data. (It always sounds to me like a tragic bully out of Tennessee Williams: “Big Data’s going to live!”) “To datafy a phenomenon,” they explain, “is to put it in a quantified format so it can be tabulated and analyzed.” I have been browsing in the literature on “sentiment analysis,” a branch of digital analytics that—in the words of a scientific paper—“seeks to identify the viewpoint(s) underlying a text span.”
Big data: Two truths and five myths Along with the hype, the concept of big data comes with its own collection of misconceptions and half-truths that one CTO is keen to dispel. Mention big-data analytics to Bob Harris, CTO at UK broadcaster Channel 4, and he immediately produces a list of pet hates. Top of the bugbears are IT people moaning about the technology's inherent difficulties. "All the time I come across people who tell me why they cannot do things. "If you use the communities, you can meet people who are doing the same stuff. Vast quantities of data According to Harris, rapidly collecting and analysing vast quantities of data is at the heart C4's drive to improve the experience of viewers and differentiate the channel from rivals. "It starts in the R&D strand within Channel 4 and I'm always playing with the next thing. Business intelligence has been well established at C4 for years, Harris said, with industry-standard proprietary models and real-time data warehousing. 1. Verdict: Myth 2. 3. 4. 5. "That's true. 6.
Survey: Despite risks, patients want to share data A survey of 2,125 adults with health conditions who are already members of PatientsLikeMe found that 94 percent of adults would be willing to share their health information on social media if it helps doctors improve care even though a majority of those surveyed also understand the data could also be used negatively. The survey was done in partnership with the Institute of Medicine. The same number of people, 94 percent, would also be willing to share their health information on social media if it would help other patients like them and 92 percent would be willing to share information to help researchers learn more about their disease. Of this same group, 76 percent of respondents said they believe their health data from their personal health record could be used without their knowledge, 72 percent believed this information could be used to deny them health care benefits, and 66 percent were prepared for this data to be used to deny them job opportunities.