This could be the next major inflection point for industries.
It might make or break company strategy. Those who capture the lead could be the “Google” of their industry. Individuals will need to see what impact it might have on them.The ability to solve what were unsolvable problems may be within our reach.
The seeds of this capability were developed in the 50’s and 60’s. “Artificial intelligence” had this promise and threat in the 70’s. About the same time, “cashless society” was seen as close to reality. Both artificial intelligence and the cashless society faded to the background in the 1980’s. Those promises never materialized … until now.
Forty years later, the technology and data has caught up with the vision. Just as we are close to achieving a “cashless society” … computers that can learn to be smarter than the individual are also close at hand. The computer technology that learns how to win in chess or helps Google find what you are looking for is rapidly growing in capability. This technology can drive cars for a million miles without an accident. It can teach itself to translate English to Chinese and then be a translator as we speak.
In addition, it can “see pictures” and understand them to drive a car. It can help diagnose medical situations and help research cancer causes.
TED Talk – December 2014
The implications of this technology include the possibility of solving medical questions in minutes rather than years; it also has the potential to revolutionize 80% of the jobs in the “developed world” in much the same way that machines for production of goods created the Industrial Revolution. Jeremy Howard’s TED Talk in December 2014 outlines what has already happened, and what is likely to occur in the not-too-distant future. The next revolution can be exciting or terrifying, depending on how it is used … and by whom.
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