Need A Job? Why Artificial Intelligence Will Help Human Workers, Not Hurt Them
System2 Byline — Newsweek Magazine
BY KEVIN MANEY ON 01/18/18 AT 8:00 AM EST
“In recent years, the generators of new kinds of raw data have been exploding. We carry cellphones everywhere, creating sometimes-anonymous and sometimes-not data about where we are when we do certain things. Newfangled sensors track industrial parts, air quality, how many steps we walk. The more we do online, the more data our activity generates—and these days we shop, talk, socialize, bank, work, and watch TV on computer or phone screens. A single source of data might result in a narrow insight into people's behavior, but there is exponential value in crossing different kinds of data sets. "No matter how large your data set, you'll always miss the bigger picture if you're viewing it in isolation," Adam Gibbs of alternative data company Enigma tells me. "The true value of data lies in connecting many pieces together from various sources to create a holistic view." That's where AI becomes critical. It works somewhat like a research assistant. You tell it that you have a theory about what might be learned by cross-referencing different kinds of data and set the AI to lose to crawl all that data and learn on its own, looking for complex patterns that would escape even brilliant humans. And unlike a human, an AI bot can absorb and learn from massive floods of data in an instant.”
“Matei Zatreanu, founder of alternative data company System2, noted that AI learning coupled with multiple data streams can help investors see the world at a granular level, such as understanding the decisions of individuals. "You can look at credit card data—that gives info on an individual person," Zatreanu told Business Insider. "The huge difference is, unlike marketers, I don't care that your name is Rachael and you live at a certain address. I just care that a person with ID 345 used to shop at a Whole Foods but then—all of a sudden—an Aldi opens up in your neighborhood, and now I see that person with ID 345 no longer shops there, and I see an Aldi transaction. That means Whole Foods potentially lost a customer."