Autonomous State

Book review The Silo Effect by Gillian Tett published by Abacus Reading time: 2 mins “W e need specialist, expert teams to function in a complex world.  But we also need to have a joined-up, flexible vision of life.” The author Gillian Tett is the US Managing Editor of The Financial Times.  Originally from the UK, she transferred to the FT’s New York office shortly after the financial crash.  Tett has a background in social anthropology which she uses to good effect in the book. In a nutshell The Silo Effect (TSE) examines the tendency of most (if not all) large organisations to divide into ‘silos’, resulting in poor internal communications and often an unwillingness to share knowledge between teams and departments.  The book challenges the reader to consider the implications of silos and some possible solutions. A recurring theme is the “insider-outsider” perspective, derived from social anthropology.  It emphasises the abilit...

Book review The Signals Are Talking by Amy Webb published by Public Affairs Reading time: 2 mins The author(s) Amy Webb is a futurist writer and academic at New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business .  She is also Founder of the Future Today Institute , which promotes the techniques described in The Signals are Talking (TSAT). In a nutshell TSAT offers a methodology for analysing today’s technology trends with the aim of identifying those most likely to produce mainstream products in the “far” future.  It is written in a non-academic style, accessible to anyone familiar with the most talked about technologies of the past three or four decades. Scope and scale The book tackles a large and relatively nebulous subject, namely the factors determining whether a technology sticks (or twists).  There is some historical narrative going back decades, even hundreds of years, but the focus is largely 21st Century and digital. Webb doesn’t ...

Book review The Quest For Artificial Intelligence by Nils J Nilsson published by Cambridge University Press Reading time: 2 mins The name Nils J Nilsson is almost synonymous with the quest to develop machine intelligence at one of the most productive research hubs in the US,  Stanford University . Nilsson quickly established his reputation in the 1960s as a member of the team responsible for ‘Shakey’, the ground-breaking robot which captured data from sensors, then planned and executed its own routes around the laboratory.  Nilsson’s career never looked back. Author: Nils J Nilsson Fortunately for those of us who are relatively new to AI and data science Professor Nilsson has written a hugely informative research history.    First published in 2009,  The Quest for Artificial Intelligence  has become perhaps the most highly respected of the many AI histories on the market. Nilsson captures the grand sweep of ideas, from Ari...

Book review What To Do When Machines Do Everything by Frank, Roehrig and Pring published by Cambridge University Press Reading time: 4 mins Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig and Ben Pring are senior consultants with US technology strategists, Cognizant .  Their 2017 title, What To Do When Machines Do Everything, presents an upbeat case for a future economy in which artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely adopted. This assessment foresees a medium term net increase of 1% in the total number of full-time jobs, in contrast with the gloomier forecasts of many contemporary thinkers, including Martin Ford, whose 2015 best-seller, Rise of the Robots , predicted the onset of mass unemployment. What To Do… has won many plaudits, including book prize nominations, so it’s worth examining the authors’ contribution to the AI debate.  At just 200 pages, it is brief but also compelling. Authors: Ben Pring, Paul Roehrig and Malcolm Frank Technological revolut...

Book review Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford published by Oneworld Reading time: 3 mins Martin Ford is a technologist and futurist writer with a background in west coast software engineering.  In 2015 his second book, Rise of the Robots , won the prestigious FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year, prompting a global debate about its conclusions. Rise of the Robots became a must-read for anyone concerned with the impact of artificial intelligence on society.  In a wide-ranging and well-researched survey of the relationship between technological progress and economic history, Ford extrapolates his logic to paint a disturbing future. Ford argues that, unlike all previous technological revolutions, AI will fail to generate an increase in shared national wealth.  In fact, there will be very high levels of unemployment.   The AI revolution is different, he claims, because of the way it is expected to transform the workplace, undermining the skills...

Book review AI: Its nature and future by Margaret A Boden published by Oxford University Press Reading time: 2 mins   Professor Margaret A Boden is one of the longest-serving researchers in the field of artificial intelligence.  Since the 1960s she has been applying her early academic expertise in philosophy and psychology to the discipline of computer science, becoming inextricably linked with the latter’s quest for machine intelligence. AI: Its nature and future is her attempt to condense not only decades of personal involvement in the field, but the entire research history of AI, from its speculative origins in the 19 th Century through to contemporary debates about the so-called Singularity.  At less than 170 pages this makes for a somewhat  breezy sail across AI's deep and choppy seas.  If you like short reads, this one ticks the box. Boden captures this history with the insights we would expect from someone who was right there in the ...

Reading time: 2 mins The lifecycle of any AI or machine learning product starts with its conception, followed by requirements analysis and then design.  This may sound conventional.  However, many of the thought processes which accompany these phases are relatively new.  So let’s consider some of these new ways of thinking. This article will focus on products based solely on machine learning, because this technology is visibly transforming many of our goods, services and business sectors.   It does not attempt to generalise for the whole AI product landscape.  More research would be needed for that.  Most professional people in the digital sphere, both developers and clients, have built their careers around the implementation and operation of 'traditional' algorithmic software solutions.  Machine learning is different, of course, because it uses unfamiliar architectures offering novel capabilities.  It is this unfamiliarity and no...