Artificial intelligence: help or hype?

For the past several years, artificial intelligence – along with its favorite dance partner machine learning – has been the darling of the analytics community. Today, AI seems to be everywhere – or at least on everyone’s mind – and every organization wants in on the action even though many company leaders aren’t exactly sure what all the excitement is about. They just hear that their company has to have a shot of AI with a machine-learning chaser or their competitors will leave them in the dust.

Analytics magazine has embraced the trend. Every issue has at least one, if not two, three or four, articles on artificial intelligence, most of them extolling the power of AI to do amazing things. The March/April 2020 issue is no exception, but we have noticed a change in attitude toward AI. Now that the new kid on the block who could once do no wrong has been around the block a few times, decision-makers are taking a closer look and asking a lot of inconvenient questions, such as: “Where’s my return on investment?” and “What can we do about the ethical issues associated with AI?” Meanwhile, outside the analytics sphere, workers are wondering if “real” artificial intelligence and machine learning – the implemented stuff that actually lives up to the hype – will cost more jobs (including theirs) than it creates.

This month’s issue takes a look at AI from various perspectives. In the cover story, “Ethical Artificial Intelligence,” Sray Agarwal asks the question, “Are AI algorithms biased?” The answer is yes, according to some research. Agarwal goes on to discuss discrimination and fairness in AI and machine learning and how to detect and mitigate bias, particularly in the financial services industry.

Vikrant Pathak, CEO and chief data scientist of myautoIQ, is an unabashed champion of AI, but he cautions managers to carefully prepare for the AI business revolution in his article, “A Smarter Tomorrow: How Real-time AI Revolutionizes Business Decisions.” Meanwhile, Ganes Kesari, co-founder and head of analytics at Gramener, says that “the hype that has surrounded AI until now is quickly becoming replaced by a more tangible reality, providing a chance for organizations to reap the rewards of AI in outcome-driven ways.” But how do business leaders capitalize on the opportunity? Kesari offers some ideas in “Trends for AI in 2020 and Beyond.”

Last but not least, Joseph Byrum, our resident AI guru/philosopher, adds the human touch to the artificial intelligence discussion with the eighth installment of his series on “Understanding smart technology – and ourselves,” this one titled,  “What We Need to Know About Smart Automation: Its impact on society.”

Will AI ultimately help or harm? Humans, the ultimate machine, will decide.