Techno-News Blog

By Merve A. Kızrak, Interesting Engineering

Imagine that a ‘human lawyer’ can handle all the cases in the world after AI’s preliminary research. For a human lawyer, it takes weeks to do research, but AI can do it in just a few seconds. Moreover, AI does not get tired, sleep, eat or drink coffee. In fact, the AI can produce more successful results than an average experienced lawyer. In 2017, in an experiment involving more than 100 lawyers in London, hundreds of actual applications to the Finance Ombudsman for a specific credit card irregularity were examined. While the accuracy of human prediction was 66.3%, an AI program trained to predict whether or not to accept files achieved 86.6% accuracy.

https://interestingengineering.com/ai-vs-lawyers-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-and-law

Andrew Tarantola, Engadget

Computer scientists have spent more than two decades teaching, training and developing machines to see the world around them. Only recently have the artificial eyes begun to match (and occasionally exceed) their biological predecessors. 2018 has seen marked improvement in two areas of AI image processing: facial-recognition technology in both commerce and security, and image generation in — of all fields — art.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/29/2018-is-the-year-ai-got-its-eyes/

Inside Big Data

It’s no secret that employers are looking for data scientists. Businesses of all sizes have woken up to the fact that data science has the potential to drive efficiencies, mine new insights from decades of accumulated data sets, and otherwise transform their businesses. From Zillow’s home price predictions to Amazon’s recommendation engines, applications of data science have become increasingly prevalent and high-profile. But while data scientist has been ranked the “#1 Job in America” for three years running, according to careers website Glassdoor, there’s still a shortage of talent to fill the huge need employers have. In fact, according to a recent LinkedIn study, businesses across the nation need 151,717 more data scientists right now.

https://insidebigdata.com/2018/12/27/data-scientist-shortage-huge-heres-beat/

Karen Gilchrist, CNBC

Developments in artificial intelligence and automation have been heralded as a major leap forward in human advancement. But they could also adversely affect another important measure of societal progress: The gender pay gap. That’s according to a new report from the World Economic Forum, which indicated that the growth of jobs in emerging industries, such as IT and engineering, is set to disproportionately hurt women and, by consequence, progress made in reducing pay inequality. The gender pay gap, the difference between average earnings for men and women, has been narrowing over recent years, yet there remains a long way to go until compensation parity is reached — 202 years to be exact.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/20/world-economic-forum-tech-automation-ai-will-widen-the-gender-pay-gap.html

Daniel Newman, Forbes

I wish I could tell you there’s still time to get on the AI train. But the truth is, the biggest trend of 2019 will be companies without AI getting left behind. In 2019, we’ll see a marked shift in business reality. Failing to incorporate AI and automation soon will be like sleeping your way through digital transformation. Don’t be the unicorn who showed up to the ark a day too late. Much like them, your company could—and most likely will—go extinct.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2018/12/21/top-six-ai-and-automation-trends-for-2019/#15371c9c7d4d

Gaurav Sood, Business World

“Education needs to be aligned with the fundamental changes in the nature of work and address the issue of employability”, excogitated Albert Einstein. The concept of what a University ought to be has changed over a period of last 50 decades. Well countries are moving towards the “Knowledge Economy” model of development and the Universities are bound to play a more constructive role and take up a leadership position in globalization and technological advancements. “Knowledge Economy” a term coined by Peter Drucker (1969) in his book,TheAgeofDiscontinuity, discerns four major areas of discontinuity – (1) the impact of the new technology on the industrial structure; (2) the shift from an “international economy,” to a “world economy” which as yet lacks policy, theory, or institutions; (3) a new sociopolitical reality, embracing business, government, and other pluralistic institutions, which poses drastic political, philosophical, and spiritual challenges; (4) the rising importance of knowledge and of formal education, with resulting implications for work, life, leisure, and leadership.

http://bweducation.businessworld.in/article/The-Future-4-0-University/25-12-2018-165515/

Vijaya Pothula, Elets
By 2030, Global Education and Training Expenditure is set to reach at least $ 10 trillion. Here is a glimpse of emerging trends that will transform/ improve education sector in 2019.  The education sector is set to see strong expansion globally due to population growth, government support and incentives, inclusion of “Quality Education” as one of the key sustainable development goals of UN, growing importance of adult education and technological and pedagogical changes in teaching and learning.

https://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2018/12/emerging-trends-in-education-sector-in-2019/

BW Education
The need for additional training after recruitment is a massive added cost for the company. Students who completed college also realized that they had learned little during their undergraduate / graduate studies. Summing up, an increasing number of students and employers realized that the degrees that had been awarded were not as useful as they ought to have been and a much needed change is on the horizon.  A college education may be seen as necessary today, but it is becoming increasingly less relevant for professional success. One of the primary reasons for this is the rising popularity of online skill development platforms and their effectiveness in teaching new skills.

http://bweducation.businessworld.in/article/How-Online-Skill-Training-Startups-Shifting-Focus-From-A-University-Based-Curriculum-To-A-More-Industry-Oriented-Training-Approach/25-12-2018-165518/

John Loeffler, Interesting Engineering

It goes without saying that artificial intelligence is changing the nature of industries from transportation to finance, and education is no different with the prospect of personalized learning quickly becoming a reality. As more and more of a student’s education is experienced through a computer, data on their educational progress can be collected, leading to more personalized learning plans while assisting the teacher in identifying problem areas for students. While artificial intelligence in education might appear unnerving for some, the benefits are too great to ignore.

https://interestingengineering.com/personalized-learning-artificial-intelligence-and-education-in-the-future

Entrepreneur

In 2018, the evidence is stacking up to show that employers are placing a decreasing emphasis on job candidates holding a college degree. Google consistently ranks as one of the top companies to work for in the U.S. As far back as 2014, Laszlo Bock, Google’s Senior VP of People Operations, stated that holding a degree is not a prerequisite for employment with the company. In an interview with the New York Times, Bock indicated that for every job at Google, cognitive ability is the most essential attribute. His points were summed up as “prospective bosses today care less about what you know or where you learned it than what value you can create with what you know.” Google is not alone. Big Four accounting firm EY also stated that a lack of academic qualifications “will no longer act as a barrier to getting a foot in the door.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/320802

By IBL News

Top MOOC platforms significantly increased their revenues in 2018, after adding new paid models and experiencing an increase in users. According to Forbes, Coursera’s revenuefor 2018 is $140, up from $100 million in 2017. Udacity’s revenue will grow by 25 % to $90 million, and edX will be at around $60 million — a smaller increase. In terms of users, Coursera leads with 37 million, followed by edX (18 million), XuetangX (14 million), Udacity (10 million) and FutureLearn (8.7 million).

https://iblnews.org/2018/12/23/coursera-edx-udacity-grew-their-businesses-by-over-20-in-2018/