“Machines will augment humans via their superior cognitive capabilities.” Yuval Dvir – Google

AI Tech World taking place on the 29th of November at the Olympia Conference Centre will see over 500 attendees and 60 industry leading speakers discuss the ‘Business of Artificial Intelligence’.

Yuval Dvir, who will be discussing AI and the Future of the Workplace at AI Tech World, is Head of EMEA Online Partnerships at Google. Yuval is experienced in building and leading high performance teams through the challenges organizations face when dealing with digital transformation, scale and innovation. By leveraging technology, human behaviour and the cultural dynamics in the workplace, his teams drive a habit and behavioural change that promotes a more holistic, data-driven, user centric and agile mindset in people, leading to a scalable and sustainable growth for the organization.

Currently at Google, Yuval has previously led the business transformation at Skype and Microsoft, and took the time to complete the speaker Q&A:

 

1.       How are you using, or planning to use AI in your business?

AI is used across many of our products, from personalized search to smart reply on emails and image search on Google photos. In addition, we try to drive our teams to learn more about AI and its benefits in order to develop better products and services to our customers and partners.

From a technology vendor perspective we offer several services that can enable companies to inject AI into their business via managed services as Cloud ML Engine and via API, from video intelligence to vision, speech, translation and natural language processing. In addition, we offer tensor flow - the open source software library for machine intelligence.

 

2.       What benefits do you expect to see from using AI?

AI is a great tool to move Big Data from big headache to big benefit. Through the increase in compute power and storage, sophisticated algorithms and easy to use API via the cloud, machines can process massive amounts of data (structured and unstructured), identify patterns in some cases and deliver solution in other, more specific use cases.

Beyond automation and saved time, a plethora of opportunities can be extracted thanks to previously unutilized data (roughly 90% of an organization’s data) which potentially can uncover new insights and patterns which would drive innovation and business forward. And since this process is applicable to any industry or segment, it can help solve and improve many issues we face that have yet to be solved.

 

3.       Do you have any concerns about implementing AI?

I think the reasoning for using AI should be thought through. There needs to be a value at the end of it, either directly to a user or via a business reason. Once that is done, we should work backwards towards the technology, algorithm, platform and framework to use.

This concern is not different than many other implementation of technology today, when trying to get the goodness out of it while limiting and mitigating some potential negative side effects.

 

4.       What do you consider to be the major challenges?

It is still not intuitive or easy enough to use AI. It can be also said on a lot of bleeding edge technologies, especially ones that can be relevant to any industry. Just like we have simplified the move to the cloud, the use of email and communication, we are working towards simplifying AI and making it easier to implement via Automatic Machine Learning. While this is new, the idea is to help people and organizations to identify the algorithms and the statistical activation function that would provide the best results, as well as the layers of nodes or neurons to utilize in order to minimize the error rate. Even that explanation needs to be simplified.

 

5.       How do you think trust around AI can be generated?

Humanity depends on progress and innovation. What’s new is the frequency of change and innovation has increased over the past few years, partially via the benefit of AI. I believe that simplifying AI will help democratize it across all levels of society which can also show that it is not a magic that is being created but merely sophisticated mathematical models that still adhere to the physical laws of the universe.

 

6.       What impact could AI have on your customers’ experience?

More relevant, personalized and diversified information that would hopefully create a better and safer world. By letting machines execute on what they do best, like driving for example, we can increase safety on the road while freeing people to do what they do best which is creativity, human care and change. Obviously, society needs to transform significantly for this to work out.

 

7.       Which industries could see the biggest benefit from AI?

All can benefit. If I have to look at society as a whole, I think healthcare is one interesting industry that can significantly improve. From the methodical questionnaires that medical doctors currently perform and could be better executed via machines, to providing diagnostics via the analysis of millions of images where an experienced physician can only go through a few thousands in their career. In both cases, it is not the machine replacing the physician but a cognitive augmentation and dimension for the doctor’s decision making which could potentially reduce the human error so critical in healthcare.

 

8.       To what extent do you think machines could replace humans in the workplace?

I think it’s more an issue of augment, not replace. Machines will augment humans via their superior cognitive capabilities. 

 

About AI Tech World

AI Tech World’s unique agenda has been specifically created to maximise the busy schedule of the senior executive. 

In only one day out of the office, hear from visionary keynotes, relevant case studies, and get to grips with the subjects that matter most to your business with our “how-to” industry-specific Labs. With over 60 leading speakers, come and discover exactly how industry visionaries are breaking new ground within Artificial Intelligence.

Amid unrivalled content, AI Tech World London offers exceptional networking opportunities for attendees to connect with industry leaders and innovators. Do you have a burning question or need something clarified? Use our “Ask the Experts” service to ensure you come away with all the knowledge you need to help redefine your company’s technology boundaries. 

Click here to register now to reserve your place for THE AI event of 2017.

For more information please call Georgia Deery on +44 (0) 330 335 3900 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..