Despite the hype around artificial intelligence and machine learning, their implications for social good are not always obvious.
Although some news headlines dictate that we live in a future where Terminator-like Artificial intelligence scenarios are a reality, the truth is the robots are not going to take over the humanity any time soon. On the other hand, rapidly developing artificial intelligence and its less marketable subset machine learning has opened up a wealth of opportunities for social good.
To understand how exactly can Big Data be used in the policy-making, UNDP Armenia has organized an introductory presentation on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for the UN staff, representatives of National Statistical Service of Armenia and people who work with SDG data. The intro session to the world of Big Data, artificial intelligence and algorithms was designed by Hrant Davtyan, UNDP Consultant, AUA Adjunct Lecturer.
Main takeaways:
- Big Data has been trendy for six years, and it's partly due to platform economy
- Data is classified as Big if it meets the criteria of the 3Vs (volume, variety, and velocity)
- Machine learning might not be the ultimate solution to the world’s biggest problems, but it can help to measure business activity, estimate urbanization, detect tax fraud, and analyze public spending. Its applications are numerous, you name it.
Tools you can test at home:
- https://www.textrazor.com/ to extract meaning from your text
- https://cloud.google.com/vision/ to understand content of the image
- http://sentiment.vivekn.com/ to check sentiment analysis
x SDG Lab we want to demonstrate the value of experimentation to public servants and build knowledge of our adopted methods and approaches through full-fledged and hands-on workshops.