Machine-learning craze reaches freelancers: AI skills sought for gigs

Machine learning, Tableau, and user experience design represented the fastest growing skills on freelancing platform Upwork during the third quarter of the year, a finding that makes sense in the context of the accelerating collection of data and the need to present it. "Companies are harvesting explosive amounts of data, and demand for machine learning specialists who can build adaptive algorithms and extract the value of this new data is increasing in turn," Upwork said in a statement. According to research firm CB Insights, over 200 companies focused on AI-related technology raised almost 1.5bn in funding in the first half of the year. And major tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce made public commitments to AI-oriented products and services. Earlier this month, Upwork reported that the freelance workforce in the US grew from 53 million in 2014 to 55 million in 2016.