Report: Machine Learning Driving AI

Artificial intelligence research continues to accelerate as human and machines collaborate to solve more complex problems. A new survey by the National Academy of Science identifies the frontiers of AI research that include "augmented cognition" along with "integrative" AI. In a workshop report on IT innovation just released by the National Academy's science, engineering and medicine branches, a section on "Developing Smart Machines" describes ongoing AI research efforts along with machine learning, a discipline some experts consider a subfield of AI. "Machine learning is what lets computers discover patterns within data and then use those patterns to make useful, and ideally correct, predictions," the report states. The authors quotes Jaime Carbonell, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, as noting" "Machine learning essentially is the engine that is driving modern artificial intelligence." Machine learning "often deals with unbalanced data sets in which the ultimate focus of decision making is precisely the outlier cases," that is, the extreme cases that contrast sharply with typical data and provide opportunities for the "most important learning opportunities."