DARPA Begins Development of More Complex A.I.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced on Friday the launch of Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M), which aim to help non-experts bridge what it calls the "data-science expertise gap" by allowing artificial assistants to help people with machine learning. DARPA calls it a "virtual data scientist" assistant. This software is doubly important because there's a lack of data scientists right now and a greater demand than ever for more data-driven solutions. DARPA says experts project 2016 deficits of 140,000 to 190,000 data scientists worldwide, and increasing shortfalls in coming years. For example, in order to construct a model for how different weather, school, location, and crime factors affect congestion for ride-sharing services in downtown Manhattan, a team of NYU students spent the equivalent of more than 90 months of work hours to complete the model.