At MWC, Machine Learning and AI Suddenly Get the Spotlight

They're old ideas, but machine learning and AI are now the communications industry's hot buzzwords, judging from last week's Mobile World Congress. "For mobile operators around the world, this is no longer an experiment," said Patrick Ostiguy, CEO of Accedian, during an MWC panel discussion on machine learning. Machine learning, which involves training a computer by feeding it examples and counterexamples, has been around for decades. The post office's optical mail-sorting machines are one example. True AI and deep learning, which strive to teach a brain how to teach itself, are also long-standing disciplines.