Machine Learning is Going Mobile

An emerging trend promises to bring the power of machine learning to mobile devices, opening the door to a plethora of valuable new applications. Machine learning--the process by which computers can get better at performing tasks through exposure to data, rather than through explicit programming--requires massive computational power, the kind usually found in clusters of energy-guzzling, cloud-based computer servers outfitted with specialized processors. But recent developments may enable machine learning to be embedded into mobile devices, thus greatly expanding applications for its use and providing new opportunities for marketers. Neural networks--computer models designed to mimic aspects of the human brain's structure and function, with elements representing neurons and their interconnections--are an increasingly popular way of implementing machine learning. They are particularly well suited for performing perceptual tasks such as computer vision and speech recognition.