Feature: AI

Machine learning enhances Oracle's enterprise offerings. At a recent meeting of the Oracle Product Architects Community, Stephen Green, head of the Information Retrieval and Machine Learning Group within Oracle Labs, was prepared to give a general overview of his organization's activities. He got through only his first three slides, and then spent the rest of the hour answering a barrage of questions about machine learning and how this specialized programming technique might be applied to the product areas for which attendees were responsible. The interest reflects an extraordinary surge in experimentation and investment in the technology category known as artificial intelligence (AI), of which machine learning is a building block. AI in the form of self-driving cars, game-show-playing computers, and smartphone personal assistants may have grabbed the public's attention.