SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holberton School, the two-year tuition-deferred college alternative educating the next generation of digital workers, announced the launch of their brand new Machine Learning curriculum which will be available at all eight world-wide Holberton campuses. The announcement was made at the flagship San Francisco campus featuring Grammy award-winner NE-YO, Black Girls Code founder and CEO Kimberly Bryant and representatives from Google (Tensorflow) and IBM. "Machine Learning, and by extension Artificial Intelligence, are increasingly dominating how we interact with technology at all levels, and the need for diversity has never been so urgent," said Gabriela de Queiroz, founder, AI Inclusive and R-Ladies. "Having programming skills isn't enough -- we need people who are aware of the ethical implications of AI, who can bring their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to the workplace and incorporate them into the algorithms that will increasingly play a major role in healthcare, safety, and every other element of our lives." Machine Learning, which gives computers the capability to learn without being explicitly programmed, is already in use across the globe and is rapidly supplementing, and even replacing, traditional software development.

If big data is overhyped, AI or deep learning are stratospherically so. Things were relatively controlled until Facebook started talking up its Messenger bots, and all rational talk (or thought) ended. To get a little common sense on AI, I reached out to Louis Monier, perhaps most famous as the founder of the Altavista search engine, the Google of its time, and currently the chief scientist at Import.io, a web-based platform for extracting data from websites without writing any code. Monier is one of the world's leading authorities in deep learning, with research roots going all the way back to Xerox PARC in the early 1980s. While Monier acknowledges the "stunning applications" that AI facilitates, he's also cognizant of the perils it presents to outmoded labor markets.

After a first all-day introduction to Deep Learning back in February, the Deep Learning class will continue in April and May. These classes will mostly be hands-on workshops (please don't forget to bring your laptop), with a minimum of formal theory to support these. Programming level: Beginner to advanced. Important: We will check IDs at the entrance. You will not be able to enter the school if you are not on the list. Please give us your real name when you register to this meetup.