Dr. Richard Benjamins is Chief AI & Data Strategist at Telefónica. He is among the 100 most influential people in data-driven business (DataIQ 100, 2018). He is also co-founder and Vice President of the Spanish observatory for ethical and social impacts of AI (OdiseIA). He was Group Chief Data Officer at AXA (Insurance) and before that held for 10 years executive positions at Telefónica on Big Data and Analytics. He is the founder of Telefónica's Big Data for Social Good department, expert to the EP's AI Observatory (EPAIO), member of the B2G data-sharing Expert Group of the EC, and a frequent speaker at Artificial Intelligence events.

For about two years, the business world was forced to bring its live events to a halt due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Because safety comes first, we also postponed our Machine Learning events hosted in person. If you have been following our activities, you may know we have been running online events instead to present the impact Machine Learning has had in many industries and contexts such as mobility, retail, risk management and compliance, EdgeML, how Machine Learning is being taught in Business Schools, and more. After many quarantines and lockdowns, we are thrilled to announce that the first event we are going to host in situ will be the second edition of our Machine Learning School in The Netherlands! It seems that The Netherlands is at the forefront of wider Machine Learning adoption as was apparent from the feedback we received at our last event (the first edition of our school) right before the pandemic started.

Machine Learning is transforming many industries while enabling new types of products and services nobody even dreamed of until recently. However, the skill set required to develop real-life Machine Learning applications have mostly remained the playground of the few privileged academics and scientists. The world and the global workforce cannot afford to stay behind the curve on this key technology enabler, so we urgently need to produce a much larger group of ML-literate professionals such as developers, analysts, managers, and subject matter experts. To meaningfully contribute on this matter, BigML is bringing the second edition of our Machine Learning School to Seville. We will hold a two-day crash course ideal for business leaders, industry practitioners, advanced undergraduates, as well as graduate students, seeking a quick, practical, and hands-on introduction to Machine Learning to solve real-world problems.

We recently announced the strategic alliance between Jidoka and BigML, where we explained the integration of RPA with other technologies such as Machine Learning. With this integration, Jidoka can provide Machine Learning capabilities in their RPA process automation platform. To explain the advantages and possibilities offered by this integration, today we present a practical example of the application of both technologies, Jidoka's RPA and BigML's Machine Learning: the automation of an e-mail classification process, a use case that will be presented by Jidoka's CEO, Víctor Ayllón, at the #MLSEV, our first Machine Learning School in Seville, which will be held on March 7-8 in Seville (Spain). Imagine for a moment that you are responsible for the customer service department of a large company. You and your team receive on a daily basis a very large number of customer emails that are addressed to different departments of the company.

BigML and the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, bring the first edition of our Machine Learning School to Doha, the MLSD18. This event will be one of the first activities to be hosted by QCRI's new Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence (QCAI). QCAI's mission is to help Qatar realize its vision of becoming a knowledge-based economy by developing and promoting cutting-edge AI innovations for the betterment of human society. We will hold a two-day crash course ideal for business leaders, industry practitioners, developers, graduate students, as well as advanced undergraduates, seeking a quick, practical, and hands-on introduction to Machine Learning to solve real-world problems. The MLSD18 will help attendees to understand how to work in this new wave of innovation that is changing the face of all sectors of the economy.

Today on the Datanauts podcast, we talk with Vivian Zhang, a Machine Learning (ML) expert. If you've been hearing about ML from IT marketing folks and it all sounds like magic unicorn dust, this is your show. We're cutting through the cruft to get to what's real. Vivian Zhang is CTO and Chief Data Scientist at the NYC Data Science Academy. We establish a baseline of what machine learning is, how it fits into the broader category of artificial intelligence, and how ML might move the needle in IT infrastructure.