Algorithms as a Service: The Algorithm Economy

30 min talk for Splat.rb Seattle

Transcript

1. THE ALGORITHM ECONOMY ALGORITHMS-AS-A-SERVICE: @LIZMRUSH
2. ALGORITHMS-AS-A-SERVICE WHERE DO YOU FIND ALGORITHMS? ▸ Tools: recommenders, suggested friends, or auto-tagging ▸ Business Intelligence: customer behavior prediction ▸ AI: email assistants, customer service chat bots ▸ High stakes autonomous systems: self-driving cars, drones ▸ Basically everywhere
4. Jacky Alciné ALGORITHMIC BIAS
5. ALGORITHMIC BIAS THE RESPONSE: ▸ Immediate: attempted to fix the algorithm; ended up removing the tag “gorillas” ▸ “Machines aren't biased, but they can easily learn racism from us if we aren't careful.” - Yonatan Zunger, Chief Architect of Ambient Computing at Google ▸ Make small improvements to algorithm around language and skin tone ▸ Expand data set & get free retraining labor from the affected
6. MOST ALGORITHMS ARE PROPRIETARY & CLOSED- SOURCE
7. SO WHAT IS THE “ALGORITHM ECONOMY”?
8. ALGORITHM MARKETPLACES ARE SIMILAR TO THE MOBILE APP STORES THAT CREATED THE ‘APP ECONOMY’. Alexander Linden, research director at Gartner THE ALGORITHM ECONOMY
9. THE ALGORITHM ECONOMY WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE ALGORITHM ECONOMY? ▸ More granular software that can be easily implemented into other projects; similar to micro service and SOA architecture ▸ More cutting edge algorithms on the market; fewer stuck in academia and lower barrier of entry ▸ Standardization through reuse and chaining ▸ Better quality assessment ▸ External validation & assessment
10. BIG DATA? BUT WHAT ABOUT
11. BUT WHAT ABOUT BIG DATA? TOOLS VS DATA ▸ You have access to many of the same “big data” tools ▸ Hadoop, TensorFlow, Spark, ElasticSearch ▸ “Big data” companies are not big data by design, they became big data in the course of pursuing insights into their service and customers ▸ Similarly, those on the edge of algorithmic design are doing so to further another product
12. MORE ACCURATE AND BETTER ALGORITHMS ARE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BUT WHAT ABOUT BIG DATA? IF BIG DATA TOOLS ARE OPEN, WHY NOT ALGORITHMS? ACCESS TO COMMERCIALIZED ALGORITHMS INCENTIVIZES ACCURACY & VALIDATION CHOICE IN ALGORITHMS CAN REFLECT BIAS OR VALUES
13. DATA IS INHERENTLY DUMB… ALGORITHMS DEFINE ACTION … DYNAMIC ALGORITHMS ARE THE CORE OF NEW CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS. Peter Sondergaard, SVP at Gartner BUT WHAT ABOUT BIG DATA?