Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: How they are interconnected?

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When laypeople hear the words Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, they pretty much get stumped. It’s usually an Oh No! Moment and the question forming in mind is, what is that? Or Yes, I have heard of it, but I will not be able to explain it to you.

But before we take a deep dive into the differences between Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, let’s see how they are both impacting our daily lives. Yes, you got that right. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are already a big part of our lives, and we may or may not be aware of the different facets of our life they impact with or without our knowledge.

 

Machine Learning for Understanding the Oceans

One of the areas where Machine Learning is implemented is to run the data that Oceanography specialists collect and understand the various regions of the Oceans because while the Oceans look the same to us, they too have areas just like we have on land. Until now, the testing of the world’s Oceans was rather broad-based. However, the use of Machine Learning has helped Oceanographers to understand the world’s Oceans better and also understand where the various species are found in a more significant number. This is a massive advantage to better the understanding of Ocean Science and would also help Global fishing. ( http://news.mit.edu/2020/machine-learning-map-ocean-0529 )

Machine Learning in our Everyday Lives

So what are the areas that Machine Learning  Course affects our daily life?  Below are some of the areas where Machine Learning impacts us:

Avoiding Traffic Woes: Machine Learning is also used in understanding where the most traffic congestion will occur during peak traffic hours. It is done by transmitting GPS information from everyone’s cars to central data. With the use of Machine Learning, the traffic hubs in major cities of the world are able to tell people which roads will have denser traffic and what the options they could take to reach their destination. This is because Machine Learning helps to collect data on daily experiences about traffic.

Dealing with Spam: We all receive spam mail in our email boxes on a daily basis, this is a given, but what is important here is to understand that Machine Learning plays a role here. It is Machine Learning that drives the constant updating of filters to prevent spam from flooding your mailbox. So many, but not all spam filtering techniques use Machine Learning.  Spam filters that use Machine Learning are able to detect spam and this, in turn, helps to reduce the emails from flooding your primary mail inbox.

Chatbots:  What are Chat bots, they are simply put, the answer to human interface at contact centres. To reduce costs a lot of contact centres use chat bots to inter face with clients, when they call in with basic queries. Once the queries get more complex then, a human interface would be required. But when you log on to a site to complain about a gas leak, issue with the washing machine, you just need to log a complaint, the person at the other end of the chat is not human but a chat bot.

Once the complaint is logged and the house call has to be made a chat bot would send you date, time and name of the service provider coming home. The service provider/ mechanic would naturally be human. Once again this is driven by machine Learning. However with advances in technology and Machine Learning gaining acceptance, the chatbots are getting more capable of answering advanced questions.

Search Engines: In the old days we all used encyclopaedias and other kinds of reference material when working on school projects or college assignments. But those times now in hind sight feel like the Stone Age. Today all that has been replaced by Search Engines, which we all now use to read up on any subject under the sun, from Algorithms to the Lost Civilisations of the Maya.

Knowledge is now just a click away, sometimes the information may not be completely correct, but the fact is Search Engines has made life easier but has also increased the chances of Plagiarism. So what drives Search Engines, these are driven by Algorithms and these Algorithms are all designed for Search Engines with the help of Machine Learning.

Detection of Fraud Online: We all use various online payment gateways and many times we read about online fraud taking place. So to make online transactions more secure and to prevent online fraud, many payment gateways are using Machine Learning to track online fraud and also to track money laundering online.

Online Support: When you look at online retail platforms and you want some assistance whilst navigating the web site, many retail sites offer the assistance of a customer service executive, the executive you are interacting are chat bots and this is as I mentioned earlier driven by Machine Learning through Algorithms. It is also interesting to note how much these virtual assistants help us. As the technology advances the chat bots will be able to help you with ever more complex queries.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST…………………

Virtual Personal Assistants: What are we talking about here? Well, I am we have all heard of Alexia and Siri what are they, I think even we have not upgraded to this technology we are aware of its existence and know what it does. However, for those of us for whom this maybe a First: let me explain the concept. In short in the old days one had a personal assistant to keep track of one’s daily schedules, this was especially so for CEOs and other  Senior Management. Today the world has changed with nearly everything going virtual and so as the role of Personal Assistants. Therefore once programmed they act as reminders, wake up alarms, schedulers and if you need information about for example the last flight from Delhi to Bangalore, the VPA will tell you the answer. There is no keying in required as these VPAs respond to your voice. All this is possible because of Machine Learning as it keeps collecting your information based on previous interactions with the VPA, thereby helping to refine responses going forward.

Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life

Artificial Intelligence has crept into our daily from helping us hail a cab, read an email and drive following the GPS (Global Positioning System) in our cars. There is really no area of modern living that is not being impacted by Artificial Intelligence. The sci-fi movies of yester years of Machines/ robots running our world is no more a flight of fancy. It is our reality and has been so for a number of years now. But for a long time it was something that scientists were better positioned to understand. But with the invasion of Artificial Intelligence into daily life

Uber and Ola Apps: They would be familiar to all of us, as they are Ride-Hailing Apps. These apps have become part and parcel of the working middle class across the world. These ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps can tell you what time the driver will reach your location and how soon you will reach your destination using Artificial Intelligence.  Making for planning your travel time and refining Time management

Artificial Intelligence in Aviation: How many of us are aware that flying a commercial airliner is increasingly being handled by Artificial Intelligence and that on an average Commercial Pilots spend only about 7 minutes to fly an airliner in manual mode. The rest of your flight is handled by Artificial Intelligence built into the software of the airliner. The day when human interface to fly a plane is close to becoming obsolete. In fact the Boeing a leader in the Aviation industry is already working on making planes completely based on Artificial Intelligence. It is seen as way to minimise Pilot error which is the cause of most air crashes.

Music and Movie Recommendations:  Have you noticed that when you listen to some types of music or watch certain kinds of movies, then the app you are using to listen to songs or watch movies, start giving you suggestion prompts. If you have noticed this then, please be aware that this is Artificial Intelligence at work, as it helps to track what you like to listen to or watch.  This also happens on Facebook, when you connect with a new friend additional prompts come up for people who may have other friends in common with you, including the new friend request you may have just accepted. This helps to locate people you may have known in the past or worked with. This is all possible because these platforms are using Artificial Intelligence.

On LinkedIn: One of the main reasons people have LinkedIn accounts, is because the LinkedIn site is a good place for people looking for a change in the job scenario, looking to hire talent and looking to connect with high profile people in their arena.  Making it easier to increase your personal visibility in a very competitive world. All these programmes run on Artificial Intelligence.  In fact Artificial Intelligence is being used by LinkedIn to connect potential employers with the right employees.                           

On its talent blog, LinkedIn explains that they use “deeper insights into the behaviour of applicants on LinkedIn” in order to “predict not just who would apply to your job, but who would get hired…”

Email filters on Gmail:  Most of us have a Gmail account, in fact it has overtaken a number of other ESP s ( Email Service Providers) for example : Yahoo,  to become the most popular platform to have an email address on whether for work or as a personal email address. Now when you open your email account you will notice that, your emails are filtered and are placed under various headings for example: Primary, Promotions, Social and Spam. This filtering process helps one prioritise and read more important mails first. It is an option most of us take for granted, but helps us to maximise and improve our Time management. This is all possible because of the advances made in the area of    Artificial Intelligence.

Reminders on Gmail: In fact, I truly believe the reason for today’s generation having poor memory and or memory lapses, can be put down to our increasing dependence on external forces to remind us. Even Gmail has a provision to send us prompts on mails that Gmail deems important and which we have not responded to or ignored. Sometimes this would have occurred due  to oversight but with these prompts, one is better able to handle ones emails. How is all this possible? The answer my friends is Artificial Intelligence.

Finally, Online Shopping: Artificial Intelligence is front and centre when it comes enhancing your online shopping experience. When you revisit sites and start browsing, have you noticed how you find recommendations pop up, this is possible only because of Artificial Intelligence.

IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING ONE AND THE SAME THING?

The answer to that question above is a resounding No.  But even so when you look at Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning you can be forgiven if you as a Lay person think that Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are one and the same thing.  However there are many differences between Machine Learning and Artificial Learning.  Artificial Intelligence is the technology that looks to build machines to carry out everyday tasks that are currently being done by Human Beings. The idea is to replace Human Beings in arenas where there is chances of bodily harm and chances of error which could lead to disaster. But Machine Learning is a part of Artificial Intelligence and really is the application that would make the tasks possible. So let’s take a look at the differences between the two.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING

·  In Artificial intelligence, intelligence is defined as an ability to acquire and apply knowledge. · Focus is to increase the chance of success but not of accuracy. · Artificial Intelligence operates like a computer program that works smart · The goal of Artificial Intelligence is to imitate the innate intelligence of humans complex problem solving · Artificial Intelligence is into developing systems that will imitate or mimic human responses and behaviours in set circumstances · Artificial Intelligence is about problem solving, reasoning and learning · Artificial Intelligence deals with Structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. · Artificial Intelligence can be divided into three kinds:  Weak Artificial Intelligence, General Artificial Intelligence, and Strong Artificial Intelligence · Artificial Intelligence has a vast range of scope · Machine Learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence thereby making it a part of the arena of Artificial Intelligence · In Artificial Intelligence, they make intelligent systems to perform any task like a human. · Artificial Intelligence works to create intelligent systems that can perform complex tasks.

· Machine Learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge or skill · Focus is to increase accuracy; success is not a concern · Machine Learning is about data collection and learning from the data · Machine Learning goal is to learn from data collected during specific tasks and behaviours to increase machine efficiency when doing the task. · Machine Learning focuses on the development of Algorithms for self-learning · Machine Learning is focussed on Learning from behaviours and examples · Machine learning deals with Structured and semi-structured data · Machine Learning is divided into Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning and Reinforcement Learning · Machine Learning has a limited range of scope · Deep Learning is the subset of Machine Learning · In Machine Learning, machines with data are taught to perform a particular task and give an accurate result. · Machine Learning works to create machines that can perform those specific tasks for which they are trained.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING

The above diagram helps to get a sense of the Relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. So then what is the relationship between the two?

When you look at Machine Learning in the diagram above, it is evident that it is an application of Artificial Intelligence or in fact a part of Artificial Intelligence. So within Artificial Intelligence what is the role of Machine Learning and how does it compliment the former. Machine Learning is the application that facilitates systems to automatically learn and improve from experience without being particularly set up to do so. So the core function of Machine Learning within Artificial Intelligence is to focus on developing programs for computers, these programs are such that they can collect and access data from various sources and then learn from the data.

When we are using platforms like Flipkart to buy products, when we select an item or we try to browse for a particular item in a given price range, a number of options are thrown up, if you are looking for a food processor you might notice, that the site might nudge you to explore other kitchen products like grinders and or juicers and coffee machines.  All these responses to how you are searching and what might interest you is in actuality a combination of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Where else do you see the Relationship between Artificial Intelligence and machine Learning?

Take the ride-hailing apps like Uber and Ola, to name a few.  They all use Google maps, which run on Artificial Intelligence. So what does the app Google Maps do for you as a user? It shows you the quickest way to your destination from your location, after taking into account the traffic and gives you the solution. Now, this is Artificial Intelligence.  Now when you use the ride-hailing app Uber, it uses Artificial Intelligence to determine the time it will take to get from your location to your destination. What Machine Learning does, in turn, is that when you are booking your ride, it gives you an estimated price for your journey, and if you are using a shared service, then it will map the route to avoid backtracking and detours. Machine Learning also helps to decide the price of rides during peak hours, and this it does by predicting customer demand.  So next time you encounter surge pricing on Uber, know that this is the role that Machine Learning is playing.

Banking and Financial services, is another area where there is a relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is prominent.

I have already mentioned how Machine Learning helps in detecting fraud and money laundering. Mobile Banking is possible because it is using Artificial Intelligence. However, to make it more related to our lives, please remember, when a large sum of money say upwards INR 4000 is transferred from your account you receive a mobile alert. This alerts you to the transaction that is taking place, now this is where Artificial Intelligence comes in, banks use Artificial Intelligence to help send the alert, to the customer. In case the transaction was not authorised by you, then you can have the transaction cancelled. So this is the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Finally, it is important to realise that the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is an ever evolving one. The more systems get driven by Artificial Intelligence the more the reliance on Machine Learning to design Algorithms to run the task at hand. Therefore the relationship between the two from my point of you is one of interdependence. With the arrival of such companies such as Tesla the future for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is huge and so will the demand for people comfortable with these technologies.

There are numerous online courses and many that come with certifications. These courses can give you the knowledge about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and would positively impact your career.  

Henry Harvin also offer programs in the area.

Recommended Reads:

• Top 10 Machine Learning Course in Bangalore.
• Best Machine Learning Course
• Top 10 Best Machine Learning Tutorials For Beginners
• Top 10 Machine Learning Courses in India

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