Bringing AI back to earth

Excitement over the prospects for artificial intelligence (AI) has driven US stock market valuations to a historic high. Can AI technologies deliver on their promise? Or is this yet another case of irrational exuberance?In the latest New Money Review podcast I am joined by Eric Siegel, a former Columbia University professor who has taught computer science courses in machine learning and AI. Siegel, now a consultant, has just published a new book called “The AI Playbook—Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment”.In the podcast, we explore some of the paradoxes surrounding AI: why this tech tool with apparently unlimited greatest promise may be the hardest to use, and why computers promising us greater autonomy may in fact require more supervision.We cover:What is artificial intelligence (AI) and what is machine learning (ML)?What is generative AI?What explains the current AI hype?How predictive analytics can improve organisations’ performanceExamples of successful machine learning in practice: UPS and credit scoringWhy do so many ML projects fail to reach deployment?Why artificial general intelligence (AGI) is “the most compelling ghost story ever”Why computers that seem more human-like may give us less autonomyWhat goals can ChatGPT reach and where does it fall short?Why AI hype may be costly