Machine learning, sounds pretty much like what it is. But you probably use it a lot more than you realize. Technology Reporter Adam Balkin explains.
"It really is machines learning," said Jeff Reynar, an engineering director at Facebook NY.
So what does machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), mean for all of us? That was the focus of a recent Facebook @Scale event that brought together data scientists, engineers, and researchers to discuss how machine learning is working for us right now, and how it should be working for us in the future.
"Every time you look at Facebook or Instagram and see a set of stories that are in a particular order, the order is determined by machine learning to maximize your enjoyment of that content," Reynar said.
"It's the technology that helps finance, and it's appearing in medicine and also more futuristic things that you've heard about, like self-driving cars and things like that," Reynar continued.
What's basically happening here is that computers are programmed to make choices on their own based on the data they're fed.
LinkedIn, for example, may not know you personally, but if you update your resume, it'll know, based on any new skills or experiences you list, which new job openings you qualify for, and serve them up.
Now, despite all the obvious benefits, you could be excused for feeling a little bit nervous about machine learning — machines learning, from "The Terminator"-type nervousness to privacy-type nervousness.
"We have to be careful, you know, to respect the users' privacy and always to put our LinkedIn users' interests first," Xiaoqiang Luo of LinkedIn said.
"There are some areas where it looks like machines are kind of comparable to people, but that's usually in very, very narrow domains," Reynar said. "There's no danger yet that machine learning or AI is going to take over and replace people in general."