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Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

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Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#21

Post by sidlls »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #19
sidlls wrote: post #7

The entire product I built over the last year can be reduced to basic statistics (e.g. ratios, probabilities) but because of the hype train we build "models" and "predict" certain outcomes over a data set. One of the products the company I work for sells more or less attempts to find duplicate entries in a large, unclean data set with "machine learning." The value added isn't in the use of ML techniques itself, it's…

The value added isn't in the use of ML techniques itself, it's in the hype train that fills the Valley these days: our customers see "Data Science product" and don't get that it's really basic predictive analytics under the hood. I'm not sure the product would actually sell as well as it does without that labeling. So you are misleading your customers through omission? This is the kind of thing that makes people ques…

No, we actually use ML. We just don't need to, in my opinion, because the problems our products solve are more or less solvable without these techniques.

My point was that using ML, even though we don't need to, "adds value" by virtue of the hype train. We need ML to sell products, not to create them.

I do agree that this sort of arrangement lends itself to supporting skepticism around AI and ML. On the other hand I don't think that's a bad thing.

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#23

Post by AndrewKemendo »

sidlls wrote: post #21
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value added isn't in the use of ML techniques itself, it's in the hype train that fills the Valley these days: our customers see "Data Science product" and don't get that it's really basic predictive analytics under the hood. I'm not sure the product would actually sell as well as it does without that labeling. So you are misleading your customers through omission? This is the kind of thing that makes people ques…

No, we actually use ML. We just don't need to, in my opinion, because the problems our products solve are more or less solvable without these techniques. My point was that using ML, even though we don't need to, "adds value" by virtue of the hype train. We need ML to sell products, not to create them. I do agree that this sort of arrangement lends itself to supporting skepticism around AI and ML. On the other hand I…

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. It is true that people are using ML where other, simpler options are available, but I wouldn't immediate discount the value of using nets for your problem. I don't know enough about your problem/implementation to speak to it really.

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#24

Post by Bartweiss »

sidlls wrote: post #7

The entire product I built over the last year can be reduced to basic statistics (e.g. ratios, probabilities) but because of the hype train we build "models" and "predict" certain outcomes over a data set. One of the products the company I work for sells more or less attempts to find duplicate entries in a large, unclean data set with "machine learning." The value added isn't in the use of ML techniques itself, it's…

It's interesting to me that with all the ML hype, it's still not clear what constitutes ML. A basic k-means or naive Bayes approach will show up in ML textbooks, but those aren't clearly different from "use some statistics to make a prediction".

There's an interesting group of marginal approaches that have existed as-is for years, but have increasingly focused their branding on machine learning as its profile has risen.

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#27

Post by Bartweiss »

jc4p wrote: post #12

I think a lot of the real benefits from ML "at work" is more in just cleaning of data and running through the gauntlet of simplest regressions (before jumping onto something more magical whose outputs and decision making process you can't exactly explain to someone). I would classify something like this blog post as ML, would you? http://stackoverflow.blog/2016/11/How-Do-Developers-in-New-Y...

When people talk about the growth (or sometimes 'excess') of ML solutions these days, I always wonder about this.

A basic linear regression probably isn't ML, a backprop neural net clearly is, but somewhere between the two is a very fuzzy line between "statistics and data cleaning" and "actually machine learning". I think a lot of people have just pushed the ML angle of an already-reasonable approach to tie into that popularity.

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#28

Post by strebler »

We're a computer vision company, we do a lot of product detection + recognition + search, primarily for retailers, but we've also got revenue in other verticals with large volumes of imagery. My co-founder and I both did our thesis' on computer vision.

In our space, the recent AI / ML advances have made things possible that were simply not realistic before.

That being said, the hype around Deep Learning is getting pretty bad. Several of our competitors have gone out of business (even though they were using the magic of Deep Learning). For example, JustVisual went under a couple of months ago ($20M+ raised) and Slyce ($50M+ raised) is apparently being sold for pennies on the dollar later this month.

Yes, Deep Learning has made some very fundamental advances, but that doesn't mean it's going to make money just as magically!

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#29

Post by yessql »

jakozaur wrote: post #6

At Sumo Logic we do "grep in cloud as a service". We use machine learning to do pattern clustering. Using lines of text to learn printfs they came from. The primary advantage for customer is easier to use and troubleshoot faster. https://www.sumologic.com/resource/featured-videos/demo-sumo...

This is great. I've been thinking about better ways to search logs for root causes. Splunk is good if you know what you are looking for, but this is exactly what I want to see to show me unexpected things in logs.

Re: Ask HN: Where is AI/ML actually adding value at your company?

#30

Post by sidlls »

Bartweiss wrote: post #24
sidlls wrote: post #7

The entire product I built over the last year can be reduced to basic statistics (e.g. ratios, probabilities) but because of the hype train we build "models" and "predict" certain outcomes over a data set. One of the products the company I work for sells more or less attempts to find duplicate entries in a large, unclean data set with "machine learning." The value added isn't in the use of ML techniques itself, it's…

It's interesting to me that with all the ML hype, it's still not clear what constitutes ML. A basic k-means or naive Bayes approach will show up in ML textbooks, but those aren't clearly different from "use some statistics to make a prediction". There's an interesting group of marginal approaches that have existed as-is for years, but have increasingly focused their branding on machine learning as its profile has ris…

This mirrors my own thoughts on the matter. Especially as regards the "branding" issue.
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