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You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

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Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#51

Post by flor1s »

donatj wrote: post #29

I almost took a "big data" data scientist job about a year ago with a local company. After talking to a number of their engineers, it became quite clear to me that instead of a data scientist, they just badly needed a DBA / someone with ownership and a complete vision of the data structure. They had no foreign keys, poorly 'designed' indexes, and tons of redundant tables with no rhyme or reason to them. They'd organi…

Maybe they should have a data warehouse (which is typically denormalized) instead of a database (which should be normalized)?

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#52

Post by mindhash »

gnicholas wrote: post #40

My startup was approached by a corporate VC that wanted to make a strategic investment. Based on the attendee list from our meeting, which included very high up folks from the company, I felt good going in. They expressed interest in our technology that makes reading on screen easier [1], but they were surprised to learn that we didn't use machine learning to accomplish this. I indicated that it was actually quite ef…

This seems pretty cool. I found a good difference reading your education product. It was easy on eyes.

I read a lot of blogs. Thought you could add a wp plugin if it doesn't exist.

Also you must have a ml/ai roadmap for tracking user interactions, etc for possibility of further personalization. Leaving aside the buzz of ai/ml, I think every business has opportunity to apply ml/ai. It doesn't happen often but when it does, its gold for any business

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#53

Post by tejasmanohar »

db1 wrote: post #48
gnicholas wrote: post #40

My startup was approached by a corporate VC that wanted to make a strategic investment. Based on the attendee list from our meeting, which included very high up folks from the company, I felt good going in. They expressed interest in our technology that makes reading on screen easier [1], but they were surprised to learn that we didn't use machine learning to accomplish this. I indicated that it was actually quite ef…

I went to your website, and I can't figure out what your product is or does. I had to click in to individuals before I figured out what it does. Why not put "BeeLine Reader makes reading on-screen easier, faster, and more enjoyable. We use a simple cognitive trick — an eye-guiding color gradient — to pull your eyes from one line to the next." on your front page? Maybe you guys have already done some kind of testing a…

Agree with db1's feedback. I almost immediately closed the page after not finding the pitch.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#54

Post by donatj »

flor1s wrote: post #51
donatj wrote: post #29

I almost took a "big data" data scientist job about a year ago with a local company. After talking to a number of their engineers, it became quite clear to me that instead of a data scientist, they just badly needed a DBA / someone with ownership and a complete vision of the data structure. They had no foreign keys, poorly 'designed' indexes, and tons of redundant tables with no rhyme or reason to them. They'd organi…

Maybe they should have a data warehouse (which is typically denormalized) instead of a database (which should be normalized)?

They had a data accessibility / source of truth issue. You need to normalize before you denormalize or else you're just spreading the mess into the warehouse.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#55

Post by itronitron »

nkozyra wrote: post #30
zitterbewegung wrote: post #3

Companies have a large problem of having their data tucked away or inaccessible to the stakeholders. When people talk about AI / ML what they actually need is their data cleaned to the point where they can communicate to their stakeholders. Also, all of the companies who sell AI / ML as consultants are really good already at cleaning data. When companies actually hire data scientists what they typically do is clean d…

100%. What this all boils down to in 2018 is data. Data acquisition, data cleansing, data filing, etc. But what else is there, now? You're going to create a new, novel ANN network? Cool, can't wait to peruse your paper. Maybe someday it's considered groundbreaking. Right now it's not solving immediate problems. Immediate problems were solved with 1970s ideas + 2018's infrastructure.

Yes, and there are some exceptional papers from the 1960's as well.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#56

Post by tejasmanohar »

master_yoda_1 wrote: post #50

In a layman term the difference between sql and ml is, ml predict things and sql just tell you things. Things has changed and ml now a days can do far better things. If the competitor is using ml and making gain, then one should also catch up as soon as possible. SQL analytics was past, predictive analytics is the future. ML can do more than predictive analytics for you :)

  SQL analytics was past, predictive analytics is the future
You're over-simplifying things. SQL is here to stay, regardless of how big ML, which I'm very bullish on, becomes. Start with the simplest approach and try alternatives when/if it doesn't work. Simply jumping to "predictive analytics" is silly.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#57

Post by gnicholas »

db1 wrote: post #48
gnicholas wrote: post #40

My startup was approached by a corporate VC that wanted to make a strategic investment. Based on the attendee list from our meeting, which included very high up folks from the company, I felt good going in. They expressed interest in our technology that makes reading on screen easier [1], but they were surprised to learn that we didn't use machine learning to accomplish this. I indicated that it was actually quite ef…

I went to your website, and I can't figure out what your product is or does. I had to click in to individuals before I figured out what it does. Why not put "BeeLine Reader makes reading on-screen easier, faster, and more enjoyable. We use a simple cognitive trick — an eye-guiding color gradient — to pull your eyes from one line to the next." on your front page? Maybe you guys have already done some kind of testing a…

Appreciate the feedback. We recently redesigned the website to offer silos, and one of the goals was to make the landing page not offer too many specifics that would make some audiences bounce. But perhaps your suggestion is just what we need to do. Thanks for taking the time to share!

One lesson learned: I should have linked to the /individual page instead of the generic landing page in my comment. Updating link now...

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#58

Post by euske »

The biggest threat of AI is not its ability of taking jobs or exterminating mankind, but the amount of distraction it creates.

When politicians say they improved the economy like 30%, nobody buys into that. It's an overly exaggerated misleading political talk. But when some tech gurus talk about how AI improved their profit 30% or something, everyone seems to hop on. It's an effective marketing, for sure, but this is a worrisome trend. The root cause of this is I think the lack of proper understanding of fundamentals (and intellectual sloppiness). AI will continue to plague us on this front, and I'm still not sure if the net gain is going to beat all the distractions it created.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#59

Post by itronitron »

sixdimensional wrote: post #34

Well, we are in the peak of a wave of hype about AI/ML, maybe even just past that peak. Many fundamental technological advancements in the field of AI/ML have sort of coalesced together at the current time to form a strong feature set that can be more broadly applied by a wider audience, not just those hardcore computer scientists who invented the technology. I've been in the thick of this previously, facing a comple…

imho, AI and ML are being applied to problems for which they are not the best solution, primarily out of ignorance by the practitioners, or by their desire to hop on the AI/ML train. I expect machine learning to steal some attention from data science, but in name only as at the end of the day it is all based on statistics.

Re: You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts

#60

Post by gnicholas »

mindhash wrote: post #52
gnicholas wrote: post #40

My startup was approached by a corporate VC that wanted to make a strategic investment. Based on the attendee list from our meeting, which included very high up folks from the company, I felt good going in. They expressed interest in our technology that makes reading on screen easier [1], but they were surprised to learn that we didn't use machine learning to accomplish this. I indicated that it was actually quite ef…

This seems pretty cool. I found a good difference reading your education product. It was easy on eyes. I read a lot of blogs. Thought you could add a wp plugin if it doesn't exist. Also you must have a ml/ai roadmap for tracking user interactions, etc for possibility of further personalization. Leaving aside the buzz of ai/ml, I think every business has opportunity to apply ml/ai. It doesn't happen often but when it…

It's true, we could use AI or ML to do stuff not related to the core product. But these investors thought that we should be using ML in the coloring algorithm itself. Even if this made sense to do (that is, if it improved reading ability for people compared with our current product), it would be much harder to explain.

Right now, it's easy to say it's a color gradient that wraps from one line to the next, guiding your eyes. I don't know how I insert "machine learning" into that sentence somewhere and not sound like I'm trying to trend-surf.

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