AI and the Mental Scotoma

You know how one goes through their daily routines and suddenly they notice something that has been there a long time? Maybe it is a rock chip in the windshield or coffee shop on your commute to work. There is a term in psychology called “Mental Scotoma”. My dumbed down version of this is becoming aware of something and then noticing it everywhere.
I would like to use this analogy to provide a fundamental definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that we may not notice in our everyday lives as well as awareness of the application of AI.
What is AI? Artificial Intelligence is discerning patterns in data, predicting behavior and deciding action.
So “Big Data” is cool, but when presented to AI, creates the possibility of identifying patterns and relationships that allows one to become aware of things that were there all along. The patterns and relationships just needed to be pointed out. Once seen, then further analyzed, refined learning and business strategy can be developed and supported leveraging the newly discovered AI insight.
AI has been around for decades; its growth has been fueled by the explosion of data available for processing. Things like web cookies, “wearables”, the internet of things and video recognition provide rich data sources for presentation to AI.
Here are a few examples of AI in our everyday lives.
- Netflix suggestion of movies or series to watch – by looking at your viewing habits and the viewing habits of similar viewers, Netflix suggesting content for you as well as getting insight into content to produce.
- Web site banner ads show a product you are interested in – after searching for a product and maybe researching it, browser cookies collect the product information. The product interest information is sold to advertisers that target you with banner ads of the products you researched.
- Your Smart Phone tells you about your commute to
and from work – the device is collecting
GPS data and has determined patterns by time of day and searched for home or work address. Once determined, you get alerts about commute times and delays.
AI and wearables are already letting diabetics know about their dangerous blood glucose levels, sounding smart phone alarms and notifying call centers of an urgent situation. AI and pattern recognition are used to identify breast cancer cells in images more effectively than the human eye. And, it was AI and pattern recognition that showed the world the first image of a Black Hole. C Suites and Board Rooms are buzzing about AI the same way they did about the internet in the 90’s. The application of AI is having every bit the impact on life and business as the internet has had over the past three decades. Let’s brainstorm about how AI can impact your business.