Artificial Intelligence (AI) was once the realm of science fiction and the occasional Spielberg movie.  Now it, and it's more scientific sounding cousin, Machine Learning (ML) represent the boom of the market.  At the recent 2018 Microsoft Inspire conference in Las Vegas, AI was all the rage for the software giant.  In fact, it even landed a cherished spot in the core note address by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Satya proceeded to talk of the future of AI, the intelligent cloud, the intelligent edge and how Microsoft was seeking to "Democratize Artificial Intelligence" for business and the masses.  They spoke of Azure Machine learning and their much touted Azure Machine Learning Studio, a tool to allow developers to drag-and-drop their way to do effective predictive analysis on data. Data they said is key to any AI or ML solution for without a lot of data your AI models will be weak, ineffective, and often inaccurate.  The Microsoft Dynamics teams went so far as to demo an AI drive sales chatbot that paused and even simulated human pauses such as umm and hmm during a sales interaction.

Then there are the AI developments over at Google where their Google Duplex AI Assistant can answer phone calls and you would never know you are talking to a piece of software.  So disconcerting was the demo that Google had to assure people that if and when the technology does make it to market there would be a disclaimer to make people aware that they were having a discussion with an Artificial Intelligence entity.  

On the network security front the market is literally awash in vendors claiming that they have the next AI or ML based solution that will protect networks and servers automatically and block hacks without the need for human intervention.  ML Based systems are already making judgment calls on whether someone poking around your network is harmless browsing or a serious threat.  Many AI based systems already automatically block traffic at the firewall and server level.

The Future of AI is vast and somewhat scattered at the moment with tons of players claiming breakthroughs and others showing real progress.  One thing is for sure however, one day our computer systems and the networks they live on will most definitely think for themselves.  Want to know more about this and other great new topics?  Reach out to our team...