-1 Days since Machine Uprising

The title of this entry comes from a safety sign on the floor of Kiva Systems where they make very impressive commercial robots (but don't call them robots, they tell me!)

This blog's purpose is to discuss the concepts of machine learning. I've been working in the field of machine learning for 3 years at Digital Reasoning Systems, Inc. I've been in IT professionally since 1989. My tour of Kiva last night was through a friend who I have known for about 4 years but until last night had never met. We play a very popular computer game on xbox over the Internet. What surprised me greatly was that some of the systems used in the video game for designing floor layout for games was actually quite similar but not as powerful as the systems Kiva has for its drive units (*whisper* they are robots!)

The work I do is related to text analytics. DRS does entity extraction but so do 3 dozen other companies I could name. Add in European companies and that number goes up and then add in Asia companies and it expands again. The thing I've been thinking about all day is that eventually machines will respond to our comments, rearranging our space without much in the way of our intervention. Decisions are already being made based upon text analytics to improve the experience of the customer. Assuming we survive the coming energy singularity point and fend off the collapse of society we have a pretty bright future ahead of us. If not, then we will be fighting drive units for every inch of ground. Ok, maybe not but that won't stop Hollywood from speculating.