Restricted Boltzmann Machines, intelligent Barbies and more in the Programmable Edition #29
We issue this week the last article of our series on Machine Learning. It is an opportunity to come back to the origin of the series: ICML. ICML is a great opportunity for companies like MFG Labs to improve their algorithms. The conference was particularly interesting for our research in deep learning techniques. Indeed, since last year we’ve been working on deep learning based recommender systems. These are competitive with matrix factorization techniques. But how could we add some constraints that would make a neural network closer to our data? That’s a point we dive in in our last article: RBM and recommender systems.
Have a good weekend,
— Xavier
The collateral damages of ad-blocking
Apple’s content-blocking strategy is obviously aimed at hurting Google where it hurts more: ad dollars. But how will this strategy affect the web? Particularly, how will this affect small, independent publishers?
Will data scientists kill strategy consultants?
Consulting firms have ruled the strategy realm for decades, whispering in the ears of the most powerful CEOs on the planet. But today, a bunch of data guys armed with datasets, APIs and math tools can do much better than a million-dollar consulting team. Big4 and other BCG, watch out: big data beats big slide decks.
A plan to prevent software cheating
Volkswagen, and the car industry in general is far from being the only industry where temptation is high to cheat with software. Think about voting polls, construction, casino machines… It is time to install safeguards to prevent such software-based scams.
Smart garbage is a thing in NYC
New York authorities installed solar-powered smart bins in Manhattan. The bins are equipped with sensors detecting if the bin is full or too smell, warning garbage collectors to pick it up. Oh, and they also turned the bins into free Wifi hotspots.
Barbie is on her way to be very much alive
The world’s most famous doll will soon be equipped with speech capabilities powered by state-of-the art artificial intelligence. That is quite ok in the case where a child asks the her dolls if she loves Ken. But what if the doll gets more tricky questions, like “Do you believe in God?” or “Am I fat?”.
How A/B testing became a company’s nightmare and salvation
A change on the homepage of Basecamp, a project management app, led to a decrease of signups, but testing new versions solved the issue. Interesting learnings.
The good product managers knows to say NO
Managing a product can be particularly tricky because lot of people have a lot of opinions on what it should be. The good product manager sticks to its vision, even if it means saying no to people of all kind (especially bosses).
Cherry on the cake
Disney people really do not want us to be productive at work today.
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