What AI Can Do
for Your Business
Thomas Lee PhD MBA
thomaslee@yam.ai / linkedin.com/in/tomlee / twitter.com/lee_tom
YAM AI Machinery
www.yam.ai
8-May-2019 1
Thomas Lee PhD MBA
Co-Founder and CEO of Throput and YAM AI Machinery
● Throput: cloud architecting and digital transformation consultancy
● YAM: machine learning software development and consultancy
Assistant IT Director, Dept of Computer Science, HKU
Worked in major enterprises as R&D / IT architecture manager:
● Senior Program Manager (Azure Cloud), Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group
● IT Architecture Manager of Hong Kong Jockey Club, Airport Authority HK
● CTO of Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development, HKU
Served various international and local technology committees
● United Nation Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport for in Asia and the Pacific
● Chief Assessor, HK ICT Awards (Smart Business Awards)
● Certification Assessor, CPIT – System Architect, HK Institute for IT Professional Certification
Outstanding IT Achiever Awards 傑出資訊科技人員奬 by HK Computer Society
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What AI Can Do
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AI Can Act and Fake
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TED: https://youtu.be/o2DDU4g0PRo
BuzzFeedVideo: https://youtu.be/cQ54GDm1eL0
AI Can Draw and Paint
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NVIDIA: https://youtu.be/p5U4NgVGAwg
NVIDIA: https://youtu.be/gg0F5JjKmhA
AI Can Play
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OpenAI: https://youtu.be/-FoZAM9xqS4
SCMP: https://youtu.be/X8CmiYbpp2E
and Build
What AI Can Do
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≠
What AI Can Do for Your Business
AI, Machine Learning
& Neutral Networks
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Unsupervised
Learning
Supervised
Learning
Reinforcement
Learning
Machine Learning
Transfer Learning
AI
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Rules engines, expert
systems, search,
knowledge-base, fuzzy
logic, ..
Symbolic AI
(Logic-based)
A Simplified AI Landscape
“Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.”
– Stanford University
Logic-Based
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Logic-
Based
Programming
(“Rules”)
X Y
Training
(“Labeled Data”)
Learning-
Based
X Y
Labeling
f(X’) = Y’
● Logic programmed
● Humans as programmers
● Logic maintained by humans
● Data driven
● Humans as data scientists
● Self-improving via labelled data feedback
Learning-Basedvs
Deep Neural Network
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#Health
#Transport
#Business
News
Hidden Layers
Input
Layers
Output
Layers
w1
1,1
w1
3,5
w2
1,1
w3
5,5
w4
1,1
w4
5,3
Wi,j
Data as
program
k
X1
X2
X3
Y1
Y2
Y3
Good AI programs require good data
How to Make AI Work
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Key Elements
Making AI Work
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Use
Case
Specialists
Data Tech
Use Cases
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Discriminative Generative
Risk
Assessment
Natural
Language
Understanding
Data
Classification Text / Image
Generation
Recommendation
Engine
Object
Recognition
Data
Augmentation
Pricing
Optimization
Conversational
AI
Robotics
Sentiment
Analysis
Graphics
Upscaling
Discriminative AI is mature
Specialists
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Software / Data
Engineers
Data
Scientists
Business
Specialists
Aggregate
data
Label and
curate data
Build, train & improve ML models
(Develop data pipelines)
Organization restructuring & process re-engineering are often needed
AI suggests decisions to business specialists and they tell AI whether its decisions are accurate
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Data
Data
Aggregation
Data
Cleansing
Feature
Extraction
Data
Labeling &
Curation
Training &
Testing
Evaluating &
Relabeling
Predictions
Feedback for
Retraining
Structured
Data
Unstructured
Data
Transactions
Records
System logs
Images
Text
Videos
Reports
YamFlow
Reference
ML Workflow
proposed by YAM
https://flow.yam.ai
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Tech (Infrastructure)
Compute (GPUs) & Storage
System Platforms
Machine Learning Toolkits
Open-source
software
Vendor
neutral
platforms
Cloud or
on-premises
Lack of on-premises off-the-shelf AI platforms
YamStack
(Work In Progress)
Reference
ML Stack
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Paradigm Shift from App Dev to AI Dev
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Process Driven
Specification → Implementation →
Testing → Maintenance
Existing Organization
Business
as app user
IT
as app
developer
Re-organization
IT
as infra
provider
Business
as ML trainer
Intelligence
Management
Data Driven
Aggregation, Cleansing, Curation,
Modeling, Training, Evaluation, Security
● AI laboratory to kickstart ML experimentation
● Machine learning infrastructure (on cloud / on-premises)
● Proof of concept applications
● Redefinition of roles:
○ Business: AI assists business specialists to make decisions and business specialists train AI
○ Chief Technology Officer / IT to develop and provide ML infrastructure
○ Chief Intelligence Officer / Intelligence Management as custodian of business data, ML models
and predictions, and analytics insights
● AI from PoC to production
Digital Transformation for AI Enablement
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Corporate AI strategy and roadmap
Controversy & Risks
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Data Privacy
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BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47555216
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-10/is-anyo
ne-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
Bias &
Ethics
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Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-ai/microsoft-turned-down-f
acial-recognition-sales-on-human-rights-concerns-idUSKCN1RS2FV
The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse-fulfill
ment-centers-productivity-firing-terminations
EU GDPR:
http://www.privacy-regulation.eu/en/a
rticle-22-automated-individual-decisi
on-making-including-profiling-GDPR.
htm
Explainability &
Understandability
25Artificial Intelligence and National Security, Congressional Research Service,
30-Jan-2019, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R45178.pdf
Dawn Meyerriecks, Deputy Director for Science
and Technology at the CIA, expressed this concern,
arguing, “Until AI can show me its homework, it’s
not a decision quality product.”
MIT Technology Review:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604087/the-dark-secret-
at-the-heart-of-ai/
...unless we find ways of making techniques like deep
learning more understandable to their creators and
accountability to their users. Otherwise, it will be
hard to predict when failures might occur - and it’s
inevitable they will
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“The future is already here —
it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
William Gibson
Questions & Answers
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What AI can do for your business