The next big thing in artificial intelligence will be “AI as a service,” according to a soon-to-be-released “Radar Report” from Sabre Labs.
The opening up and growth of AI platforms will allow everyone to tap into existing AIs, building new functionality on existing services.
That could be a real game-changer, with small companies and even individuals making use of the AI tools and resources of companies like Amazon, Google and IBM.
Sabre Labs, the unit of Sabre Corp. that explores capabilities that will affect travel over the next decade, believes this open approach will spur exponential growth both in AI itself and in improvements in the services that are built on it.
For example, if a company’s natural language processing AI gets 10% more accurate, then every service built using that AI instantly realizes the improvement, the Radar Report say.
Opening up the platforms will spur innovation and disruption, the report says.
Our curiosity demands we venture into the unknown, sail uncharted seas, open Pandora’s Box, create machines in the image of ourselves. The question of the evolution of AI isn’t ‘if’ but ‘when.’
The challenge for the travel industry, among others, is to ensure that the disruption AI creates is positive.
The report cites the approach of Boxed, an e-commerce retailer that is replacing humans with robots in certain jobs.
In large shipping warehouses, “pickers” are the lowest of the low on the employee totem pole. They move quickly through a huge space, picking out items and carrying them to a central location for packing and shipping.
It’s usually low-income work, despite the physical demands.
Boxed estimates that replacing pickers with robots will produce a 600% increase in productivity.
But rather than laying off its human, pickers, the company is retraining all its workers, usually into higher skill level, higher paying jobs.