We hear and read a lot of arguments as to whether machine learning and AI are a power for good or bad. Will it enhance our lives or will it make humans largely redundant? When we talk about democratising machine learning, we get right to the crux of this question.
We can’t dispute that ML and AI can do some things at a pace, scale and quality that a human cannot match. It is also true that humans have skills and breadth of experience that AI cannot replicate. AI and ML cannot replace everything that a human does, but the technology can put enormous power into our hands. By leveraging Machine learning, we can use it to enhance our own achievements.
That’s where democratisation comes in. Machine learning should not be a technology for the few. It should be spread wide so that as many people as possible can leverage the power it places in their hands. ML, left in the hands of a few academics, will never deliver the promise of putting it into the hands of many.