Friday, December 11, 2015

Lifelong Personal Teachers The Next Step in Education's Evolution - Steve Downey, THE Journal

The progression from lifelong digital companions to lifelong personal teachers is only another series of algorithms away. The technology underlying those algorithms already is being developed. In March 2013, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a new initiative to "decisively reduce the current barriers to machine learning and foster a boom in innovation, productivity and effectiveness." In January 2014, Google paid $400 million to acquire London-based DeepMind Technologies, a small startup focused on deep learning research. Prior to this acquisition, Google's director of research, Peter Novig, acknowledged that Google already employed more than five percent of world's leading minds in machine learning. Google isn't the only tech firm investing heavily into machine learning. https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/12/02/lifelong-personal-teachers-the-next-step-in-educations-evolution.aspx