Transcription

AI Techniques and Strategy

Remember the time when customer service representatives used to be calling each individuals separately, that used
to be about 10 years back or even 5 years back, it’s completely changed now.

Now, you have got automated chatbots and robots that does robocalling to connect with the customers and how is
that possible, through evolution of AI and the fact that even 5-10 years back, companies could tell you what are the
types of movies that you are likely to watch; what are the types of books you are likely to read, based on your
preferences that started revolutionizing customer preferences. How was that possible. Again, through AI.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Now, if I go to my local department stores or my local shopping to do my local grocery shopping, I find robots actually
going around the aisles to check whether there are any spillages, whether there is any support and help required, and
it does that very nicely, very beautifully. We would have not been able to imagine this even 5 to 10 ten years back.

You will learn about different technologies, making automation possible. AI is divided into seven different types that
we just touched on and we will start with machine learning. What is machine learning? Machine learning is an example
of how AI is able to take data and without explicitly programming as to what you want it done, it’s able to identify
patterns, identify logic, and be able to apply it as new data comes in. So, combination of data and algorithms be able
to work together in tandem without human intervention is machine learning. Within machine learning, there are 15
different types that can be applied in real life situations.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Some of the most common ones are supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning. So, what is
supervised learning. Supervised learning uses the initial dataset and that is used as a training mechanism to model as
to what the prediction and justification process needs to be. So, this is the initial data set.

So, let's take some examples. Weather prediction; what is weather prediction based on. Weather prediction is based
on a number of factors, including humidity, cloud, the wind speed, etc. So, all these different parameters are put
together and based on past statistics, then you start predicting whether it is going to be humid, whether it is going to
be hot, whether it is going to be rainy, it is going to snow, etc.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Another example would be, from a visual standpoint if you think about it, if you were to determine whether it's going
to be a dog or a cat, then you provide certain examples to say this is how a cat tail looks; this is how a cat looks from
a face and then you train the model to say this is a cat. This is a picture of a dog and then the machine is able to predict
based on what it sees as a cat or a dog. So, those are supervised learning examples.

In an unsupervised learning where observation is based on the pattern of data that exists and those could be very
different in terms of how it is used. So, if you wanted to find out as to whether if it is going to have different type of
customer segments that you want to use. So, what happens is that you don't necessarily know, which customers you
have to use or to attract, but then based on certain datasets, you can say that why doesn't the machine or the system
generate the appropriate logic to say what would be the most appropriate kind of clients that they should attract.
Based on certain parameters, it could be based on the social demographics; it could be based on geographies; it could
be based on other factors; it could say based on how who have purchased my product before, let the machine generate
examples and a client list or prospect list to say this is the other types of clients I should go to. So, that is an example
of an unsupervised learning.

Then there are examples of what is called as reinforcement learning and in the reinforcement learning or RL, what the
system does is it bases on a positive or a negative reinforcement for any action to be taken, so that could be done by
an external agent or it could be done by a hit and trial method. I will give you two examples of this.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, if you think of a driverless vehicle, I will keep coming back to the driverless vehicles for sure and driverless vehicle
when it is on the road, it is able to detect what the patterns are and it is able to say If I go too close, then I am getting
a honk or I am going to get into an accident. So, based on that, it is able to move back into its lane. So that is an example
of how the negative reinforcement works.

In the case of let's say positive reinforcement where you are being rewarded for doing something correct. In the case
of finance and in the trading, for example, if you are doing a securities trading, based on certain buy and sell
parameters, you are able to say that if the stock market is doing X, if the price of the product or the stock is Y and if so
and so then you have already always purchased and then what the algorithm does is, it is able to recognize whether
the move that was made to purchase a stock resulted in a positive outcome. That means the price of the stock went
up or the overall portfolio value went up. Based on that positive reinforcement, it is going to execute trades in the
future of similar patterns. So, that is a positive RL technique.

Again, this is at a very high level from an algorithm preparation perspective, obviously a lot more goes into it and it is
generally not based on one or two variables. It is based on a number of different factors that will come into play.
Recognize that in machine learning, there are different AI techniques. We will look at some of them, but almost every
AI technique will depend on or AI type or application is going to depend on machine learning. So, machine learning is
the crux and the core of any AI application. While many different types are used in conjunction, it's important to
recognize machine learning is at the core of any AI application.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

The first ML technique is neural networks. Before we get into neural networks, let’s talk about the magic of the human
body and especially the human brain. Do you know that there is 60,000 miles of blood vessels going around in our
body, 60,000 miles, which carries blood across from brain to foot or from a head to foot? And when you talk about
the brain, there are 100 billion cells or neurons in our brain? It is such a magical world in there.

Now, imagine as to what it can do in terms of its learning process. It uses several different molecular and biological
methods to be able to unlearn, learn, and relearn. It uses several aspects of its dendrites, which are essentially attached
to the brain and then these individual axons that provide the outputs in terms of signals. It generates about 26 watts
of electricity in the brain. Just imagine that can light a bulb actually right a bulb and there are over 100 cell bodies in
one millimeter of neuron. So, it is a magical world into itself and so in the aspect of neural networks in AI, what
scientists have tried to do is to imitate our human brain. How do you understand the relationships across these
different datasets as decisions are being made?

So, whether organic or artificial in nature, the ability to connect different data points and make sense out of that is
the essence of neural networks. As you start training the input, your output needs to evolve as well. So, when you are
walking on the street and you find that there is a big rock, you move, because you are able to visually see that there is
a obstacle in front of you and the brain is able to process and take the appropriate action or recommend to the legs

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

that you need to move different ways, right. The ability for it to process instantaneously is what is expected of a neural
network technique.

So, let us now dig a little deeper into how this neural networks work in a computer system. Think of information flow,
both as an input and as an output and the ability for the output to actually send that information back to the input.
So, there is a closed loop mechanism in terms of how information is processed. So, patterns of information or data is
fed into the computer network via certain input units and then that triggers a layer of different decisions that are to
be made and then each of these decisions that are made are assigned a weight. Just like you provide different
weightages to different decision criteria’s.

These then trigger certain outputs and these outputs are then taken into consideration and take certain actions and
justify those actions and if those actions, whether it is through reinforcement, learning, or to other mechanisms, if
they happen to be the correct one, those outputs that are then fit back into the input saying that, hey the actions I
took were correct, and so I need to be able to create more branches based on the same information, their decision
points.

So, the way it receives the information, the way it triggers an output, this is all automated. So, the aspect of forward
propagation and backward propagation or again specific mechanisms through which these neural networks work.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, where is neural networks used. It is used in multiple ways. It is used in from an application standpoint, it is used in
fraud detection, it is used in weather forecasting, it is used in stock market calibrations, it is used to diagnose complex
medical conditions, and identifying enemy aircrafts. There is different ways neural networks are used. Again, not
necessarily neural networks have to be used in any of these applications. Sometimes different units or different
individuals or corporations use different techniques. There is no one way to come to a solution, but in all these
different applications, neural network techniques can be used.

The next technique we are going to discuss is decision trees. So, let's take an example of you wanting to buy a car.

So, let's talk about what kind of car; is it a Sedan or is it a SUV or is it a different type of jeep. Then you ask how many
people it needs to accommodate; then you say whether you are going to be driving in the city or in on the highways.
Then you ask the question how many whether you want to buy a luxury vehicle or you want to buy a more economical
vehicle. You can keep going down this path of making a decision at each point you provide a weight to them and then
at the end of it, you come up with the probability saying that, okay, based on this sequence of questions that I have
asked you, you are likely to buy a BMW X5. Based on the answers that you have provided.

So, similar to this, you can also make a decision based on the weather factors. You can be given a certain number of
parameters, you can say if the humidity is very high and if there is cloud cover, if the previous day it rained. So, you
can look at number of these factors and then come up with the decision to say; yes, it is going to rain. So, you can

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

make decisions and the outcome probability increases as the answers keep getting more and more detailed. So, it's
very I would say easy to understand to use decision trees. So, you can interpret them; you can follow very similar
pattern that human thinking does. So, decision making process becomes a lot simpler.

Prediction is fast. It is a set of comparison between X, Y and Z and it can be adapted to deal with multiple situations.
That is advantage of decision trees and we use it sometimes in a way, not necessarily thinking through the process.
Those decisions are being made in our day-to-day life. So, if you can have that simulate that in a computer or a system
environment, it makes it easier.

So now, let's look at how decision trees are used in real life. So, you can apply decision trees a number of different
application situations. So, if you have an objective function that you are trying to optimize such as let's say you want
to increase the profits in your organization or if you want to reduce the cost, the best one of the ways you can do it is
if I increase, if I do, if I used to sell 20,000 more units, then it is going to improve my revenue. How much is going to
improve; is that going to, what is the weight that you can assign to that; Then you say, if I do increase the revenue,
then is it going to increase my cost; is it going to increase my distribution cost; how much it is going to if that's going
to be of a higher output than weight, then you provide more weight to that. So, through this process, then, ultimately,
you can decide whether the profits are going to increase or not based on the probability criteria that you set.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Another example could be, if you have multiple choices in terms of taking a course, you can say number 1 is; does it
provide flexibility or not. So, as a working professional, you want flexibility. So, you assign a weightage of 0.75% for
flexibility, 0.25% for it doesn't matter whether it is based on other criteria, let's say reputation of the institution. Then,
the next criteria may be in terms of deciding whether it is offering the course that you want. Then you assign 0.5% or
0.75% for the type of courses you get and 0.25% for courses that doesn't match your criteria. Then you can keep going
down that path; sometimes you may have more than one option. So, what you do is you are trying to ultimately come
up with those parameters that is going to give you the maximum productivity or gain that you are looking at from a
decision standpoint.

So, these are all typically used in a wherever you have quantifiable measurement output, whether there is uncertainty
around certain outcomes; when things are unlikely to have or likely to happen. So, you can use these decision trees in
different situations, something to think about. So, if you specifically think about in terms of project expansion and
financial impact, this is used very commonly. So, if you have as a corporate house, if you are thinking of multiple
projects that you want to evaluate, based on the cost, based on the risk factor, based on timeliness, those are
parameters that you can weigh and then make a decision based on which of these, let’s say three projects that you
have and you want to undertake, you can undertake only one, which of those three projects that you want to
undertake. It could be, you can use a decision tree mechanism to do that. You don't even need a computer, but the
technique can be used.

Likewise, in terms of stock picking and option pricing techniques, you can use that. You can use different parameters,
what is the situation of the market today; how was it when the option, when the pricing was X, what was the stock
market doing at that time. We can base it on different interest rates, expiry dates, different parameters and then make
a decision as to whether it is good to go long or short or buy an option, buy a put whatever the case may be, and that's
where decision trees are used.

Let's look at the third type of ML technique and that is called logistic regression. This is a very powerful technique,
especially if you are trying to decide between X and Y, rather than actually trying to compute or impute a particular
value. So, it is a classification algorithm. It is used to predict the binary outcome, Yes or No, 1, 0 etc., and given a certain
set of variables that you have.

So, let's say, for example, if you say that, if the person is likely to have a certain type of cancer, have a certain type of
illness, certain type of reaction to medications, then you can say these folks are likely candidate for this type of
© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved
treatment, right; or you can say this person will not be applicable for this type of treatment. So, based on certain
number of independent variables that you may have, you can say, classify them to be saying that they are fit for a
certain type of treatment plan or not and it is very intuitive, it is very easy to you apply in different application methods,
but it is also helps you in terms of ensuring that it is efficient. It is fast. It doesn't require too much of computational
resources or computing resources and it is highly interpretable. So, it's either an Yes or No, 1 or a 0 and makes it easier.

So, it can be used for different things. I gave you example in terms of what kind of treatment plan, it can be used for
handwriting recognition. You can say, based on these criteria, whether this particular handwriting belongs to a male
or female, right-handed person or a left-handed person and a number of other factors; whether this person is a child
or an adult, all those kind of technique and all those type of outputs can be derived using this particular technique,
called logistic recognition. So, logic regression and then also in terms of whether based on certain words people use
in terms of or how they express their sentiment. Using the sentiment analysis, you can say this person is happy, this
person is depressed, this person is angry, etc. It makes it very easier.

The fourth technique in machine learning is outlier detection. So, let's assume that I have been using my credit card in
the locality, in let's say it's in Bombay and I have been using my credit card for the past 6 months. I have not gone out
due to certain situations, so most of my transactions are happening in Bombay, but suddenly I decide or suddenly the
system finds that my card has been used in Nigeria, my card has been used in in Brazil; my card has been used in UK;
what's happening. There is an anomaly to the pattern of my behaviour, so it's easy to then say that either a I am

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

traveling to all these different places or the system can find that there is an anomaly in the pattern of your behaviour
and that becomes an outlier.

So, if I was normally transacting all my business in Bombay, but suddenly you find all these different noise coming in,
those becomes outliers and the system once it is able to recognize these patterns and be able to detect and trigger an
event whether it is a signal that is given or an email that is sent or a text that is sent to say that hey, I suddenly find
that your pattern of card usage, your credit card usage is going from Bombay or in this or 50 kilometers within the
radius of Bombay and you are using it in places that you never used before, that is an anomaly.

And those kind of pattern detections are done, used very heavily in fraud detection techniques, in terms of any kind
of intrusion that may happen. So, if especially in the network, in the cyber security world people know that you know
certain IP addresses come all the time, but certainly if you are an educational institution and you suddenly find IP that
is trying to ping your servers from all different parts of the world, then that is an intrusion and so you are able to detect
them and take appropriate action.

And it can be used for fault detection, in case of manufacturing issues if you find that a particular widget, whatever it
may be is supposed to have a flat smooth surface and then it is able to find that as part of the manufacturing scanning,
visually it is able to inspect that there is a particular crack in there. It is an anomaly and it is able to detect and throw
that out and then as part of your manufacturing plant, you can identify and take appropriate action. It can go to a
different conveyor belt, so those are techniques that are used fairly regularly. So, in counter-terrorism operations,
when they do find any kind of anomalies, they can be detected out and so machine learning techniques are used and
programming is done to identify these type of anomalies and variations.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

The final machine learning technique that we will talk about is absolutely fantastic and it is a fabulous technique that
is used in various applications and it is called combinatorial optimization. It uses the word combination of different
variables and then comes up with the optimized solution.

So, let's explain this with an example. Let’s say, an airline is trying to send its fleet of airplanes from one city to another.
However, it has got, let's say 15 planes, but then there is a weather pattern and weather issues in one, let’s say in the
Bombay region, then it is not able to either take off or land planes into Bombay. So now, they are left only with 8
fleets. So, what is the mechanism by which they will be allocating where the flights will take off, what time they will
take off, where should it land if it is not able to land in Bombay; what is the mechanism it goes to that will do. So, here
is where the airline companies will step in and say this is what my operational issues are going to be solved by using
some of these combinatorial optimization technique.

Similarly, if you think about in a very classic way, it has been used in something called as a traveling salesman problem.
So, if you are in a sales and trade marketing organization, and if you are sending a number of salespeople every day to
a bunch of different say retail stores to sell, let's say Cadbury chocolates, right. They are going to sell the Cadbury
chocolates to different shops. How do you optimize in such a way that they are able to provide maximum coverage at
the same time be most profitable at the same time, right and if you have only a limited number of sales people, you
want to get the maximum coverage with the highest profitability? So, how do they spend their time in the day across

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

these different stores that they that may be selling Cadbury's chocolates. So, that is a very classic salesman problem.
And so the use of a combinatorial optimization technique would be very relevant from there.

So, that is one example. Another example is where your, let's say this amazon big warehouses. So, they have limited
space, even though they may be huge, these warehouses, but they still have to optimize the space. How do they stack
up maximum number of products within a particular bin or even if you think about your local Kirana stores, how do
they stack up sufficient level of items in the shelf space that is available to them? Some of them are really stacked up.
They are really small and narrow. How do they do that.

Now, obviously, you know the local salespeople will be, all tradesmen will be using their own intuitive measures, but
actually there are artificial intelligence machine learning techniques that can be used to optimize what type of products
needs to go into what bin. It is not necessarily always that the same product go into the same bin. Sometimes you
want to provide better access, so you may want to combine different products and those are the kind of techniques
that are used by big companies like Flipkart and Amazon, etc. So, combinatorial optimization is a very practical and
meaningful ML technique, ML meaning machine learning technique that is used in a real-world situation.

The sixth and final ML technique is recommendation engines. As you would know probably that recommendation
engines are used by many online retail and e-retailers to provide you the next best recommendation. So, they are

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

deriving this from a variety of factors based on the history of usage, based on preference behaviour, based on
sentiment analysis, or other types of segmentation techniques that we talked about before.

So, a recommendation engine can significantly boost revenues, provide better customer service and affinity to your
products and your company. It can also have very positive impact in terms of user experience, ultimately, because if I
am looking for, let's say, coconut oil online, if I buy coconut oil, they know that if I buy coconut oil, I may also be buying
something related to coconuts. Coconut water for all you know, right. So, they may say, you have already purchased
organic coconut water in the past, so I may want to recommend to you some other organic products, right, because
they know that people who have bought any type of organic foods may are likely to buy more of the same.

So, the ability to connect the dots across different types of parameters and variables is what recommendation engine
powerful and there are different ways and techniques by which you connect the dots across the different variables
within your dataset and be able to say that, based on all these different factors, this is what you do.

So, obviously classic example was Amazon started this with the books in terms of providing examples of saying, if you
have bought a mystery novel, then you are likely to also read other mystery novels. So, they will make
recommendations Based on what other viewers and other people who have read the books are recommending. It’s
likewise for Netflix. They made it really sophisticated from that perspective. When they used to ship out DVDs that
time they used to say within the DVD cover, they used to say people who have purchased this DVD have also seen

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

these other movies. So, if you are a romantic comedy type of person, if you watch Norton hill, they will recommend
some other movies from the same actors if you will or by the same director or from the same type of movie. So that
is a recommendation engine and so this hits from, especially on a retail side, recommendation engines are very useful.

So, you have now understood what machine learning is and the different technologies or techniques if you will within
machine learning. So, to get a better understanding of this from a deep learning perspective, we need to understand
what is the difference between deep learning and machine learning. So, in a nutshell or to summarize, machine
learning versus deep learning, if you look at it from across different parameters, be it in terms of the data volumes, be
it in terms of the outcomes and outputs, be it in terms of the how it works and how it is managed, there are some
distinct differences.

We touched on the data volumes. Obviously, it is much higher volumes of data you are using data lakes and big data
techniques in a deep learning mechanism, while you are using traditional data warehouses if you will from a machine
learning standpoint.

We also talked about the data types and the output that comes out, it may be on one hand in the machine learning, it
may be the scores or the probability and here it may be more free form outcomes from a deep learning perspective.
In terms of how it works. There is a lot of automation done on both sides of the equation, but in terms of deep learning,
what happens is it uses neural networks predominantly, but also it goes through multiple layers of processing and how
to interpret the data that becomes more useful for individuals, because it has to look at multiple features and
relationships in the data patterns.

How it is managed, algorithms and models are used typically directed by data analysis in a machine learning technique.
While in a deep learning, algorithms are largely self-directed on data analysis that is already done and then new
patterns are then evolved from that. So that's a key differences between machine learning and deep learning.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, where is deep learning used? Deep learning is used in real-time situations. Typically, if you are trying to launch a
Rover into or a Pathfinder to mars, for example, or if you are launching a space shuttle program and you wanted
dynamic configuration and changes in the paths depending on sort of situation. If there are asteroids is coming only if
there is so much that can be done by people sitting on the ground, you need to be able to dynamically change and do
that and then obviously they are going to process a whole different types of data, large volumes of data as well.

In terms of autonomous driving or driverless vehicles, where the machine has to react in a real-time basis based on
the condition of the road, the condition of the traffic around it, the condition of the vehicle itself, whether there are
any malfunctions in the vehicle, so it has to process a whole different sets of information. You know from basic speed
of the vehicle to the braking condition, whether the transmission fluid is there working or not. In case of the battery
levels have suddenly dropped for whatever reason or if it is you know traffic around the road and based on the visual
inspection and the cameras that it's used to capture it.

So, there is a number of factors which are not just numeric information and it is to process that and to be able to take
action right away and those are some of the areas where deep learning is normally applied.

In the previous segment, we looked at machine learning and deep learning. In this segment, we will look at other
artificial intelligence types, starting with natural language processing.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Now, what is natural language processing? These are computer programs or systems that allows for recognition,
analysis, and processing of spoken words or human languages. It could be in French, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil,
whatever. The ability for a computer or system to be able to translate what is being said from one language to another
is an important aspect of evolution. Where NLP has not advanced so far is the ability to understand the emotive nature
of spoken words.

So, for example, if I say, Oh God, what does that really mean; is it an exclamation; is it I am surprised; I am angry; what
is it, that interpretation, ability to interpret that is not mature at this point in time.

There are five key characteristics in a natural language processing program.

1. Number one is the automatic summarization of information. To extract the most important part of a sentence
in the words that is spoken and be able to eliminate those which are noise. So, for example, [noises] all those
are noise words. It should be able to eliminate those and take only the important aspects of a spoken word,
that is number one.
2. Translation. The ability to translate from one language to another, one dialect to another is an important
aspect of natural language processing.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

 3. The third is the named entity recognition. For every word that is spoken that the computer system absorbs, it
should be able to look up a library and understand what that word means and the right context and if it doesn't
exist, it should be able to populate the library with the new word that has been spoken.
4. The fourth is the sentiment analysis. The sentiment with which a particular word is spoken or a sentence is
spoken and the context around it should be able to understand and manipulate by NLP, and I think this is the
area where the algorithms have not matured as much. The ability to translate the sentiment in an appropriate
fashion is important that is because it is also very cultural. The way we say a particular expression in the U.S.
may be very different than the way expression is made in India versus the way it is made in Dubai and all these
things makes it more complex or even within India, the same expression could be said, the same words could
be spoken in Bangalore versus Bombay, but it could mean very different things.
5. The final thing, the fifth characteristic of NLP is topic segmentation. The ability to parse logical construction of
a sentence or a speech is an important aspect of NLP. That means it is able to say that okay, these are the
specific words that are associated with, connected with or due to based on the grammar of the language being
spoken. It could be the verb, the adjectives, the pronouns, it should be able to parse it together. If you are
speaking in mandarin, it has got a very different construct and that is the important aspect of NLP as well.

So, what are the technologies used for natural language processing?

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Primarily, neural networks and machine learning or deep learning is used for processing spoken words. Specifically,
we talked about supervised and unsupervised learning in the previous segment. Those techniques are used really
heavily. So, in supervised learning, there are very, very common lexicology and terms that are used in spoken words,
those are already in the library and in an NLP processing, it ensures that it looks up those words and is able to
appropriately interpret the language that is spoken. In an unsupervised learning technique that is used here is where
there are some new words or new combinations that are used. So, for example, if I use the word digital money transfer,
those three words by in and of itself can have one meaning, but when I use the words in combination, digital money
transfer has a very specific connotation and meaning and how it is interpreted and used and parsed and that is where
the unsupervised learning process comes into play. Likewise, if there are new terminologies, new words that are being
used and if we find that those particular algorithms are not correct, then appropriate reinforcement learning
techniques are used, both positive and negative.

So, the fine tuning of all these different natural language processing is using typical machine learning and deep learning
techniques that we discussed before. Now, you ask where is this being used. Obviously, the most common thing is
where you, if you have got a Siri or an Alexa, you use natural language processing or any voice activated GPS system.
You can speak the address and then the GPS is going to interpret what you have said and is able to handle and give
you the right directions.

In addition to that, in the business world, chatbots, voice activated chatbots are used heavily these days, be in banking
institutions, in other online retailers, they use voice activated, chatbots. From an HR perspective, resume analysis. So,
they are able to actually get the document in a voice activated fashion or if somebody is speaking in an interview
process, they are able to take that, they record the interview, and they are able to process the information that is
being spoken by the candidate and be able to pass out whether they are giving you the correct answer or not.

There are other applications as well in terms of social media trending topics, they are able to figure out as to what,
whether it is in podcasts or other types uh spoken languages where they are captured, YouTube videos, they capture
that information and able to process and say what is trending, what is not trending. Whether there are any kind of
misinformation, disinformation being propagated; those are all being basically using NLP. Similarly, police authorities
and crime fighting authorities, they use fraud detection, lie detectors using NLP these days.

So, there are various applications and it is going to continue to evolve. For example, if you think about ATMs, now you
have to slide in your car to open the ATM door, later on maybe it is possible that in addition to the biometrics, you can
© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved
voice activate the ATM, you can say open and it can open. So, it's almost like thinking about our legendary stories of
Alibaba and the 40 thieves, where you can actually open the ATM door and actually go in and get some cash and gold
maybe.

The third type of AI that we will discuss is speech analysis. Speech recognition is the process of extracting the correct
information and transcribe them into text or vice versa. Obviously, we need to ensure that the sanctity of the spoken
word or the textual information is correctly captured. So, in a typical speech to text or text-to-speech, you ensure that
there is a process by which we go through in transforming and digitizing and processing the information.

As the diagram shows, when the voice activated information comes in, it is essentially looked up from an existing
library and then appropriate signal is captured and transformed so that it is recognized as a speech and then
appropriately through the NLP processing or other techniques, they are either converted into text or they are
converted into specific codes for clarity and other purposes. So, speech analysis can be considered as part of the voice
processing, which converts human speech into digital forms, suitable for storage and for transmission and for other
purposes.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Likewise, speech synthesis is a function essentially that is a reverse of speech analysis. They convert speech data from
digital form from the original purpose to a textual form for playback purposes. So, speech analysis processes can also
be called as digital speech encoding and coding. Let us look at some characteristics of speech analysis. There are four
main characteristics and each of them are extremely important and connected to each other.

The first one is called language weighting. So, in language weighting, what happens is each word is given a particular
weight so that increases the preciseness of how a word is being used in speech. It is important to ensure that those
weights are used appropriately, because there may be some technical jargons, there could be some product names
that are being used in different contexts and those are being used to ensure that when the words are being used from
a library perspective to reference them, they are used appropriately. So, language weighting is an important aspect of
speech analysis because the same word could be used in different contexts.

The second is acoustics training. As I am speaking to you, I need to ensure that all the ambient noise is being filtered
out and being able to remove from the actual words and sentences being spoken and this is particularly important
when you are working in a call center or in other situations where there is a lot of ambient noise. Also, as part of the
acoustics training is the different types of pronunciation, my style, my pitch, my voice, all that will factor.

The third is speaker labeling. If you are in a conference call where there are multiple people, then I should be able to
ensure that as part of the speech analysis, parse out only those words that are ascribed to me as against my other

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

participants in the call. So, the ability to parse out based on who is speaking and what the words they are saying should
be also be captured and the sanctity should be maintained.

The fourth thing is around profanity filtering. There are certain phrases, again which is in the library that are considered
not correct. In some cases, it is okay, in certain situations. So, the ability to tag them and filter them out in an
appropriate situation of those words and those phrases is an important aspect of speech analysis.

So, given these characteristics, what are the techniques that are used from a technology perspective, again same thing,
deep learning, machine learning, some of these neural network capabilities are all the fundamental backbone in terms
of speech analysis, similar to natural language processing. Those two are very tightly meshed as well. So, whether it is
Apple or Google or Microsoft, all of them have strong basis for doing speech-to-text analysis and vice versa. So, we
talked about Alexa and Cortana and Siri and others as an application in the natural language processing, but obviously
it cannot be done by itself as NLP. It has to be done in conjunction with speech analysis.

Another example would be banking transactions. These days you can execute banking transactions using your smart
watch and speaking to it, transfer so much money to person Y without actually typing the information, without actually
entering your password, because it can do facial recognition, it can recognize that and then you can speak to your
watch and it will execute the transaction that is where the industry is moving. HR professionals are also using speech
analysis to determine whether the person who is speaking to you as interviewing is speaking the correct words in the
right manner and whether the person is lying or not, all those using sentiment analysis, they can determine whether
the candidate is truthful or not; whether a candidate is giving you the correct answer. Marketing professionals again
use voice activated rules for sales follow-ups, for presentations, and so and so forth.

Again, in terms of voice activation and speech analysis, nowadays cars are available that can be voice activated; to
start the engine; to turn on the heat; open the door, it is able to do that. So, there are several applications in the
business world as well as in the personal world where speech analysis would be relevant.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

The fourth type of AI is expert systems. What is an expert system? Expert is somebody who knows the ins and outs of
a particular activity or a process or a system and the ability to put it all together is a system.

So, an AI program that has the expert level of knowledge about a particular process. So, let's say, for example,
mortgage servicing or loan processing or tax preparation. If a system knows everything that needs to know about loan
processing or even taking loan applications, that can become an expert system. So, you don't even need human beings
to process loan applications or process estimations if you will, policy estimation.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, typically what happens in an expert system is a human being sits in the system and they program, it’s a supervised
learning in a way in terms of what are the decisions that are being made at every step of the way. If this person has
got greater than a particular credit score, then you offer at this percentage of interest. If a person has been rejected
before then what you do, if it's a combination of credit score being greater than the X and being rejected, then you
give a different interest rate. So, all these different combinations come into play in an expert system and then it could
be again a multistep process in a loan servicing or a mortgage processing and once this system has been completely
programmed looking at all the various combinations and permutations, then it basically eliminates the need for a
human being to be processing these.

It will save what kind of events and triggers that needs to be initiated at certain intervals. If the system determines
that it needs an approval from a human being or a supervisor, it initiates that process and it sends reminders. So, all
this is automated in an expert system. So, it understands operational flows, it understands the decision-making
processes, and it understands what data needs to be used when and how, that's the important part. So, along with
the logic, the decision-making activities and the data, an expert system is created.

So, what are the characteristics of an expert system?

1. Number one, it needs to be high performing; that means it needs to operate at the level of what a human
being does in terms of decision making.
2. Number two, it needs to provide enough quick response time. So, that means that if a decision needs to be
made and a human being is able to react and say yes, initiate the process, the system should be able to do
that as well. So, the latency needs to be reduced.
3. The third, it needs to be reliable. The reliability for an expert system comes from human beings that means it
just be consistent and predictable based on the decision-making process and the steps that it needs to
undertake.
4. Finally, an expert system needs to be understandable. The responses should be understood by human beings
just like if I am speaking to you, you are able to understand me; an expert system output also needs to be
understood.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, then what are the technologies used, low and beyond, it is the same type of technologies. You got your machine
learning, you got your deep learning pattern, recognition and natural language processing to be able to use in the
context of an expert system.

So, what are the applications? Again, the expert system, it requires a lot of time in the beginning initially to set it up,
but once you do set it up, the productivity and the efficiency gains are tremendous. So, however, because the
processes have to be somewhat stable, several organizations have tried to limit the scope of expert systems.

However, it has found some level of traction in the areas of tax preparation, in the areas of mortgage servicing, loan
processing, testing for students in an educational institutions. If there are specific data banks and if they know how to
answer these questions, whether they are subjective type or objective types in those situations they have been used.

So, the question again is because the world is changing so fast, is expert system as a concept outdated? That is
something that we can discuss and debate or is it something that needs to be absorbed more, should be taken in with
open arms and we do more of the expert systems, that’s an open question.

The fifth type of AI that we will look at is planning, scheduling, and optimizing. This is not the most glamorous of AI
types, but this is the most fundamentally used AI and it helps in industrial applications and several other operational
and logistical applications.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, what does it do, what does it mean? In any decision making, especially in a complex decision-making process or
operational problem, you have a whole slew of variables, whole different sets of variables and then within these
different sets of variables, you need to come up with an optimal solution to the complex problem and this problems
could be complex, not in terms of the types of information, but it could also be because of the vast amounts of data
that it needs to process.

So, if you look at an airline reservation system or an airport management system or if you think about a banking and
the securities trading platforms, there are so many factors that come into play and these variables needs to be
processed in a detailed manner, appropriate correlation and pattern matching needs to be done, and then ensure that
all the necessary resources, whether they are personal resources, in some cases, material resources in terms of data
resources, in terms of other external data points; all these needs to be baked in to come up with the most optimal
solution.

So, if they want to decide as to which particular plane needs to take off next, they have to bake in a number of
parameters, whether it is what is the weather situation in the destination city, they have to consider is to, they have
to ensure that there is appropriate allocation of gates for the different airlines and so on and so forth and also the
personnel, if the pilot has been sitting in the gate for more than 3 hours, then there is a legal and statutory limitation.
So, they have to take in a whole series of information into that to make the most optimal solution.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So that is where you know an expert system comes into play, they have to use a number of different technologies and
techniques, whether it is neural networks or logistical regression, most often than not and then obviously
combinatorial optimization that we talked about before.

So, what are the key characteristics in the planning, scheduling, and optimizing AI.

1. Number one, it needs to be high performing, just like the previous one we talked about. That means they
should be able to recognize these patterns and understand the optimized output in a very quick fashion. It
requires a lot of computing power from that perspective.
2. Number two, this is somewhat different, it has to be dynamic, because the variables can change, the data
patterns can change, it needs to be able to adapt and that is where some of the unsupervised learning process
comes into play. To ensure that as new data patterns come into play or new variables are added into the mix,
the regression techniques can change and so the optimal solution will be different with even a slight change
in the variability of the data or the variables itself.
3. Number three is iterative learning. As we look at planning and scheduling and optimizing, it has to be able to
recognize new patterns and be able to learn iteratively.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, multiple iterations trial and error methods, whether through reinforcement learning or otherwise, it needs to be
able to do that fairly quickly and so obviously we talk about dynamic programming that needs to be done and the
combinatorial optimization that needs to happen using some of the technologies we talked about before.

Applications, again, it could be in terms of warehouse management where they are, you know, if you are looking at
companies like Amazon, where they have to keep shipping almost every second they ship out around 800 products,
every second and they have to ensure that they are sending it out from the right warehouse and so they need to know
where the bins are and how many quantities needs to be stocked so that is a fairly complex thing. It is not even the
distribution. It is actually the warehouse management itself is a complex issue.

The distribution is another aspect to that. In terms of who needs, which van needs to be taking these specific products
and to the respective localities or addresses, because there could be multiple trucks going around. So that is a different
types of logistical and operational headache that people use these techniques.

Production planning, similarly, in terms of, if you are in a manufacturing sector and if you are manufacturing multiple
products using the same raw materials, how much to use when and where that becomes a challenge, especially if you
are thinking about heavy machinery, engineering industries. If you think about airplane manufacturing or automobile
manufacturing, there are probably millions of parts that are being used and how do they get that in appropriate fashion
because they don't want to maintain a lot of stock. So, for that purposes, planning, scheduling, and optimization
techniques are used.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, the sixth AI type that we will talk about is robotics. This is the most exciting world that we are going to be living in.

What are robots? I am sure that you may have already seen or played with robots. They are basically artificial agents
acting in the real world. So, they are basically objects that can do things that a human being does. For example, it can
pick, it can pick a mug, it can pick a pencil, it can move things, it can modify the physical property, so if you give the
robot a clay, it can do that.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Nowadays, robots can play music. There are different things a robot can do, typically mimicking the human being. So,
robots require specialists in the areas of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science to come
together to create that manifestation of the metal or whatever body that it is being developed in.

There are several characteristics for a robot.

Number one, because they are a mechanical construction, they can take any shape or form that you decide as an
engineer or a designer to do. Most of the times that you will find is that the robot kind of tries to look like a human
persona. It doesn't have to be. So, if you think about the vacuum cleaner Roomba or another model like that, they are
a round shaped robot that is going around and doing vacuuming the house. There are cats and dogs that are robots.
There are small instruments that carries food from one part of the town to another part of town, they don't have a
human form. They are still mechanical electrical objects but does something different.

The electrical components of a robot powers them with electricity so that they can appropriately control them and
move them and take actions. Clearly, they have a bunch of algorithms and computer science programs in there that
allows them to process information, process data in different forms.

So, those types of things that they may be able to process is if they have been given a camera, they can actually view
and look at what is going on in front of them and process that information. We will talk about computer vision in a
moment, but it is able to process that information, identify where the objects are along with the context of what they
are supposed to be doing. If any of you have seen some of those terminator movies in Terminator 2, for example, you
will find that there is a number of things a robot could do. In fact, those two protagonists were robots and they could
destroy, they could create, they can move, they can run that's exactly what a robot is.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, computer vision is an important element of technology used, neural networks because it has to process different
types of information and of course, NLP is used depending on how the robot is being used for what is being used for.

So, where is robots used? Clearly, robots in used in manufacturing platforms. They are used for handling or let's say,
car manufacturing, they are used for cutting, painting, welding, and so and so forth. In military operations, in the
military industrial complex, robots are used very heavily for either in war zones going through specific areas or actually
in disaster areas where they have to go and cut metals and help out in terms of doing specific activities that a military
personnel may do. Now, it may be done by robots.

The defense department DRDO in India, they have a robot called Daksh that is a crime fighting machine that helps in
terms of being able to destroy things that are not good for human beings and many of the police forces across the
world. They use some form of robot in crime fighting. It has become very common these days.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

In medicines, robots are used for doing surgery. Robotic arm surgeries that are used where human beings may not
have the precision or the stability of the hands, robots can be programmed where they can actually provide the
necessary incision on your body and go precisely to the point where it needs to take out, let’s say a tumor or something
else and suture it back. It can do it with precision.

Robots are used in exploration, in a geological exploration. It can go down deep into that earth space exploration. You
have seen those mars Rovers and Pathfinders; they are all robots. They just move around, collect samples of soil and
on the moon or in the mars, and they send it back or they analyse it. Those robots are able to analyse the chemical
composition of the soils and then send the pictures of the data back to earth. Robots are used there and in the
entertainment industry, obviously, they create hundreds of robots for movie making. I am sure that you may have
seen some of these movies in the Indian cinema as well, where robots are now used as a crime fighters or antagonists
or doing other things. So, it's used in movie making as well.

So, robots are going to be are here and now A and B, what is important to recognize is that robots are going to be used
very heavily in the banking and financial services industry. Already, banks like HSBC have got robots greeters in their
banks in Singapore and Malaysia, where when you walk into a branch, a robot will come and welcome you and try to
understand what your needs are and be able to take action accordingly. So, robots are here and now and so one needs
to be able to as when you think about a workforce of the future, you are going to be working with robots, mechanical
robots right next to you and that will be the future, may be 5, 10, 15 years from now.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

The final AI type is vision. Vision, type of AI enables a computer or a machine to become visually empowered. They
can recognize images.

What does that mean? Computer vision allows for automatically extracting relevant portions of an image, analysing
that, comprehending what that really means from an image perspective, from one single image. So, if a computer
vision is able to take my shot, it is going to ignore all the background information that is there and just look at me, my
face, and be able to process, whether I am happy, whether I am sad, whether I am growling, right. It is able to do that
automatically.

Comprehend various aspect of it. If I am holding a coffee mug, it is able to recognize that one image that I have a coffee
mug in my hand or I have a mug in my hand and is able to process that this person is drinking whatever is in the mug.

So, the ability for a computer vision to be able to do that, it follows through basically three main areas of computer
vision or what I call as characteristics.

1. Number one, it should be able to acquire the image that means it is able to translate from the analog world
to the digital world that is 0s and 1s, what the webcam or the camera is capturing. So, it is able to translate
my entire face and the cup that I am holding into 0s and 1s. Whether it is in a two-dimensional fashion or it's
in three-dimensional fashion. So that is the first characteristic of computer vision.
2. The second is, once it has been captured, it should be able to process that image. It should be able to use
appropriate algorithms to ensure that binary data is being used at the lower level of data 0s and 1s to say this
is part of this image or this particular image means certain things so that means it has to look up certain
libraries and process it in an appropriate way.
3. And the final thing is analyse and understand what is these high-level algorithms are applied to these images
and bits and 0s, it is able to connect the image data, along with the low-level information to say, okay, this
person is about to drink from a mug or this person is happy that he has got a mug in his hand. So, the ability
to process and analyse based on that one image is an important aspect.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Again, you will ask what are the technologies used. It is the same things. Neural networks is an important aspect of
computer vision. The ability to detect all the objects where one object ends, when another object begins is an
important aspect. If there are multiple people standing around and the main person that you want to capture is me,
then I should be able to eliminate, whereas my boundary finish and where the next one starts. So, deep learning
models are an important aspect from a technology perspective, along with computer vision that we are talking about.

So, all these things come together to ensure that the image is appropriately captured, processed, analysed, and
reproduced.

So, where is computer vision used? I am sure you can come up with a lot of examples. From traffic lights, nowadays if
you go to any major city in India, you will find traffic lights equipped with cameras and they are able to capture, not
just the fact that what the license plate of the vehicle is, but also the person sitting there and who is sitting in the
driver's side, whether the person is wearing a seat belt or not, you can capture all that information. It can also capture
the speed with which the person is traveling, whether the person is stopping at the traffic light or not. it is able to
capture all that information and be able to send it directly to the police authorities or wherever it needs to go and
issue the ticket based on that information.

In UK, most of the highways now don't have actually patrol cars. Only in case of accidents or emergencies do they
come because there are computer vision cameras every half a kilometer and they are able to track and what is going

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

on in on the roads and send signals out to the respective transport authority or the police department and if a person
on an average is speeding across multiple checkpoints, then they get issued a ticket automatically. That is a great
example of how computer vision is being used in real life situations.

And then other areas could be in terms of manufacturing. If you are manufacturing products and if you want to identify
defects or flaws in the output, you can use computer vision to even very minutely look for cracks or imperfections in
the output and then reject those products.

In terms of identity of objects, for example, if you wanted to identify new types of rocks, new types of birds, new types
of butterflies, new types of sea animals, you can send a robot with computer vision, they can spot new varieties of
fishes and animals and that could be compared to existing library of the different types of fish and that is one way to
find out new species.

You can also do industrial robot for understanding where the problem or issues maybe in the production line and
those could be used as well. So that is a combination of robots and vision.

You can also look at vision if you attach a computer vision with a drone and send it on to large swaths of agricultural
land. It can detect as to what the soil conditions are, what the humidity conditions are, what the weather patterns
that is coming, what it is going to do to the crops, and send those signals back. So, you can use a combination of drones
and computer vision and do some meaningful sense out of it using machine learning and deep learning, that's another
application where computer vision is used. So, there are several examples where computer vision is used and will
continue to be used more heavily.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Now that we have looked at different types of AI, let’s look at some techniques and strategies to implement artificial
intelligence in an organization. To do that, it is good to understand the basic models of how an organization operates
and works.

Typically, an organization will have certain external and certain internal stakeholder or elements. So, if you think about
an external stakeholder, it could be customers, vendors, competitors, regulators, and such. If you look at it internally,
there could be different types of stakeholders like employees; there could be management; there could be board
members, etc., and internal elements could also consider factors like our vision and vision of the organization; what
are the strategies that you want to employ; what are the appropriate constraints that you need to put in place to
execute your plans, all these things elements come into play when you think about an organization.

An organization also have certain operational challenges and demands and those could be things like your
organizational structure, the processes that you put in place, the policies, those are all things that can influence how
an organization operates and moves.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

So, before you start getting into implementing an AI, it is important to understand what is the main focus and strategy
for an organization. It could be different for different organizations, even within the same industry.

So, if you look at a pharmaceutical industry these days, it could be in terms of delivery of appropriate medications at
the right time. If you think about looking at it from an operational excellence standpoint, so companies like Walmart
and Flipkart want to focus on providing better and efficient service to their customers. If you think about banking and
other financial institutions, for them it is about gaining the trust of their customers.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

Or if you think about the market, if you wanted to gain marketing efficiencies and supremacy, companies like Samsung
and Apple, they are 0always at the forefront of that to gain better traction and improve their market share. Or if you
think about a hospitality industry, especially during stressed out times, hospitality industry is always thinking about
how to improve the customer relationship and intimacy, provide better products and services where customers feel
that they should always go to a particular brand, whether it is the Marriott hotels, the ITC, the Taj, whatever it may
be.

So, instead of picking up a particular AI project and start implementing, it is always good to understand what your
organization stands for, where is it that it wants to go, and then accordingly structure a pilot program or a program on
AI within that particular focus area. It provides much better throughput, much better traction with the stakeholders,
and also it has an immediate impact on the top line or the bottom line for an organization.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.

© Copyright 2019. UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved