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Data Analytics Newsletter #14
January 2020
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The Data Analytics Practice Committee (DAPC), the Young Data Analytics Working Group (YDAWG) and the Institute are pleased to bring the latest in the world of Data Analytics to your inbox, and to share some of our recent work with you.
In this first edition of the Data Analytics Newsletter for 2020, we look back at the year that was 2019. The previous 12 months have not been without controversy for big data and machine learning, and there were many interesting discussions and questions raised on the role of big data and machine learning within the community.
Contents
1. Privacy crackdown a key theme of 2019
2. Top Articles and Podcasts of 2019
3. Updated AI and ML products hit the market
4. Impact of AI and ML in emergency response questioned
5. Generative Models and Deep Fakes
6. Rise of AI raises tensions among global heavyweights
7. Innovations continuing at a rapid pace into 2020 and beyond
Privacy crackdown a key theme of 2019
Right to privacy in a big data world was a continual theme throughout 2019, with Facebook receiving a $5 billion fine for deceiving users about their ability to control their privacy in July, while the US state of California will implement laws similar to Europe’s GDPR from 1 January 2020.
Top Articles and Podcasts of 2019
Were there any that you missed? Actuaries Digital released a number of articles and podcasts in 2019. Here are the Top 20 Articles and Top 10 Podcasts of the year, with some content relevant to data analytics specialists.
Once again. it’s worthwhile to remind all our readers that presentation materials from past Institute events can be found on the knowledge bank. This includes the Data Forum and the Young Actuaries Program YDAWG 'R' course earlier in 2019.
Updated AI and ML products hit the market
The market for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) products continued to develop strongly in 2019. A roundup of commercial product changes in 2019 can be found here.
Meanwhile, open source projects continue to see further attention and development. Recently, Uber has open-sourced yet another data science tool, this time for visualising and debugging models. Google’s neural network library, TensorFlow, received a 2.0 update. Finally, the popular Python package Pandas has, after 12 years of development, officially reached version 1.0.0 in January 2020.
Impact of AI and ML in emergency response questioned
Is the black box model effective? Can a simple model work just as well as a complex model? These are important technical questions for practitioners to ask as the media continue to report a number of examples with machine being less successful than hoped. This included the use of predictive analytics in emergency response, and “one neuron” simple logistic regression
outperforming neural networks in predicting earthquake aftershocks.
Generative Models and Deep Fakes
With improvements in generative, there is greater scope to use “deep fakes” to create fraudulent and misleading images and other media. As well as the impact on new reporting, this may present an emerging risk for fraud for financial institutions and insurers. Microsoft, Facebook and the Partnership on AI coalition is sponsoring the Deepfake Detection Challenge, which is continuing in 2020.
Rise of AI raises tensions among global heavyweights
Machine learning and artificial intelligence have found applications in a number of fields, and 2019 saw controversy on applications such as for mass surveillance and military use. These included Google’s potential partnerships with the US Military and US government putting export controls in place of specific AI technology to China.
Innovations continuing at a rapid pace into 2020 and beyond
Research in deep learning continued to make progress in 2019 and it seems likely that new and exciting applications will continue into 2020! We look forward to sharing those with you as they emerge.
Editor's note
The new year is a good time for resolutions. What’s your personal development goals in data analytics? Please write them to me if you’d like extra motivation!
We are always on the lookout for new content to contribute to future editions of the Newsletter. If you come across any interesting data analytics articles, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Past editions of this Newsletter are now available here.
Jacky Poon
Editor, Data Analytics Newsletter
Disclaimer: The Institute wishes it to be understood that any opinions put forward in this publication are not necessarily those of the Institute.
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