Data Science

Tay is a combination chatbot and AI system designed by Microsoft to "engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation." It was specifically "targeted at 18 to 24 year olds in the U.S., the dominant users of mobile social chat services in the U.S." If the words "designed" and "targeted" are off-putting, then you're really not going to care for one of the system's recent, now infamous, tweets ... but, there is much, much more to learn from Microsoft's mistake. Continue Reading →

What made move 37 so interesting is that no one expected it. It was early in game two of the million-dollar Google DeepMind Challenge Match, and AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by Google, placed its 19th stone on a part of the game board that no human Go master would have considered. Some called it a "mistake." Others called it "creative" and "unique." But considering that AlphaGo went on to win its third game in a row against one of the strongest Go players in the world, the move should probably have been called what it really was: "intuitive." Continue Reading →

Hello Barbie! is an IoT-enabled Barbie Doll with blonde hair, blue eyes and a built-in surveillance system. She's not the first of her kind (and she won't be the last), but here's what you should know about bringing it, or any connected device, into your home. Continue Reading →

Bots generate more than half the traffic on the public Internet. This is indisputable. In fact, the Association of National Advertisers believes that advertisers will lose $6.3 billion globally to bots in 2015. This will not stop until someone (the marketers, the government, the justice department) makes it stop because everyone – the ad networks, the traffic sellers, the bot creators, the publishers, the ad agencies, the trading desks, the DMPs, the SSPs, everyone – except the marketers – is making money. Continue Reading →

The Arabic hashtag #stab is something I'd rather not see on a social media post. Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, recently showed a version of the instructional graphic that accompanied that hashtag to the UN Security Council with the English-language title, "How to Stab a Jew." Mr. Danon was making a point – but also describing a form of warfare so new it does not yet have a name. Continue Reading →

Up to now, all marketers have been active engagement specialists: get consumers’ attention, get them to do something. But over the next few years, digitally enhanced marketers will emerge. Continue Reading →

“Have a magical day!” is the way Disney cast members wish you farewell. They’re not kidding. The “happiest place on earth” does its best to make it so. The cast members (Disney-speak for employees) help, but Walt Disney World is well on its way to achieving consciousness. How? As Arthur C. Clarke so eloquently stated, Continue Reading →

How can mature brands drive growth? The answer might be found with beer, Pop-Tarts and a simple algorithm. Continue Reading →

In a perfect world, you just hire a bunch of data scientists, have them deploy clever algorithms, and the machine will output a clear path to higher sales, better ROI and world peace. Sadly, that’s not how it works.  Continue Reading →

Data science is all the rage.  Almost every CMO I know wants a data scientist for their very own – they are the status symbol du jour for senior executives everywhere.  But… building the right data science team for your organization is not as easy as picking the right data scientist.  Continue Reading →