Amazon.com Chief Technology Officer Dr. Werner Vogels
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Bengaluru: Technologist Dr Werner Vogels has said that good data and good Artificial Intelligence (AI) are both vital.
"Good AI needs good data, good data needs good AI, and good work needs good people,” he said during a talk hosted by IISc.
The event — titled ‘AI for Good’ — explored various applications of Artificial Intelligence in enhancing societal and industrial outcomes.
Dr Vogels, who began his career as a radiologist in his native the Netherlands before transitioning to technology, is now the Chief Technology Officer and Vice-President of Amazon.
"By 2050, we’re expected to have two billion more people on this planet. How do we ensure they have an economic future and access to universal healthcare? Technology should be used to solve the world’s biggest challenges,” he remarked.
Contrary to popular belief that AI is a recent phenomenon, Dr Vogels pointed out that Amazon has been using AI for over 20 years to provide personalised recommendations, ensure quality control and prevent the sale of counterfeit goods.
According to Dr Vogels, the bottom-up approach in AI — focusing on recreating human capabilities like natural language processing, speech processing, translation, object detection, forecasting, personalisation and fraud detection — has been extremely useful in practical applications. “Data is a privileged asset, and we need to democratise it for the greater good,” he said.
As an example, he spoke on the work of the non-profit organisation ‘Thorn’, which uses a massive database of images of missing children and women to identify matches in online prostitution ads. Their efforts have led to the rescue of 18,000 victims, including 6,000 children, and the identification of one million files of child sexual abuse on digital platforms.