Educating young people in AI, machine learning and data science

A recent Forbes article reported that over the last four years the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in many business sectors has grown by 270%. Artificial Intelligence has a history dating back to Alan Turing’s work in the 1940s. Now we can define AI as the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.

Four key areas of AI are machine learning; robotics; computer vision and natural language processing. Other advances in computing technology mean we can now store and efficiently analyze colossal amounts of data (big data). Consequently data science was formed as an interdisciplinary field combining mathematics; statistics and computer science. Data science is often presented as intertwined with machine learning as data scientists commonly use machine learning techniques in their analysis.

AI impacts everyone, so we need to teach young people about it

Artificial Intelligence and data science have recently received huge amounts of attention in the media because machine learning systems are now used to make decisions in areas such as healthcare; finance and employment. As of yet; very few countries have incorporated any study of AI and data science in their school curricula or computing programmes of study.