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Custom Object Detection: Exploring Fundamentals of YOLO and Training on Custom Data – Towards Data Science

Deep learning has made huge progress over the last decade, and while early models were hard to understand and apply, modern frameworks and tools allow everyone with a bit of code understanding to train their own neural network for computer vision tasks.

In this article, I will thoroughly demonstrate how to load and augment data as well as the bounding boxes, train an object detection algorithm, and eventually see how accurately were able to detect objects in the test images. While the available tool kits have become much easier to use over time, there are still a few pitfalls you might run into.

Computer vision is both a very popular and, even more, a broad field of research and application. Advances that have been made in deep learning, especially over the last decade, tremendously accelerated our understanding of deep learning and its broad potential of usage.

Why do we see those advances right now? As Francois Chollet (the father of Keras library) describes it, we witnessed an increase of computational capabilities in CPUs that rose by a factor of roughly 5000, just between 1990 and 2010. Investments in GPUs have even gotten research further.

In general, we see three essential tasks that are related to CV:

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Streamline Data Pipelines: How to Use WhyLogs with PySpark for Data Profiling and Validation – Towards Data Science

Components of whylogs

Lets begin by understanding the important characteristics of whylogs.

This is all we need to know about whylogs. If youre curious to know more, I encourage you to check the documentation. Next, lets work to set things up for the tutorial.

Well use a Jupyter notebook for this tutorial. To make our code work anywhere, well use JupyterLab in Docker. This setup installs all needed libraries and gets the sample data ready. If youre new to Docker and want to learn how to set it up, check out this link.

Start by downloading the sample data (CSV) from here. This data is what well use for profiling and validation. Create a data folder in your project root directory and save the CSV file there. Next, create a Dockerfile in the same root directory.

This Dockerfile is a set of instructions to create a specific environment for the tutorial. Lets break it down:

By now your project directory should look something like this.

Awesome! Now, lets build a Docker image. To do this, type the following command in your terminal, making sure youre in your projects root folder.

This command creates a Docker image named pyspark-whylogs. You can see it in the Images tab of your Docker Desktop app.

Next step: lets run this image to start JupyterLab. Type another command in your terminal.

This command launches a container from the pyspark-whylogs image. It makes sure you can access JupyterLab through port 8888 on your computer.

After running this command, youll see a URL in the logs that looks like this: http://127.0.0.1:8888/lab?token=your_token. Click on it to open the JupyterLab web interface.

Great! Everythings set up for using whylogs. Now, lets get to know the dataset well be working with.

Well use a dataset about hospital patients. The file, named patient_data.csv, includes 100k rows with these columns:

As for where this dataset came from, dont worry. It was created by ChatGPT. Next, lets start writing some code.

First, open a new notebook in JupyterLab. Remember to save it before you start working.

Well begin by importing the needed libraries.

Then, well set up a SparkSession. This lets us run PySpark code.

After that, well make a Spark dataframe by reading the CSV file. Well also check out its schema.

Next, lets peek at the data. Well view the first row in the dataframe.

Now that weve seen the data, its time to start data profiling with whylogs.

To profile our data, we will use two functions. First, theres collect_column_profile_views. This function collects detailed profiles for each column in the dataframe. These profiles give us stats like counts, distributions, and more, depending on how we set up whylogs.

Each column in the dataset gets its own ColumnProfileView object in a dictionary. We can examine various metrics for each column, like their mean values.

whylogs will look at every data point and statistically decide wether or not that data point is relevant to the final calculation

For example, lets look at the average height.

Next, well also calculate the mean directly from the dataframe for comparison.

But, profiling columns one by one isnt always enough. So, we use another function, collect_dataset_profile_view. This function profiles the whole dataset, not just single columns. We can combine it with Pandas to analyze all the metrics from the profile.

We can also save this profile as a CSV file for later use.

The folder /home/jovyan in our Docker container is from Jupyter's Docker Stacks (ready-to-use Docker images containing Jupyter applications). In these Docker setups, 'jovyan' is the default user for running Jupyter. The /home/jovyan folder is where Jupyter notebooks usually start and where you should put files to access them in Jupyter.

And thats how we profile data with whylogs. Next, well explore data validation.

For our data validation, well perform these checks:

Now, lets start. Data validation in whylogs starts from data profiling. We can use the collect_dataset_profile_view function to create a profile, like we saw before.

However, this function usually makes a profile with standard metrics like average and count. But what if we need to check individual values in a column as opposed to the other constraints, that can be checked against aggregate metrics? Thats where condition count metrics come in. Its like adding a custom metric to our profile.

Lets create one for the visit_date column to validate each row.

visit_date_condition = {"is_date_format": Condition(Predicate().is_(check_date_format))}

Once we have our condition, we add it to the profile. We use a Standard Schema and add our custom check.

Then we re-create the profile with both standard metrics and our new custom metric for the visit_date column.

With our profile ready, we can now set up our validation checks for each column.

constraints = builder.build()constraints.generate_constraints_report()

We can also use whylogs to show a report of these checks.

Itll be an HTML report showing which checks passed or failed.

Heres what we find:

Lets double-check these findings in our dataframe. First, we check the visit_date format with PySpark code.

+----------+-----+|null_check|count|+----------+-----+|not_null |98977||null |1023 |+----------+-----+

It shows that 1023 out of 100,000 rows dont match our date format. Next, the weight column.

+------+-----+|weight|count|+------+-----+|0 |2039 |+------+-----+

Again, our findings match whylogs. Almost 2,000 rows have a weight of zero. And that wraps up our tutorial. You can find the notebook for this tutorial here.

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Streamline Data Pipelines: How to Use WhyLogs with PySpark for Data Profiling and Validation - Towards Data Science

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Harness the Data Tsunami: Master the Waves of Data Science in 2024 – Medium

Data science is no longer just a hot buzzword; it is the key to unlocking hidden insights, driving profitable decisions, and innovating across industries. But with the explosion of data science courses, choosing the right one can feel like navigating a jungle of options. Fear not, intrepid data explorer! This blog is your trust map, guiding you through the exciting landscape of data science education and helping you find the perfect course to catapult your career into the stratosphere.

First things first: Why enroll in a data science course?

You can try to learn it all on your own sifting through blogs, tutorials, and mountains of documentation. But a good data science course offers much more:

Now, let us explore the diverse terrain of data science courses:

Finding your perfect match:

The ideal course depends on your learning style, budget, and career goals. Consider these factors:

Pro tips for choosing the right data science course:

Remember, the journey to data science mastery is yours to own. Choose a course that fuels your passion, ignites your curiosity, and equips you with the skills to conquer the data deluge.

Ready to embark on your data science adventure? Start exploring, ask questions, and find the course that aligns with your unique path. And remember to have fun on the way!

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Does Using an LLM During the Hiring Process Make You a Fraud as a Candidate? – Towards Data Science

Employers, ditch the AI detection tools and ask one important question instead.

I saw a post on LinkedIn from the Director of a Consulting Firm describing how he assigned an essay about model drift in machine learning systems to screen potential candidates.

Then, based on criteria that he established based on his intuitions (you can smell it) he used four different AI detectors to confirm that the applicants used ChatGPT to write their responses to the essay.

The criteria for suspected bot-generated essays were:

One criteria notably missing: accuracy.

The rationale behind this is that using AI tools is trying to subvert the candidate selection process. Needless to say, the comments are wild (and very LinkedIn-core).

I can appreciate that argument, even though I find his methodology less than rigorous. It seems like he wanted to avoid candidates who would copy and paste a response directly from ChatGPT without scrutiny.

However, I think this post raises an interesting question that we as a society need to explore is using an LLM to help you write cheating during the hiring process?

I would say it is not. Here is the argument for why using an LLM to help you write is just fine and why it should not exclude you as a candidate.

As a bonus for the Director, Ill include a better methodology for filtering candidates based on how they use LLMs and AI tools.

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130 Data Science Terms Every Data Scientist Should Know | by Anjolaoluwa Ajayi | . | Jan, 2024 – Medium

So lets start right away, shall we?

1. A/B Testing: A statistical method used to compare two versions of a product, webpage, or model to determine which performs better.

2. Accuracy: The measure of how often a classification model correctly predicts outcomes among all instances it evaluates.

3. Adaboost: An ensemble learning algorithm that combines weak classifiers to create a strong classifier.

4. Algorithm: A step-by-step set of instructions or rules followed by a computer to solve a problem or perform a task.

5. Analytics: The process of interpreting and examining data to extract meaningful insights.

6. Anomaly Detection: Identifying unusual patterns or outliers in data.

7. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance): A statistical method used to analyze the differences among group means in a sample.

8. API (Application Programming Interface): A set of rules that allows one software application to interact with another.

9. AUC-ROC (Area Under the ROC Curve): A metric that tells us how well a classification model is doing overall, considering different ways of deciding what counts as a positive or negative prediction.

10. Batch Gradient Descent: An optimization algorithm that updates model parameters using the entire training dataset (different from mini-batch gradient descent)

11. Bayesian Statistics: A statistical approach that combines prior knowledge with observed data.

12. BI (Business Intelligence): Technologies, processes, and tools that help organizations make informed business decisions.

13. Bias: An error in a model that causes it to consistently predict values away from the true values.

14. Bias-Variance Tradeoff: The balance between the error introduced by bias and variance in a model.

15. Big Data: Large and complex datasets that cannot be easily processed using traditional data processing methods.

16. Binary Classification: Categorizing data into two groups, such as spam or not spam.

17. Bootstrap Sampling: A resampling technique where random samples are drawn with replacement from a dataset.

18. Categorical data: variables that represent categories or groups and can take on a limited, fixed number of distinct values.

19. Chi-Square Test: A statistical test used to determine if there is a significant association between two categorical variables.

20. Classification: Categorizing data points into predefined classes or groups.

21. Clustering: Grouping similar data points together based on certain criteria.

22. Confidence Interval: A range of values used to estimate the true value of a parameter with a certain level of confidence.

23. Confusion Matrix: A table used to evaluate the performance of a classification algorithm.

24. Correlation: A statistical measure that describes the degree of association between two variables.

25. Covariance: A measure of how much two random variables change together.

26. Cross-Entropy Loss: A loss function commonly used in classification problems.

27. Cross-Validation: A technique to assess the performance of a model by splitting the data into multiple subsets for training and testing.

28. Data Cleaning: The process of identifying and correcting errors or inconsistencies in datasets.

29. Data Mining: Extracting valuable patterns or information from large datasets.

30. Data Preprocessing: Cleaning and transforming raw data into a format suitable for analysis.

31. Data Visualization: Presenting data in graphical or visual formats to aid understanding.

32. Decision Boundary: The dividing line that separates different classes in a classification problem.

33. Decision Tree: A tree-like model that makes decisions based on a set of rules.

34. Dimensionality Reduction: Reducing the number of features in a dataset while retaining important information.

35. Eigenvalue and Eigenvector: Concepts used in linear algebra, often employed in dimensionality reduction to transform and simplify complex datasets.

36. Elastic Net: A regularization technique that combines L1 and L2 penalties.

37. Ensemble Learning: Combining multiple models to improve overall performance and accuracy.

38. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA): Analyzing and visualizing data to understand its characteristics and relationships.

39. F1 Score: A metric that combines precision and recall in classification models.

40. False Positive and False Negative: Incorrect predictions in binary classification.

41. Feature: data column thats used as the input for ML models to make predictions.

42. Feature Engineering: Creating new features from existing ones to improve model performance.

43. Feature Extraction: Reducing the dimensionality of data by selecting important features.

44. Feature Importance: Assessing the contribution of each feature to the models predictions.

45. Feature Selection: Choosing the most relevant features for a model.

46. Gaussian Distribution: A type of probability distribution often used in statistical modeling.

47. Geospatial Analysis: Analyzing and interpreting patterns and relationships within geographic data.

48. Gradient Boosting: An ensemble learning technique where weak models are trained sequentially, each correcting the errors of the previous one.

49. Gradient Descent: An optimization algorithm used to minimize the error in a model by adjusting its parameters.

50. Grid Search: A method for tuning hyperparameters by evaluating models at all possible combinations.

51. Heteroscedasticity: Unequal variability of errors in a regression model.

52. Hierarchical Clustering: A method of cluster analysis that organizes data into a tree-like structure of clusters, where each level of the tree shows the relationships and similarities between different groups of data points.

53. Hyperparameter: A parameter whose value is set before the training process begins.

54. Hypothesis Testing: A statistical method to test a hypothesis about a population parameter based on sample data.

55. Imputation: Filling in missing values in a dataset using various techniques.

56. Inferential Statistics: A branch of statistics that involves making inferences about a population based on a sample of data.

57. Information Gain: A measure used in decision trees to assess the effectiveness of a feature in classifying data.

58. Interquartile Range (IQR): A measure of statistical dispersion, representing the range between the first and third quartiles.

59. Joint Plot: A type of data visualization in Seaborn used for exploring relationships between two variables and their individual distributions.

60. Joint Probability: The probability of two or more events happening at the same time, often used in statistical analysis.

61. Jupyter Notebook: An open-source web application for creating and sharing documents containing live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text.

62. K-Means Clustering: A popular algorithm for partitioning a dataset into distinct, non-overlapping subsets.

63. K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN): A simple and widely used classification algorithm based on how close a new data point is to other data points.

64. L1 Regularization: Adding the absolute values of coefficients as a penalty term to the loss function.

65. L2 Regularization (Ridge): Adding the squared values of coefficients as a penalty term to the loss function.

66. Linear Regression: A statistical method for modeling the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables.

67. Log Likelihood: The logarithm of the likelihood function, often used in maximum likelihood estimation.

68. Logistic Function: A sigmoid function used in logistic regression to model the probability of a binary outcome.

69. Logistic Regression: A statistical method for predicting the probability of a binary outcome.

70. Machine Learning: A subset of artificial intelligence that enables systems to learn and make predictions from data.

71. Mean Absolute Error (MAE): A measure of the average absolute differences between predicted and actual values.

72. Mean Squared Error (MSE): A measure of the average squared difference between predicted and actual values.

73. Mean: The average value of a set of numbers.

74. Median: The middle value in a set of sorted numbers.

75. Metrics: Criteria used to assess the performance of a machine learning model, such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score.

76. Model Evaluation: Assessing the performance of a machine learning model using various metrics.

77. Multicollinearity: The presence of a high correlation between independent variables in a regression model.

78. Multi-Label Classification: Assigning multiple labels to an input, as opposed to just one.

79. Multivariate Analysis: Analyzing data with multiple variables to understand relationships between them.

80. Naive Bayes: A probabilistic algorithm based on Bayes theorem used for classification.

81. Normalization: Scaling numerical variables to a standard range.

82. Null Hypothesis: A statistical hypothesis that assumes there is no significant difference between observed and expected results.

83. One-Hot Encoding: A technique to convert categorical variables into a binary matrix for machine learning models.

84. Ordinal Variable: A categorical variable with a meaningful order but not necessarily equal intervals.

85. Outlier: An observation that deviates significantly from other observations in a dataset.

86. Overfitting: A model that performs well on the training data but poorly on new, unseen data.

87. Pandas: A standard data manipulation library for Python for working with structured data.

88. Pearson Correlation Coefficient: A measure of the linear relationship between two variables.

89. Poisson Distribution: A discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time or space.

90. Precision: The ratio of true positive predictions to the total number of positive predictions made by a classification model.

91. Predictive Analytics: Using data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes.

92. Principal Component Analysis (PCA): A dimensionality reduction technique that transforms data into a new framework of features, simplifying the information while preserving its fundamental patterns.

93. Principal Component: The axis that captures the most variance in a dataset in principal component analysis.

94. P-value: The probability of obtaining a result as extreme as, or more extreme than, the observed result during hypothesis testing.

95. Q-Q Plot (Quantile-Quantile Plot): A graphical tool to assess if a dataset follows a particular theoretical distribution.

96. Quantile: A data point or set of data points that divide a dataset into equal parts.

97. Random Forest: An ensemble learning method that constructs a multitude of decision trees and merges them together for more accurate and stable predictions.

98. Random Sample: A sample where each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.

99. Random Variable: A variable whose possible values are outcomes of a random phenomenon.

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Philosophy and Data Science Thinking Deeply about Data | by Jarom Hulet | Jan, 2024 – Towards Data Science

Part 3: CausalityImage by Cottonbro Studios from Pexels.com

My hope is that by the end of this article you will have a good understanding of how philosophical thinking around causation applies to your work as a data scientist. Ideally you will have a deeper philosophical perspective to give context to your work!

This is the third part in a multi-part series about philosophy and data science. Part 1 covers how the theory of determinism connects with data science and part 2 is about how the philosophical field of epistemology can help you think critically as a data scientist.

Introduction

I love how many philosophical topics take a seemingly obvious concept, like causality, and make you realize it is not as simple as you think. For example, without looking up a definition, try to define causality off the top of your head. That is a difficult task for me at least! This exercise hopefully nudged you to realize that causality isnt as black and white as you may have thought.

Here is what this article will cover:

Causalitys Unobservability

David Hume, a famous skeptic and one of my favorite philosophers, made the astute observation that we cannot observe causality directly with our senses. Heres a classic example: we can see a baseball flying towards the window and we can see the window break, but we cannot see the causality directly. We cannot

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2024: The Year of the Value-Driven Data Person | by Mikkel Dengse | Jan, 2024 – Towards Data Science

Its been a whirlwind if you worked in tech over the past few years.

VC funding declined by 72% from 2022 to 2023

New IPOs fell by 82% from 2021 to 2022

More than 150,000 tech workers were laid off in the US in 2023

During the heydays until 2021, funding was easy to come by, and teams couldnt grow fast enough. In 2022, growth at all costs was replaced with profitability goals. Budgets were no longer allocated based on finger-in-the-air goals but were heavily scrutinized by the CFO.

Data teams were not isolated from this. A 2023 survey by dbt found that 28% of data teams planned on reducing headcount.

Looking at the number of data roles in selected scale-ups, compared to the start of last year, more have reduced headcount than have expanded.

Data teams now find themselves at a chasm.

On one hand, the ROI of data teams has historically been difficult to measure. On the other hand, AI is having its moment (according to a survey by MIT Technology Review, 81% of executives believe that AI will be a significant competitive advantage for their business). AI & ML projects often have clearer ROI cases, and data teams are at the center of this, with an increasing number of machine learning systems being powered by the data warehouse.

So, whats data people to do in 2024?

Below, Ive looked into five steps you can take to make sure youre well-positioned and aligned to business value if you work in a data role.

People like it when they get to share their opinions about you. It makes them feel listened to and gives you a chance to learn about your weak spots. You should lean into this and proactively ask your important stakeholders for feedback.

While you may not want to survey everyone in the company, you can create a group of people most reliant on data, such as everyone in a senior role. Ask them to give candid, anonymous feedback on questions such as happiness about self-serve, the quality of their dashboards, and if there are enough data people in their area (this also gives you some ammunition before asking for headcount).

End with the question, If you had a magic wand, what would you change? to allow them to come up with open-ended suggestions.

Survey resultsdata about data teams data work. It doesnt get better

Be transparent with the survey results and play it back for the stakeholders with a clear action plan for addressing areas that need improvement. If you run the survey every six months and put your money where your mouth is, you can come back and show meaningful improvements. Make sure to collect data about which business area the respondents work in. This will give you some invaluable insights into where youve got blind spots and if there are specific pain points in business areas, you didnt know about.

You can sit back and wait for stakeholder requests to come to you. But if youre like most data people, you want to have a say in what projects you work on and may even have some ideas yourself.

Back in my days as a Data Analyst at Google, one of the business unit directors shared a wise piece of advice: If you want me to buy into your project, present it to me as if you were a founder raising capital for your startup. This may sound like Silicon Valley talk, but he had some valid points when I dug into it.

ExampleML model business case proposal summary

Business case proposals like the one above are presented to a few of the senior stakeholders in your area to get buy-in that you should spend your time here instead of one of the hundreds of other things you could be doing. It gives them a transparent forum for becoming part of the project and being brought in from the get-goand also a way to shoot down projects early where the opportunity is too small or the risk too big.

Projects such as a new ML model or a new project to create operational efficiencies are particularly well suited for this. But even if youre asked to revamp a set of data models or build a new company-wide KPI dashboard, applying some of the same principles can make sense.

When you think about cost, its easy to end up where you cant see the forest for the trees. For example, it may sound impressive that a data analyst can shave off $5,000/month by optimizing some of the longest-running queries in dbt. But while these achievements shouldnt be ignored, a more holistic approach to cost savings is helpful.

Start by asking yourself what all the costs of the data team consist of and what the implications of this are.

If you take a typical mid-sized data team in a scaleup, its not uncommon to see the three largest cost drivers be disproportionately allocated as:

This is not to say that you should immediately be focusing on headcount reduction, but if your cost distribution looks anything like the above, ask yourself questions like:

Should we have 2x FTEs build this in-house tool, or could we buy it instead?

Are there low-value initiatives where an expensive head count is tied up?

Are two weeks of work for a $5,000 cost-saving a good return on investment?

Are there optimizations in the development workflow, such as the speed of CI/CD checks, that could be improved to free up time?

Ive seen teams get bogged down by having 10,000s dbt tests across thousands of data models. Its hard to know which ones are important, and developing new data models takes twice as long as everything is scrutinized through the same lens.

On the other hand, teams who barely test their data pipelines and build data models that dont follow solid data modeling principles too often find themselves slowed down and have to spend twice as much time cleaning up and fixing issues retrospectively.

The value-drive data person carefully balances speed and quality through

They also know that to be successful, their company needs to operate more like a speed boat and less like a tankertaking quick turns as you learn through experiments what works and what doesnt, reviewing progress every other week, and giving autonomy to each team to set their direction.

Data teams often operate under uncertainty (e.g., will this ML model work). The faster you ship, the quicker you learn what works and what doesnt. The best data people are careful always to keep this in mind and know where on the curve they fall.

For example, if youre an ML engineer working on a model to decide which customers can sign up for a multi-billion dollar neobank, you can no longer get away with quick and dirty work. But if youre working in a seed-stage startup where the entire backend may be redone in a few months, you know sometimes to balance speed over quality.

People in data roles are often not the ones to shout the loudest about their achievements. While nobody wants to be a shameless self-promoter, theres a balance to strive towards.

If youve done work that had an impact, dont be afraid to let your colleagues know. Its even better if you have some numbers to back it up (who better to put numbers to the impact of data work than you). When doing this, its easy to get bogged down by implementation details of how hard it was to build, the fancy algorithm you used, or how many lines of code you wrote. But stakeholders care little about this. Instead, consider this framing.

Dont be afraid to call out early when things are not progressing as expected. For example, call it out if youre working on a project going nowhere or getting increasingly complex. You may fear that you put yourself at risk by doing so, but your stakeholders will perceive it as showing a high level of ownership and not falling for the sunk cost fallacy.

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2024: The Year of the Value-Driven Data Person | by Mikkel Dengse | Jan, 2024 - Towards Data Science

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Bayesian Inference: A Unified Framework for Perception, Reasoning, and Decision-making – Towards Data Science

Photo by Janko Ferli on Unsplash

the most important questions in lifeare indeed, for the most part, only problems in probability. One may even say, strictly speaking, that almost all of our knowledge is only probable.

Pierre-Simon Laplace, Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

Over 200 years ago, French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace recognized that most problems we face are inherently probabilistic and that most of our knowledge is based on probabilities rather than absolute certainties. With this premise, he fully developed Bayes theorem, a fundamental theory of probability, without being aware that the English reverend Thomas Bayes (also a statistician and philosopher) had described the theorem sixty years ago. The theorem, therefore, was named after Bayes, although Laplace did most of the mathematical work to complete it.

In contrast to its long history, Bayes theorem has come into the spotlight only in recent decades, finding a prominent surge in its applications in diverse disciplines, with the growing realization that the theorem more closely aligns with our perception and cognitive processes. It manifests the dynamic adjustment of probabilities informed by both new data and pre-existing knowledge. Moreover, it explains the iterative and evolving nature of our knowledge-acquiring and decision-making.

In addition, Bayesian inference has become a powerful technique for building predictive models and making model selections, applied broadly in various fields in scientific research and data science. Using Bayesian statistics in deep learning is also a vibrant area under active study.

This article will first review the basics of Bayes theorem and its application in Bayesian inference and statistics. We will next explore how the Bayesian framework unifies our understanding of perception, human cognition, and decision-making. Ultimately, we will gain insights into the current state and challenges of Bayesian intelligence and the interplay between human and artificial intelligence in the near future.

Bayes theorem begins with the mathematical notion of conditional probability, the probability

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Harnessing data science to turn information into investment insights – HedgeWeek

PARTNER CONTENT

Northern Trusts Investment Data Science capabilities offer a curated suite of solutions that help institutions digitise their investment process, enabling faster and smarter investment decisions. Paul Fahey, Head of Investment Data Science, chats to Hedgeweek about growth opportunities and the drivers of client demand and current challenges facing the hedge fund industry

Where do you see the most significant opportunities for growth in the coming year?

Technology has altered how managers operate and how they analyse their data, and there are opportunities for hedge fund managers to make better use of decision-support tools. Perhaps the greatest opportunity for growth is related to artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), which has the potential to revolutionise how businesses operate.

Northern Trust continues to research this technology to make processes more efficient. The desire to incorporate Gen AI into business models will continue to grow due to its capacity to manage data, streamline content creation and workflow processes, enhance risk assessment and foster innovation. Successful execution will depend on the development of human skillsets and the quality and the quantity of the data underpinning the models.

Can you outline the most impactful drivers of client demand in the coming year?

Access to quality data and advanced technologies remain critical drivers of client demand. Now more than ever, firms are looking to harness the power of data science and analytics to turn information into meaningful insights. Northern Trusts Investment Data Science and its partnership with Equity Data Science (EDS) enables clients to optimise their investment process and deliver enhanced outcomes through scalable and repeatable decision-making. The power of these tools enables institutions to enrich their investment process, delivering faster and smarter investment decisions.

What have been the biggest drivers of growth within your business?

Several factors have contributed to the growth of Northern Trusts Investment Data Science business. Notably, increased interest in data analysis due to flexible, cost-effective and powerful solutions that leverage modern technology becoming commercially viable to deploy towards improved decision-making and higher productivity. Managers are looking beyond merely collecting data and are now asking what they can do with the data to drive measurable outcomes and, ultimately, investment performance. Northern Trust offers tools to answer these questions. Another driver of growth has been the recent advancements in AI. These combined factors are shaping how investment decisions are made and portfolios are managed in a data-driven and technologically advanced environment.

Which are the most significant challenges in the hedge fund industry right now and how can they be best mitigated?

Challenges facing hedge fund managers today are similar to ones they have always faced: how to generate alpha and distribute their product. To do this, they must become better at managing their data.Yet collecting and updating data can be extremely time consuming and daunting for managers that are stretched to the limit. Changes to the competitive and regulatory environments have further impacted managers research management process, prompting a need for increased transparency and integration into investment decisions, unleashing the value of a managers own data.

With the advent of state-of-the-art cloud-based platforms, many of these challenges have solutions. As investment teams seek to differentiate themselves, leveraging leading technology to improve decision-making is critical. Digitising the process enables the capture of decisions that were not made or taken, adding further intelligence to the managers ability to generate alpha and attract clients.

What role can technology play in portfolio risk management?

Recent advancements in technology provide the tools and analytical capabilities to assess, monitor and mitigate risks associated with investment portfolios. Technology can help aggregate data inputs, simplify research management and idea generation, streamline risk modelling and backtesting, and create a transparent, digital environment to execute, measure, and refine the investment process. Integrating advanced technologies that provide real-time data analysis, can help assess risk and enable portfolio risk mitigation strategies contributes to the overall resiliency and stability of an investment portfolio.

Paul Fahey, Head of Investment Data Science, Northern Trust

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The Future at the Intersection of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science – Medriva

The Impact of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science on the Future

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data science are driving a seismic shift in various aspects of our society. From how we work, communicate, and even how we live, the impact of these technologies is far-reaching and transformative. As we continue to navigate the digital age, it is clear that AI, machine learning, and data science will play a pivotal role in shaping an enlightened future.

AI and machine learning are revolutionizing industries and shaping the future of work and society. From healthcare and finance to transportation, these technologies are reinventing how businesses operate. One of the key ways that AI and machine learning are transforming industries is by automating tasks and improving efficiency. This is particularly evident in the healthcare industry, where AI-driven predictive analytics are helping to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.

AI and machine learning are not only changing how we work, but they are also creating new job opportunities. The rise of AI has led to the emergence of new roles such as AI specialists and data scientists. Furthermore, generative AI is reshaping the future of work by making it possible for anyone to learn new skills and knowledge quickly and easily. This opens up new opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, ensuring that workers can adapt to the changing job landscape.

As AI continues to advance, the quality of data used to train AI models becomes increasingly important. The accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness of AI models are directly related to the quality of the data used in their training. Therefore, ensuring data quality is a crucial aspect of AI model development. This involves addressing challenges to data quality and implementing best data quality practices for AI projects.

While AI and machine learning offer numerous benefits, they also raise important ethical questions. As these technologies become more widespread, concerns about job displacement and privacy issues are growing. It is therefore crucial that as we continue to develop and implement AI and machine learning technologies, we also consider their ethical implications and work towards solutions that benefit all members of society.

As we look to the future, it is clear that AI, machine learning, and data science will play a central role in shaping our world. From revolutionizing industries and creating new job opportunities to raising important ethical questions, these technologies are at the forefront of societal change. As we continue to navigate this evolving landscape, it is crucial that we understand the potential of these technologies and harness them to create an enlightened future.

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The Future at the Intersection of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science - Medriva

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