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Artificial Intelligence is one of the technologies with the most growth expectations; in fact, Almudena Ruiz, director of the University Master's Degree in AI at UNIR, assures that in a few years we will not talk about the fact that there are companies that have incorporated it into their processes, but that they will all have it. "It will not be something exclusive to specialized businesses, but establishments such as a supermarket will also need artificial intelligence to manage their stock of products, to better place the products on the shelves or to organize, for example, the staff's schedules." And it is that, as the expert affirms, the weight of AI is "very important" and is a great ally of what is to come. “Its value lies in the fact that it is a transversal science, which goes beyond the technological field because it can be applied to all fields, from economics, to medicine, to education. «In all companies we can find something that this type of technology helps us improve, makes our work easier or makes us move forward. At the moment we only see the tip of the iceberg of its full potential.
We live surrounded by Artificial Intelligence systems, which is why one of the great challenges that lies ahead is to improve their dissemination. "It is very important that we know how it works so that each of us can educate the 'artificial intelligences' with which we deal daily." Almudena Ruiz gives the example of YouTube: it uses AI to recommend videos that we can watch, "but, of course, we have to know why they are specifically making us that offer, what data they have and how the algorithm behind it is working", has an impact, while defending educational work to lose the irrational fear of new applications and normalize their use.
It is already taken for granted that Artificial Intelligence will create more jobs than it eliminates and, in fact, the expert confirms that there is a growing demand for specialized professionals, among which data engineers stand out. "They are responsible for collecting, organizing and storing the data and generating the necessary structures to then work with them." His role is vital in any enterprise data analytics team. «At UNIR we offer this master's degree and it is one of the most demanded, we also offer a master's degree in Machine Learning Engineering, which is that person who knows algorithms very well, who knows how to make a machine learn from that data and make predictions. Another highly demanded profile, according to Almudena Ruiz and which is also included in the UNIR offer, is that of Specialist in Natural Language Processing, aimed at training specialists in the interaction of human language and a computer.
Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, can be a great ally for equality, as defended by the director of the UNIR master's degree. «From the point of view of equality, we still have a long way to go, above all we must give visibility to women who are in this so that girls who consider a technological career, say this is also for me. And let them see that it is not something just for men. Of course, women must be present in something so important and with so much future, they must be there, because it is necessary", he summarizes regarding this scientific discipline which, despite what one might think, is a very mature science, very advanced. «Investigation began around the 50s, the novelties have arrived lately with the new equipment that has been emerging».
Jorge Martija | CEO of EMOBOTICS
“Our app predicts health problems before they happen”
“Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, it is already possible to know if a person is going to have a health problem, if they are going to suffer from depression or even if there is going to be a breakup of a couple,” says Jorge Martija, CEO of the Riojan company EMOBOTICS, a pioneer in the research and development of artificial emotional intelligence for health care. The application they are working with is called The Health Predictor and its great contribution is that it is capable of predicting physical and psychological health problems before they happen. «The application is based on the monitoring of vital signs, biometric and psychometric data, as well as the user's facial gestures, their tone of voice, the type of word they use...». Students from UNIR's master's degrees in Artificial Intelligence have participated in the study of this new health service, through its internship program. «The experience has been mutually enriching; Among the students there were specialists in programming, big data, bioengineering..., with their work they have collaborated in the creation of those neural networks that allow us to predict physical and psychological health problems. In fact, we are negotiating the hiring of some of these students who have worked with us," says this expert, for whom one of the great values of AI is that it reduces the pressure on health professionals. "In the current situation there are patients who have not been able to be treated in time, our application is a more useful tool than ever, since it allows us to facilitate a timely diagnosis and detect if there is going to be a health problem."
David Sanchez Alonso | UNIR student
“The most interesting thing is helping others thanks to AI”
What caught the attention of David about EMOBOTICS when choosing his internship was that he could do it from his home and work with experts around the world. "It was very interesting because the director of the department was in Colombia and from there he coordinated us over the Internet." This young man from Mondragón takes away fundamental learning for his professional development. "What caught my attention most about the internships is the possibility of putting Artificial Intelligence at the service of groups that need help with their problems." Thus, he has had the opportunity to perfect natural language processing systems: the weapon that gives machines a voice. "We have to retrain the models, now they are very generalists." In addition, his team has focused on an application in which they have incorporated summarized information from Wikipedia.
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