It is indeed true that the history of AI or Artificial Intelligence is rather recent, and still has a lot of advancement and modifications to go through. While the actual history is a bit messy, we can trace back the first steps to the 1950s. In the year 1950, Alan Turing, who was an English mathematician and the pioneer when it comes to machine learning, published his famous “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, where he proposed a test that can check a machine’s capability of exhibiting intelligent behavior, which is at par with that of human intelligence. This test later came to be known as the “Turing test”.

History of AI and How AI Emerged –

Back in the 1950s, Nobert Weiner, who was a visionary mathematician, was first testing a version of his renowned Turning Machine through the help of a chess program. This turned out to be a successful experiment, and Turning gave it the name of “computers that can think”. As the machine became popular as the very first universal machine, it worked as a great opportunity for theorists to carry out experiments and explore ramifications within this universe of computers. However, this process was not very fast in accomplishing the promised results. If you are wondering that what is so fascinating about this Turing machine, it has to be that in theory, the sole reason that lets the machine achieve the human level of intelligence is a very specific device that is used to store all the data. 

The most recent advances in AI started as the number of problems that arise whilst training a computer started to grow and get out of hand. The most recent computational technologies such as training algorithms, speech recognition systems, and robot controllers are so complex that it is almost impossible to be supported by human players. In 2012, researchers first brought out DeepMind, which is a Google project that aimed to mine in the worldwide vast pool of data in order to conduct the earliest research works on virtualized AI. The first result of this program was the AlphaGo, which was successfully able to beat the human world champion of Go, an ancient Chinese game.

Role of an AI Scientist & What Does He Do –

Organizations in every sector of the industry are grappling today in order to make sense of the inordinate amount of data that disparately exists. The skills that are required to transform this vast ocean of unorganized data into something that can provide actionable insights, that can have a great impact on society, are in dire need everywhere. This includes everything from predicting the best treatment for diabetes to identifying national security threats and thwarting them. This is exactly why governments and business agencies are trying everywhere to recruit AI professionals who play a big role in doing the aforementioned things.

By extrapolating these insights and then sharing them with the organization, AI scientists can help the business organization to solve all their vexing problems. By working their way through a combination of computer science, statistics, analytics, modeling, math skills, with their sound sense of business, they can find the solutions to major business questions that can help enterprises in making better and thoroughly researched business decisions. AI scientists have to work closely with the stakeholders of a business in order to understand the goals of the organization and figure out how data can be put into use to achieve these goals. The role of an AI scientist ranges from designing data modeling processes to creating business algorithms, to creating predictive models in order to extract data according to the business’ needs.

Salary Prospect and Career Outlook of an AI Scientist –

By a number of ways, standing in today’s world, becoming an AI scientist is a hugely desirable career path. As a matter of fact, Glassdoor has ranked data scientists and AI career as 1 of the top 10 jobs in America, five times in a row, keeping into account their median base salary, satisfaction rates of the employees, and the number of job openings that are active at any moment. Similarly, Harvard Business Review has given data science the title of “the sexiest job of the 21st century,” also mentioning that the highly ranked professionals with great training as well as curiosity to make huge discoveries in this world of big data are always in high demand. 

Not only the companies from the Fortune 500 but every business from startups to midsize to huge agencies and organizations have already started to see the huge value that is in capitalizing on big data and Artificial Intelligence. It was way back in time that Google Chief Economist Hal Varian predicted the huge need for AI scientists, reporting that the capability of understanding data, of processing and extracting value from it, and also to visualize and communicate this value – is going to turn into a hugely sought after skill in the upcoming decade.

According to the reports published by Robert Half Technology’s 2020 Salary Guide, an average artificial intelligence scientist earns an annual salary that approximately ranges between 105,750 USD to 180,250 USD per year. As a data scientist tends to gain more experience, they tend to earn even more.

Improving AI Skills

Today AI skills are scarce among the AI workforce, due to which a lot of positions are vacant. Most employers are looking for AI professionals who come with a professional and advanced degree, such as an AI certificationsprovided by MIT, United States Artificial Intelligence Institute (USAII™), Stanford University, Coursera. By enrolling in these certification programs, the candidates gain a core competitive edge to their skills in everything from the basics to advanced level AI and data science.

FINAL WORD

As we have already established, data science and AI are some of the top job prospects in today’s world. Make sure that you are fully prepared to be a part of this industry by equipping yourself with AI skills and certifications!