Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Someone please give me a magic wand so that I won’t have to talk to those ogres.

I currently work in what some people call “data science” and others call “artificial intelligence and machine learning.” Each day I read something about the “democratization of data science” and the “democratization of artificial intelligence or machine learning or both or all or something.”

Whew. “Democratization” is actually a word in some dictionaries. Other dictionaries wrinkle their nose at the appending of appendages onto “democracy.”

What these “democratizations” mean is that everyone else will be able to do a technology without having to be a specialist with advanced degrees or certifications or something else that everyone else doesn’t have.

I have heard of these things for over 40 years. “This new tool will allow you to program a computer without programming a computer!”

What that really means is, “This new tool will allow you to do things without having to talk to those people who have knowledge that you don’t have.”

We could have the democratization of medicine, plumbing, construction (wouldn’t you go into a high-rise building built by people who know nothing about construction?), and everything.

One solution is to teach the specialists how to be nice to the non-specialists. You know, transform those ogres into handsome princes or something. I guess making a new tool that replaces the ogre is easier than make the ogre nice. We shall see.