Today’s post will discuss the article, “The iBrain Is Here and It’s Already Inside Your Phone,” which is an exclusive inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple.

I remember noticing awhile ago that voice recognition on my Apple Watch had suddenly improved. This article explains why, discussing many aspects of how Apple uses AI in the background to help the end user. For example:

• When a caller who is not in your contact list, but is someone you emailed recently, is identified
• When you get a reminder of an appointment that you never got around to putting in your calendar
• When the phone points you to where you parked your car even though you never asked it to

In the case of Siri, Apple moved from using hidden Markov models to machine learning techniques including deep neural networks.

“This was one of those things where the jump was so significant that you do the test again to make sure that somebody didn't drop a decimal place,” said Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services.

Takeaways to think about:

• Great AI can be transparent to the end user – it just makes everyday chores better.
• If AI is the brain, then big data is the food for the brain … and the brain has a massive appetite. AI feeds off lots of data from many data sources – e.g. phone data linked to email data or map data linked to hotel calendar data. What can you do to build an integrated GLplus data strategy as the foundation for “invisible apps” that will make everyday accounting chores better and provide valuable insights on your GLplus data?

The next post in this series will be focused on how AI is likely to be used in accounting.  Talk to you next week!

Note: This is part four of a six-part series for CFOs who are thinking about how they can optimize their business by being more data driven.  Here is the full series of blog posts:

• Part 1, introduction: Reading for the Data-Driven CFO
• Part 2, big data and the general ledger: “GLplus” – Making Your General Ledger the Center of Gravity for Your Data Strategy
• Part 3, dashboards and analytics: Twitterize Your Chart of Accounts
• Part 4, invisible AI: Invisible AI: A Glance at Your iPhone and Its iBrain
• Part 5, AI and accounting: The Power of AI for Accounting
• Part 6, strategy and conclusion: The 2017 Journey for the Data-Driven CFO