CARY – Jim Goodnight, one of the first to develop and then pursue data analytics dating back to his days as a professor at N.C. State, is now the “godfather” of Artificial Intelligence, according to CNBC. And here’s what Goodnight sees coming next as AI grows bigger in education, manufacturing, research and much more.
“I believe we will see things like computer vision — which involves machines capturing, processing and analyzing real-world images and video to extract information from the physical world — being used. Anything we can see with our eyes we can train a computer to recognize as well. This will be transformative — especially in the autonomous driving sector and in medicine,” Goodnight, the CEO and co-founder of Cary-based SAS, says in an interview with CNBC.
“Over the past few decades, sensors and image processors have been created to match or even exceed the human eye’s capabilities. With larger, more optically perfect lenses and nanometer-scaled image sensors and processors, the precision and sensitivity of modern cameras are incredible, especially compared to common human eyes. Cameras can also record thousands of images per second, detect distances and see better in dark environments.
“Already computer vision is making a difference in health care. The medical community is using it to interpret CT scans. SAS is working with Amsterdam University to identify the size of tumors in cancer patients more accurately.”
CNBC cites Goodnight’s pioneering work in analytics (the story doesn’t mention John Sall, the co-founder of SAS and another anayltics pioneer) as earning him the “godfather” label. SAS has been a pacesetter in analytics since launching in 1976.
