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ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Dr Goodnight wants us to sleep easy about AI
Many of the artificial intelligence industry’s newer entrants hope to build their fortunes on the mystique surrounding AI concepts
For a man who almost single-handedly invented the data analysis industry back when personal computers barely existed, Dr Jim Goodnight has a remarkably uncluttered view of the evolution of information technology. "Not a lot has changed," he told Business Times this week. "Computers are still doing pretty much the same thing, just a billion times faster. The jobs they do keep getting bigger, and the problems they tackle keep getting bigger." Goodnight founded the SAS Institute in 1976, the same year Apple started, and built it up to become the world's largest privately held software company. Long before the phrase "big data" was the flavour of the moment, SAS was employing its analytical software to crunch massive amounts of information for most of the US's biggest businesses. Today, artificial intelligence is the new software Holy Grail - and deathly peril, to hear some commentators speak - but Goodnight says he has also seen this before. Speaking on the sidelines of the SAS Analyti...
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