Part of what Ken and I try to do, and the primary purpose of ControlTrends, is to cull the internet for things that can radically affect those of us who play in the Smart Buildings Controls space. Big Data and analytics is something we have been talking about for a while and we are either using it, providing it, or selling around it. At this stage of the game, it has created a business opportunity that many have embraced. Someone has to connect the data to some form of filtering or to an analytics platform to make the data useful. But what happens when data no longer needs a human interaction?
Check out this video, courteous of the Wall Street Journal. If you are like me, it will shock you, scare you, and intrigue you. Whatever you think about the video, you cannot ignore what these business leaders are telling you is happening.
The idea of using AI, or a self-learning algorithm, to by pass the need to write rules is not new to the smart buildings controls world, check out our April 16, 2016, interview with Dr. Igor Mezic, who was at the time, Ecorithm’s Chief Scientific and Technology Officer. Dr. Mezic purposed that by using AI, he only needed data from sensors and his self-learning algorithm would learn the correlations to allow the building and equipment to operate at peak performance. The system would also become predictive in such a way as to optimize servicing of equipment and reduce or possibly eliminate the need for human diagnostics.
We have not heard from Dr.Mezic since he was kind enough to grant us the interview. Whether or not he was successful is not the point. If we are to believe what we are being told in this video, it is not a question of if this will happen in our industry but when. And lets hope that the when is a long long time from now.
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