Artificial Intelligence – friend or a future foe?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the power to change the world, for the better or the worse. But let’s not think in such a black and white manner. Let’s explore the top arguments for and against AI, and try to discern if this exciting technology is about to cause our doom or eternal bliss.

Just stop and think about AI for a second. What pops into your head? Is it a sense of hope and optimism about our future? Or an eerie feeling that leaves you wondering if humanity is in danger?

You’d be right not to have a biased view. There’s a lot to consider here, and we’re here to recap on the key factors. 

The world of robots, automation, and the bright – or not so bright – future of humanity are all complex matters. And we’re bringing you the top 4 arguments for, and against AI. But first, let’s sort out the basics.

The difference between AI and ML

The two terms don’t mean the same thing even if people tend to use them interchangeably.

  • AI, that is Artificial Intelligence is the bigger, more complex concept. To create Artificial Intelligence means to simulate the thinking capability and behaviour of humans in machines.
  • ML, that is Machine Learning, on the other hand, is happening when an AI learns from data without being programmed to do so.

So AI is to mimic human intelligence and get machines to carry out tasks in a smart, humane way. All the while ML allows machines to learn from data and become even smarter overtime.

AI at the moment is pretty far from where Skynet is in The Terminator, but that doesn’t mean it won’t get there at a point in the future.

So what is AI currently capable of?

Well, amazing things for sure, but not world dominance. It can do:

  • Profiling – Based on a person’s actions, choices, and preferences. Just think about your Netflix or Spotify recommendations.
  • Predictions – Using data to predict future events. Remember those projections and charts about the pandemic? Yup, that was AI in its prime.
  • Pattern recognition – To find patterns in behaviour, and to show the anomalies. It’s there when Google suggests things, or when Gmail finishes your sentences.
  • Natural language – To understand the way humans communicate, and to be able to react in a similar way. Think Siri and Alexa, but also chatbots that pop up on your screen.
  • Object identification – It can detect objects that it was trained to recognise. Think self-driving cars and in-time recognised obstacles.
  • Goal achievement – This is present in video games, where you play against the computer. The ML algorithm can learn on its own in any environment, and win, with maximised outcome.

So yes, AI is already advanced but it’s nowhere near the state to dominate the world. And we’re still a long way from the singularity.

Still, even in its “infancy”, it can be harmful and cause disruptions to our societal fabric. Let’s see why some loud voices in the discussions surrounding AI say that it will cause our doom:

What are the top 4 downsides of Artificial Intelligence?

Just look at the TV shows and movies of our time. They endlessly project and predict a dystopian future, and you might be inclined to think in terms of The Matrix or The Terminator when it comes to AI. Because in the end, robots might really win, take our jobs, and destroy the world.

Now, if we look at the actual negative traits of this amazing technology, the picture becomes a tad more realistic, but it still causes concern in a lot of people. AI is currently not – and hopefully will not become – an all-powerful, all-knowing consciousness that sets out to destroy humanity. The more realistic negatives lie in the details and AI’s general faults that come with such a versatile, smart technology. 

These are the main negatives:

1. AI makes critical choices but is inherently inhumane

Algorithms have been tasked to make life-altering choices many times. And not all instances have gone by without accidents. Self-driving cars are the future but there’s still a lot to learn for the AI brain. Just check the Moral Machine for an eerie kick of mistrust towards the technology. Algorithms might be able to think more efficiently than humans, but they need to be taught what is and isn’t humane.

2. AI causes unemployment and replaces humans in jobs

This is the most complex argument among all and it needs deeper investigation. AI, in general, can add value to jobs with various augmentations, however, automation technologies that use ML will likely replace humans in the long run. Research shows that 48% of experts believed AI will replace a large number of blue- and even white-collar jobs. This will create income inequality, increased unemployment, and slowly but surely a breakdown of the social order.

3. AI discriminates

Artificial Intelligence frequently fails to recognise and censor racial slurs but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Algorithms often amplify societal problems, like gender bias or the spreading of false information.

4. AI is a risk to our personal privacy

Do you feel watched? That’s because you probably are when you’re out and about living your daily life. 75 out of 176 countries globally are actively using AI for surveillance. Facial recognition is a prime example of unwanted attention and can be used to passively watch people without their approval.

What are the top 4 reasons to root for an even smarter AI?

The positive list is just as impressive as the negative side. AI really does have the potential to change lives for the better and to take humanity to a utopian future. AI fans believe that it depends on us, humans, where we take this technology and how we use it. AI can definitely already help increase productivity and is therefore a major objective in current digital strategies of innovative companies.

1. AI improves efficiency

Since data is worth more than oil, it’s necessary to process it with the utmost accuracy. And there’s nothing more efficient than AI when it comes to data processing. It’s quick, accurate, and processes data in real-time.

2. AI can eradicate human error

The AI workforce will never make mistakes because of stress, tiredness, or illness. Especially when it comes to risky, even dangerous tasks like inspecting roofs. In the case of these jobs, AI can replace the human element and mitigate incidents. Just think humans on top of roofs doing extremely dangerous tasks. Now change up the picture and let a drone fly there, able to notice and fix problems on the spot. In many instances, it’s safer and faster to let AI do the job.

3. AI makes everyday life simple and convenient with smart technology

At the moment, smart homes are not the norm, but in an optimistic view, AI will power entire smart cities in the future. Life is more simple and convenient thanks to smart technologies, and many people think that this will only get better with time.

4. AI improves our health and supports people living with disabilities

One of the main benefits of AI lies in helping people who otherwise couldn’t live a fulfilling, independent life. At the moment, Siri, Alexa or Cortana help millions perform simple tasks. But these solutions will exceed all expectations soon. Smart thermostats, lighting, and plugs can be automated to work on a schedule, and apps like Wheelmap already provide users with critical information like wheelchair accessibility. What’s more, deep learning algorithms are already better at identifying skin cancer than dermatologists.

And where do you stand on Artificial Intelligence?

Now that we’ve seen all the pros and cons, what do you think about the state of AI? And where do you think it will take us? We believe that what we do with this technology depends on us, people, to a great extent, and especially on today’s developers. 

If you’ve set your mind on utilising AI for efficiency and productivity in your company, you’ll need digital professionals who’re at the top of their game to set that AI up, and develop your systems so that help get there. With our help, you can find the right people who’ll take your organisation through a successful digitalisation.

Also, as more and more jobs become automated, it’s critical for your businesses to have a strategy in place that can help your employees develop new skills. We can help with re- and upskilling your existing teams to give your employees the digital skillset that your organisation might be lacking now.

Reach out and let’s talk business! We’ll help you speed up the delivery your digital strategy and business goals.

Hope to talk to you soon.

Meet cool leaders: Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner, CM @Codecool Austria

Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner

In this new blog post series we’re sitting down for a chat with people making the Codecool vision happen. Please meet Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner, Country Manager of Codecool Austria.

Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner

If you want to meet inspiring people, Codecool is a great place to be. Everyday we meet hundreds of smart, ambitious and cool students that study with us to change their careers and our shared digital future. And we meet innovative, great leaders with a vision from hiring companies, that employ our students to build a digital future.

But it’s not only our students and partners that inspire us. We also make sure to work with colleagues that are equally amazing, and make the Codecool mission and vision come to life.

We had a chat with one of these colleagues about her current goals, challenges and outlook on the future. We’re super excited and proud to introduce her to you finally. Please meet Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner, Country Manager of our newest school, Codecool Austria.

Sigrid, how would you introduce yourself, if you were not allowed to mention your work? 🙂

I am a family person who is constantly looking for new experiences, and enjoys adventure and action with family and friends. I love nature, and prefer to be outside in the mountains to hike, climb, bike or ski.

What is your work now actually? What are you responsible for?

As Country Manager, I am currently responsible for getting the Vienna location up and running. I try to pay particular attention to what can work well in Vienna and combine those approaches with the successful existing experiences from the other countries.

In addition to the business aspects, it is particularly important to me to create a good team structure and a cool workplace. Also, to enable the students to receive the best possible training.

What did you do before?

For the last 10 years I was sales and marketing manager at a digital learning solutions provider. Before that, I had many years of experience in sales of e-recruiting and software solutions.

During my studies, I focused on knowledge management and eLearning, which prepared me well for a job in education.

Why did you decide to come work for Codecool? What do you like most about your new workplace?

The Codecool business model immediately convinced me: the market needs IT specialists now and in the coming years, and we help people to gain new qualifications.

Personally, of course, I was intrigued by the challenge of setting up a location here in Vienna. And most of all: I like the people at Codecool 🙂 

Sigrid Hantusch-Taferner 2
What's the biggest goal that you set out for yourself in Codecool?

My biggest goal is to continuously improve over the next 3 years, and become a well-known and renowned training institution here in Austria.

What do you see as your biggest challenge currently?

Our biggest task today is to reach our potential students with the right message. We want them to see Codecool positively, as a great place to start a future-proof career.

What trends do you see in the world that impact your work at Codecool most?

The most important trend impacting us today is the growing talent gap. The baby boomers are now retiring, while, of course, everything will be digitally controlled in the future – from city administration to our cars and our stoves.

Where do you think Codecool is going on the short and long term?

I believe that re- and up-skilling people who are already employed is becoming more and more important.

In the long term this means that we are becoming more and more the corporate partner to offer tailor-made training and further education for special needs.

Why do you think hiring companies should partner up with Codecool?

Hiring companies can get great junior talents from us. Talents, who really want to change their lives, and who are enthusiastic, and well-prepared for their first tech job.

How do you see our shared digital future?

Together we will manage to solve social, economic and ecological problems through digital transformation.

It’s our chance to make the world we live in an even better place.

Scrum in programming training – Tips and benefits

Businesses go agile for better quality products, happier customers and more productive teams. But agility and frameworks like Scrum are super advantageous during the learning process too. We’ll take you behind the scenes to show you how we implement Scrum into our teaching method, and why this is good for you.

The agile way of working is not just a buzzword in the world of IT. 

Today, more than 70% of companies worldwide use agile methods in IT or for their business processes. While IT was the first sector to implement agile values in software development, companies saw the perks, and started rethinking their whole organisation using agile principles, in the scope of large-scale agile transformations.

In software development, most companies made their pledge to the Scrum framework to implement core agile values. Scrum can be a useful addition in the learning process, too, and we’ve decided to make it an integral part of our teaching method.

But what is it about agile that makes it so effective? And why is it so beneficial to use it to teach programming? 

First, let’s see what it really means to go the agile way.

 

A quick recap on agile

Agile relies on self-organising, cross-functional teams, and it’s a more reactive, more flexible way of organising your company. 

The 4 basic agile values are:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

Agile prioritises the human element and holds your customer’s satisfaction above all. And we just have to look at the numbers to see that it’s really working. From the 70% of companies that adopted agile, 98% said that it helped to achieve their previously set business goals.

Why? Because agile frameworks can enable your team to create better products by changing specifications and designs on time. They can get up-to-date feedback from customers, and test parts of the product as the process goes. Mistakes or changes in business needs can peacefully coexist with initial plans, and everything can be dealt with on time.

This overall philosophy leads to more productive teams, higher quality products, and satisfied customers. 

 

Transform your business with the power of agility

Agile stopped being the IT sector’s secret ingredient a long time ago. So whatever your business profile may be, you can start an agile transformation to make your organisation respond to change better and faster. 

Going agile just for the sake of it will by no means be a guaranteed solution to all your problems. But it could break silos, and enable a more collaborative way of working within your organisation. For example, your IT, HR, and Sales departments could be working together in a more connected way to solve problems and deliver amazing products.

To go agile, you could:

  • transform one section of your company with agile and build a supportive, more traditional business structure around it, or
  • apply agile values to your entire organisation, and all the different departments within.

To start the transformation you should do a detailed assessment of your business.  And if you’ve been wondering, there’s absolutely no need for an already existing agile team within your organisation, and you might as well start from the ground up.

 

Go agile in programming training, too

To implement agile values in software development, there are a lot of different frameworks you could use. The most well-known and widely-used is definitely Scrum. To implement Scrum effectively in IT, you’ll need a team of developers who’re clear on agile values, Scrum roles, and ceremonies.

And that’s exactly why we made Scrum an integral part of the Codecool way of learning, too. To make sure that our juniors will be well-prepared for individual and teamwork in any Scrum project, as well as continuous learning in their future careers.

Codecoolers learn and work with Scrum from day 1: they do sprint planning, take on the role of the Scrum Master during sprints, and even work with Product Owners (acted out by our mentors) and real customers (representatives from our partner companies). 

Through lifelike projects and real-life inspired user stories, they also learn valuable soft skills, like teamwork, time management, effective presentation, conflict resolution, and assertive communication. They continuously give and receive constructive feedback, and learn what it takes to study on their own. 

But let’s see in detail, how we do all this.

 

Scrum in action at Codecool

At Codecool we use the below elements from the Scrum methodology in our flagship Full-Stack Development course:

  • the Scrum Master and the Product Owner roles,
  • sprints (with ceremonies, like planning, standups, reviews, retros, demos),
  • the Sprint Backlog and the Product Backlog.

Let’s see how we incorporate these in our learning methodology for the best results!

Scrum Master

This title belongs to the person who facilitates Scrum to the team. A Scrum Master is committed to Scrum values and principles and ensures that the framework is followed. 

At Codecool, students select a Scrum Master from among themselves while planning their tasks and priorities for their next sprint. This role rotates by sprint so that everyone can try their hand at it.

It’s the Scrum Master’s job to administrate the team’s progress and to keep in contact with the Product Owner. If there are questions emerging or unexpected difficulties, the Scrum Master moves things further. Scrum Masters in Codecool teams also do hands-on development themselves.

Product Owner

The Product Owner acts as the project’s key stakeholder who has a clear vision of where the team should arrive at the end of the project. They’re the ones communicating with other stakeholders and the ones that understand the market, the customer, and the business too.

At Codecool, mentors act as Product Owners, and usually they create and maintain the product backlog. 

Sprints

A sprint is a time-boxed period when a Scrum team aims to complete a set amount of work. 

Just like professional development teams, our students work in one or two-week-long sprints to deliver projects. 

On self-instructed weeks, they deepen their knowledge on their own with available help from mentors. This setup supports our mastery-based learning method because it improves individual learning and teaches how to take ownership. 

On alternating, teamwork weeks students work in Scrum teams to get closer to the demands of a workplace. That’s when they actually act as any software development team in a Scrum environment.

Sprint planning

Development teams do the detailed planning of the sprint together to kick off the project. During the planning, the team defines what they can deliver in the sprint and how they will achieve it. Codecoolers do the planning, create the sprint backlog and appoint the Scrum Master on Monday.

Product backlog / Sprint backlog

A Product Backlog is a list of deliverables derived from the project roadmap and the high-level business requirements. The most important tasks are shown at the top of the product backlog. At Codecool, mentors act as Product Owners, so usually they create and maintain the product backlog. 

Sprint backlogs list tasks to be carried out in the specific sprint, taken from the Product Backlog. Sprint backlogs at Codecool are created by the student Scrum teams.

Daily standups

From Tuesdays to Thursdays students have their implementation days when they get to do the development planned out for the sprint. Each morning, they have daily standups, facilitated by the Scrum Master, where they align on daily tasks and discuss any obstacles keeping them from going on with their tasks.

Sprint reviews

During sprint reviews, development teams have a chance to check the sprint’s product, and demo the working app or feature to the customer.

Fridays are Demo Days at Codecool, and these days provide an opportunity to have the sprint reviews, and reflect upon the work that has been done during the sprint. Students demo the result of the sprint in the morning in front of teammates and real customers, who are actually guests from our hiring partner companies. 

The focus at demos is always on practising presentation skills, giving detailed, constructive feedback, and discussing learnings.

Retrospectives

Retrospective meetings are held to reflect upon what and how went down during the Sprint, facilitated by the Scrum Master They give teams a chance to learn from the setbacks that they encountered, and an opportunity to improve for the future. 

The retros at Codecool usually happen after the demos, on Friday afternoon.

Looking for your next agile developer?

After going through a year-long learning journey organised around Scrum projects, our junior developers are at the top of their game in Scrum teamwork and practices. Due to our super-fast sourcing process, your next junior agile developer could be in your team in just 5 days after you contact us. 

We are also here, if you’re rather interested in up-skilling or re-skilling your existing colleagues in Scrum software development.

If you’d like to hire new teams, and get them through an onboarding training in Scrum software development, then an internal training academy, powered by Codecool, tailored to your exact needs might be the best option for you. 

But why not visit one of our Demo Days on a Friday first, and check out the skills and capabilities of our students yourself? We’d be happy to have you.

If you’re interested, or have any questions, please contact us. Can’t wait to talk to you!