AI: A disruptive technology that brings benefits

Activist hedge fund Jana Partners sold out of its position in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and reduced its stake in Apple by approximately 175,000 shares, slicing its position in the company by 63 percent.

Today, practitioners of artificial intelligence (AI) have become technology world’s rock stars. “Deep learning” (a more fashionable branch of AI), which uses natural networks to churn through volumes of big data looking for patterns that is inspired by the activity of layers of neurons in the brain, has proven to be in high demand to help build software, particularly for the companies collectively known as FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google).

Data, runs the common refrain, is the new oil.