The Intelligent Toolbox

Cloud Computing: From Scarcity to Abundance

Kenji E. Kushida
Jonathan Murray
John Zysman
2015

Cloud computing is a revolution in computing architecture, transforming not only the "where" (location) of computing, but also the "how" (the manner in which software is produced and the tools available for the automation of business processes). Cloud computing emerged as we transitioned from an era in which underlying computing resources were both scarce and expensive to an era in which the same resources were cheap and abundant. There are many ways to implement cloud architectures, and most people are familiar with public cloud services such as Gmail or Facebook. However, much of the...

Digital Disruption and its Social Impacts

Martin Kenney
Petri Rouvinen
John Zysman
2015

Deepening digitalization and globalization has induced an ongoing societal transformation that may ultimately prove to be as significant as the original industrial revolution. Even as the ICT industry is being restructured, global competition is being transformed. Previously dominant firms—including telecommunications carriers, equipment providers, and powerful legacy software firms—are under assault from the move to cloud computing, in the network center, and mobile computing, on the network periphery. This transformation of the computing and communication infrastructure has been...

Beyond Cloud: Implications for the Industrialization of IT and the 3rd Era of Computing

Jonathan Murray
2015

Presentation for Innovia Strategies given by Jonathan Murray in May 2015

Click here to see the full presentation.

Artificial Intelligence and Robots: Thoughts, Reflection on Policy Inaction in Israel and Some Nasty General Predictions

Dan Breznitz
2016

Presentation at the National Academics of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (USA) workshop on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Policy Implications for the Next Decade.

Click here to access the full presentation.

Intelligent Tools and Digital Platforms: Implications for Work and Employment

John Zysman
Martin Kenney
2017

The rise of digital platforms leads to a number of challenges: Will the rapid introduction of intelligent tools and systems1 provide real and rising incomes with reasonable levels of equality and growth built on sustained productivity generated by the new technology and strategies? Or will it provoke a world of increasing unemployment and inequality? Will...

The Intelligent Toolbox: From Chips to AI

Algorithms, Platforms, and Ethnic Bias: A Diagnostic Model

Selena Silva
Martin Kenney
2019

Ethnic and other biases are increasingly recognized as a problem that plagues software algorithms and datasets. This is important because algorithms and digital platforms organize ever-greater areas of social, political, and economic life. Algorithms already sift through expanding datasets to provide credit ratings, serve personalized advertisements, match individuals on dating sites, flag unusual credit-card transactions, recommend news articles, determine mortgage qualification, predict the locations and perpetrators of future crimes, parse résumés, rank job candidates, assist in bail or...

The hype has eclipsed the limitations of third-wave artificial intelligence

Mark J. Nitzberg
Timo Seppala
John Zysman
2019

The near-term potential of “artificial intelligence” is often overestimated.2 The potential may be exaggerated in discourse and company strategy, but the risks and difficulties are real. Today, AI refers colloquially to the combination of big data, increased computing capacity, and machine learning algorithms, especially deep learning. Few AI researchers believe that this combination alone will lead to general artificial intelligence.3 General AI (that can perform at human levels in all cognitive tasks) is far beyond today’s narrow or 3rd-generation AI....

AI and Domain Knowledge: Implications of the Limits of Statistical Inference

Christopher Eldred
2019

“With artificial intelligence, we are not crawling or walking or running,” booms the voice of actor and musician Common in 2018’s Microsoft AI TV spot. “We are flying.”1 This ad probably resonated with casual audiences who saw it throughout the NBA playoffs that year and beyond. More than any other aspect of digital technology, AI inspires imagination. Whether optimists or pessimists about AI’s impact, most see it as very powerful, becoming more powerful still, and perhaps limitless in the possibilities of what it can do.

Drafted by Christopher Eldred

Based on...

5G: Revolution or Hype?

Christopher Eldred
Martin Kenney
Kenji Kushida
Jonathan Murray
John Zysman
2019

Much of the discourse around 5G suggests that 5G networks in and of themselves will somehow unlock all sorts of value by enabling radically improved connectivity. Yet, the underlying questions not given enough attention are: who is likely to capture value from the vastly faster connectivity, and how will that value be captured? Will the builders of 5G networks—network operators—somehow benefit from offering much faster but far costlier networks?

Will 5G strengthen the already-strong position of incumbent global cloud computing providers Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft? Does 5G...