What Do Self-Driving Cars Have to Teach Us About Smart Data?

The era of data-assisted driving is already at hand in some industries, and it will be arriving soon in multiple markets. In this session, Hadley Reynolds and Susan Feldman, co-founders of the Cognitive Computing Consortium, will share the results of their recent research - not into autonomous vehicles - but into how understanding the complex challenges that confront the widespread adoption of self-driving cars can help developers of a wide range of cognitive applications succeed in moving from idea to adoption.

They will address a range of core issues, including: understanding application requirements for autonomy versus cognitive assistant approaches; matching data ranges to application contexts; designing human interfaces that encourage serendipity; accommodating the drift and perplexity of learning systems; establishing thresholds for trust; and coming to terms with moral and ethical responsibilities. Each cognitive application project must confront these kinds of considerations and overcome these design challenges. The research from the Cognitive Computing Consortium helps make developers from all industries smarter and more thoughtful as they undertake this important work.

Hadley Reynolds is Co-founder and Managing Director at the Cognitive Computing Consortium, a resource for research and education on the emergence of cognitive computing as a field as well as a community of practice for professionals pursuing careers in cognitive systems. Hadley is a trusted researcher, thought leader, and advisor working with leading innovators on conceptualizing and implementing the broad range of technologies that make up cognitive computing. He is a leading analyst of the search, content management, and knowledge management industries, researching, speaking, and writing on emerging trends in these technologies and their impact on business practice. He is currently focusing his activity on cognitive computing and leads the research program at the Cognitive Computing Consortium.

In his 30-year career in the software industry, he has been Director, Search & Digital Marketplace Technologies at IDC, Vice President of the Centre for Search Innovation at FAST/Microsoft, and VP and Director of Research at industry analyst Delphi Group, where he led the firm’s coverage of the business impacts of search and other technologies for managing unstructured information. He is a widely published author, popular speaker at industry events, and frequently quoted commentator in the digital media.