TED TALKS – Kenneth Cukier:  Big data is better data.

Kenneth discusses how teaching a computer to do something will lead to it eventually knowing more about the subject than you, the teacher. Organisations can use this to find more streamlined ways of processing their activities and learn from the mistakes of the past.

Big Data could allow us to predict the future and probabilities:

– Preventing accidents – a car will eventually be programmed to determine the drivers body language, this will then trigger an alarm when the body language adjusts into that of a person losing concentration or falling asleep.  This could also be used to keep staff awake and focussed at work, avoiding silly mistakes or lost labour time.

– Preventing theft – software in cars which recognises the driver’s posture and build which as a result prevents unauthorised persons from starting up the car.  This could also be used by organisations to prevent access to certain areas of offices, factories etc. increasing the efficiency of security.  Furthermore this could be developed to selectively showing ads most suited to the consumer viewing at the time.

There is a growing risk of computers taking over, removing the remaining jobs carried out by humans…the future possibilities are endless.  More and more human jobs are replaced by machines.

The more data we hold the greater detail we can delve into, particularly to see the impact of altering parameters and the change this has to the results, possibly even contradicting previous beliefs on a topic.  To use Kenneth’s example imagine you’re in the US and a study is carried out into the nations favourite pie; by this we mean a 30cm pie or family sized.  In America the favourite would be seen as Apple Pie as this is the one which is purchased the most.  However, when changing the size of the pie to 11cm or individual size, the favourite, i.e. the most popular pie purchased, changes. Apple is no longer the favourite.  So why is this?  Well Kenneth explained that when looking at the 30cm or family sized pies often people will be buying the pie to meet the majority taste of their household, it may not be their favourite but it’s the one that will meet all tastes.  However, when you’re given the chance to purchase a smaller pie, for you alone, the consideration for other tastes doesn’t come into the equation, you can be selfish and choose your favourite flavour…pecan, pumpkin, lemon meringue, cherry, whatever it is, it’s your decision. So is apple really the US’s favourite pie or is it just the safe option?  This level of information should allow marketers to gain a deeper understanding of the consumer, what their needs are at certain times and what parameters have an impact on their choices, it’s not always just their personal preference that results in a purchase.

Everything is recorded.  Using a mobile for example monitors your location, your activity, even your sleep pattern through periods of inactivity on your phone.  The possibilities even develop as far as monitoring your food intake, exercise, steps etc with devices which communicate with your phone.  Humans always stored information from clay disks and wall animations many years ago to hard drives and disk storage today.  Technology today makes searching, copying, sharing and processing data easier, with incomprehensible amounts of data availble at the speed of light on tiny devices .  It’s no longer a stock but a continuous flow – fluid and dynamic, definitely not static.

How far will this go?  Will we enter a society where the police use the data to capture and prosecute individuals; monitoring their biochemistry to see aggressive thoughts, perhaps even predicting behaviour and crimes and prosecuting before they’ve even happened? Kenneth explained that we must find a way to avoid the misuse of data in order to protect humans, adjusting Big Data so that we are the masters, not the servant.

I will revisit this to relate the areas discussed to Marketing.

Cukier, K (2014) Big data is better data. Berlin: TED Talks. [online] < http://www.ted.com/talks/kenneth_cukier_big_data_is_better_data?language=en > [last accessed 18th October 2014]