NewRoFoundation

People underestimate the impact machine learning has on their daily lives, but they should welcome the brains behind smart phones, search engines, Alexa, self-driving cars, online shopping and much more, said NRHS junior Amal Verghese. His project, conducted with the help of Jeff Wuebber, teacher and head of the District’s Science Research Program, set out to determine how much people know about this branch of artificial intelligence versus what they think they know.

Verghese surveyed 1,300 people of various ages and found that “the majority didn’t understand machine learning and how much it affected their lives.” Through 20 questions he assessed their knowledge of terms and their awareness of the devices, applications and other products and services that rely on machine learning to deliver results.

“About 60% of the respondents didn’t understand the technology at all, and 36% underestimated its impact,” concluded Verghese. He hopes people learn more about the power of machine learning and “incorporate it more into their daily lives.” He added, “Don’t be concerned about it taking over the world … scientists will develop security protocols to prevent that from happening.”