By Mohamad Ali Al Ali, Senior Executive – Social Media at PHD
“Change is rapidly upon us and the media agency is the place to be in the world of AI.” This was the message Malcom Devoy, PHD’s global strategy director, shared at the Festival of Media MENA 2016. The event focused on the latest industry developments and trends prior to Devoy’s session, after which it quickly shifted to the future.
Devoy introduced the subject of AI at the Festival, discussing all the developments that will lead to “singularity”, the point at which machines’ intelligence will surpass that of humans, according to Ray Kurzweil. “We are about to reach that stage before we’re even prepared for it,” said Devoy. “The algorithms we are creating now are on the cusp of moving from machine learning to deep learning. This means they can perform tasks we haven’t even told them to do.” Furthermore, he explained that the media industry will be at the forefront of these advancements. “The media agency will be the central nervous system, managing clients’ technology as it communicates to consumers’ technology”.
The Festival of Media MENA, the Middle Eastern edition of the global event by C Squared, was staged for the second time in Dubai.
