Artificial intelligence, an opportunity for Tunisia
Artificial intelligence is a field of computer science that incorporates human intelligence to create algorithms capable of automating certain daily tasks.
“The creation of artificial intelligence would be the greatest event in human history.”
Stephen Hawking
Continuous Evolution
This branch of computer science has continued to develop in recent years, with the emergence of several works that have revolutionized the world of work. We are obviously thinking of the automatic stock portfolio management system in finance, credit attribution algorithms in banks, minimizing errors in medicine by analyzing all patient data, as well as more effective diagnostic support and strengthening of the army through powerful visual and auditory recognition algorithms.
An Immature Market
Despite the achievements in technological advancements, the AI market is still not a mature market. New optimization and analysis methods are continuously being developed and new programming languages are revolutionizing the field. This is a market that requires ongoing education and is in search of passionate, self-sufficient people who are up-to-date on trends and eager for knowledge.
Tips before diving into AI
Before starting an AI project, it is important to master its jargon and have a non-exhaustive knowledge of the most common learning methods: supervised and unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, reinforcement learning, etc.
In addition, a solid theoretical knowledge of machine and deep learning algorithms is mandatory, from the basic to the complex: linear and non-linear regression, decision tree, random forest, support vector machine (SVM), gradient boosting (xgboost, lightgbm, catboost), neural network.
An Opportunity for Tunisia: Industry 4.0
Tunisia has a wealth of good profiles in this field. Tunisian engineers are highly prized in the job market and are known for their technicality. Unfortunately, due to lack of investment from the state and local companies, they choose to leave their homeland to go abroad in search of better job opportunities.
It is true that AI is not always perceived as an indispensable investment for any individual or company. That being said, it is still considered a technology capable of improving a person’s daily life, reducing a company’s costs, maximizing its revenues, facilitating its management, automating repetitive processes, and helping anyone make better decisions.
Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Agriculture in Tunisia
For example, the agriculture sector in Tunisia is severely lacking in innovation. Artificial intelligence has shown its importance in this field thanks to tools that allow for the analysis of weather information in real-time, soil quality, seed condition and soil levels, and irrigation levels, with the aim of improving crops and yield.
In addition, this technological advance also allows farmers to monitor the progress of work on their farms in real-time. For several years now, European and American farmers have been using machine learning and deep learning to accurately analyze data collected through sensors and cameras. This allows for the implementation of facial recognition, image, and shape algorithms.
Thanks to AI, it is also possible to analyze images of trees and plants to predict potential diseases, determine the amount of water a plant needs, and predict the watering time. All of these uses help to increase long-term profitability.
The areas of application are vast and varied and continue to develop, it is time to take the leap before it’s too late.
