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Is Data Science Dead - in The Last Six Months I Have Heard - by Rosaria Silipo - Low Code For Data Science - Mar, 2024 - Medium
Is Data Science Dead - in The Last Six Months I Have Heard - by Rosaria Silipo - Low Code For Data Science - Mar, 2024 - Medium
dead?. In the last six months I have heard… | by Rosaria Silipo | Low Code for Data Science | Mar, 2024 | M…
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Now that there is AI, is it still worth it to train your own Machine Learning models?
https://medium.com/low-code-for-advanced-data-science/is-data-science-dead-a5d4421b4b1f 1/13
06/05/2024, 18:52 Is Data Science dead?. In the last six months I have heard… | by Rosaria Silipo | Low Code for Data Science | Mar, 2024 | M…
Now that there is AI, is data science still needed? Or shall we declare it dead?
And I would add my personal doubt to this long list of questions: Now that there is AI,
do we still need graphic designers?
Figure 1. KNIME workflow using LLMs and AI nodes to create a conversational agent and interact with it.
So, yes. Gen AI can generate writings or images, perfectly acceptable for everyday’ s
tasks. Yet, is it professional enough? Can it write a whole meaningful book or a plot of
a movie? Maybe, if you just say exactly what to write, how to spin it, and yet for truly
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06/05/2024, 18:52 Is Data Science dead?. In the last six months I have heard… | by Rosaria Silipo | Low Code for Data Science | Mar, 2024 | M…
professional work it might not be good enough yet. Still, it might just suite the
profanes.
Have you read Dennis Ganzaroli’s post on the Minard’s chart about Napoleon’s
campaign in Russia in 1812? Well, he had the data and he decided to visualize it with
Python via the Python nodes that KNIME Analytics Platform offers.
Since version 5.1, KNIME Analytics Platform has integrated some Gen AI features in
its framework, also known as KNIME AI or short K-AI. All Python nodes, in particular,
offer a K-AI chatbot in the configuration dialog where the workflow builder can ask
for advice on how to write that particular Python code he needs.
Dennis was basically chit chatting with K-AI, asking to write the Python code to
visualize Minard’s data. While the first attempt was not satisfactory, he kept at
refining it with further suggestions that K-AI accepted and included in the draft code.
Without taking anything away from Dennis’ ability to write Python code, here K-AI —
the artificial intelligence agent of KNIME — did all the work.
Note. Remember that K-AI is a KNIME extension and must be installed separately
after installing the KNIME Analytics Platform Core. Remember also that to be able to
query K-AI you need to be logged in with a free account on the KNIME Community
Hub.
Figure 2. K-AI in action in the configuration dialog of a Python node in KNIME Analytics Platform.
Figure 3. K-AI in action in KNIME Analytics Platform. Notice the “Q&A” and “Build” mode at the top.
Since version 5.1, KNIME Analytics Platform has integrated some Gen AI features in
its framework, known as K-AI, to help the user also build workflows. The fourth tab
from the top on the left in KNIME Analytics Platform workbench leads to the K-AI
chat area, if K-AI extension has been installed. Here the user can chat to K-AI for
advice (“Q&A” option) or to build the workflow (“Build” option). This article by Vittorio
Haardt teaches you what LLMs are and how K-AI can help you save time in
assembling workflows.
K-AI is not as expert in building KNIME workflows as in writing Python code, but its
workflow building skills are improving fast, release after release.
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06/05/2024, 18:52 Is Data Science dead?. In the last six months I have heard… | by Rosaria Silipo | Low Code for Data Science | Mar, 2024 | M…
All these new AI capabilities sound a bit overwhelming and make us wonder what is
left for us to do. Especially as data scientists, model trainers, Python programmers,
KNIME workflow builders, what is there left for us to do?
First of all, AI does not build things by itself, does not train models, does not write
Python scripts, does not build KNIME workflows, just because. It needs to be told so
and how. In Dennis Ganzaroli’s article, the author had to give the task and then keep
refining till the result was what he expected. Even when using AI as a support, the
project owner still needs to describe the whole process in subsequent steps: what to
build, how, from which data, and so on.
Secondly, AI does not check for correctness. AI provides a result. Evaluating whether
this is correct is not part of its tasks. AI still needs a check for correctness by an
expert user: a check for data science correctness and for business soundness. For
that, we need a skillful end user who knows what must be achieved and how.
In case the result is not correct or does not correspond to the prompted task, the
final user needs either to refine it with better prompting or to manually add the
missing parts. This takes us directly to the third point: fine tuning of AI models.
There’s now the emerging tendency to fine-tune AI models. For this, you definitely
need data scientists.
Going on with the parallel of AI generated images and graphic designers, AI can
generate all sorts of images. However, only the graphic designer at the end can verify
the image quality and help with improvements, if needed. Lately, I have seen too
many ugly images, which did not improve when people told me they were AI
generated. Being able to generate images with AI does not make you a graphic
designer. Being able to correct them and improve them, does.
Long story short, we still need data scientists. Though, the role will probably change
in the next future. It will focus more on the algorithms and the data science process,
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06/05/2024, 18:52 Is Data Science dead?. In the last six months I have heard… | by Rosaria Silipo | Low Code for Data Science | Mar, 2024 | M…
rather than on programming. At that, low code tools will make the implementation of
the whole process even more approachable and faster. We will need more general
data scientists, well-versed in the mathematics of the algorithms, good
communicators, and skilled at guiding and correcting AI towards the desired result.
Will we become more generalist? Probably, in the initial phase of a data science
project, we will need more generalists to work more on the process. However, we will
still need expert data scientists to review and correct the AI output. Just like for
graphic designers, data scientists will take advantage of the new faster
implementation of solutions via AI but will still need to remain vigilant about the
quality of the AI provided solutions.
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Rosaria has been mining data since her master degree, through her doctorate and job positions after that .
She is now a data scientist and KNIME evangelist.
More from Rosaria Silipo and Low Code for Data Science
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