TL/DR: I’ve developed a package on Github, ml-template, which speeds up the development of local machine learning models by:

1. Providing a well-structured generic code base which can be easily tweaked according to your use case
2. Using recent packages (DVC and MLFlow) to ensure reproducibility of model results and effective model performance tracking

Motivation for developing package

Although it seems like yesterday, I now started out on my machine learning journey 4+ years ago. In that time, I have been lucky enough to tackle a number of cool problems. …

Let me be upfront: I was the technical co-founder of an AI startup and it failed.

PharmaForesight was an AI startup in the pharmaceutical business intelligence industry. Here was our elevator pitch:

“The rate of return for pharmaceutical companies on their R&D is currently below their cost of capital — therefore it is becoming less profitable for pharmaceutical companies to invest in innovative drugs. To decide what clinical trials to conduct, the likelihood of approval is a crucial metric which is currently being calculated in a very subjective and biased way. …

Imagine your doctor told you they had a magic pill that would make you feel much better. It would improve your concentration and sleep, improve your relationships, and generally make you feel happier and more content throughout the inevitable stresses and strains of life. There would be no negative side effects and it would be absolutely free. Would you take it? I’d bet yes.

Though not a pill, this hypothetical magic solution exists. It is called meditation.

Interest in meditation and mindfulness has increased steadily in the West for the last few decades. However, most people still report having only…

Artificial Intelligence

The holy grail of machine learning and AI research is “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI) — a machine that has the capacity to learn or understand any task that a human can. In the last few years, advances in AI have led to several apocalyptic warnings, including from the likes of Elon Musk, warning that AI is a “fundamental existential risk for human civilisation”.

I recently read a fantastic book called “Radical Uncertainty — decision making for an unknowable future”, by Mervyn King and John Kay. The book is a brilliant discussion about two contrasting ways of decision making in an…

MACHINE LEARNING / DATA SCIENCE

Machine learning is getting better and better. More and more companies are using machine learning as part of their products such that an increasing number of decisions affecting us are influenced by an algorithm. Wondering what to watch on Netflix? The suggestions of what to watch next are served by a very powerful recommendation engine. Instinctively, we feel comfortable about decisions like this being taken by an algorithm. But consider the following scenarios:

1. Goldman Sachs in 2007. Days after the French bank BNP Paribas had suspended redemptions from 3 of its funds (widely acknowledged as the start of the Great…

DATA SCIENCE / MACHINE LEARNING

TLDR: I’ve created a package on Github for data scientists which can generate a vector embedding of a company from its name — see here for details

Motivation for developing package

A few years ago, I worked in a machine learning role at a company that does a lot of work in analysing CVs. My task was writing an algorithm to predict someone’s next job title given their CV (see here for details). Although my algorithm did not include company recommendations, I was curious as to how these might be included. …

I’ve always been fascinated by learning new things. When I finished school and university, I naively thought the bulk of my learning was done — it was the applying I had to do now.

How wrong I was … and thankfully so! In my career, I’ve observed that one of the main factors separating high achievers at work is these people are quick at learning new skills and new technologies (I work in the technology sector).

So when I picked up “Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition” by Scott H. Young, I was intrigued by…