Introducing: The RStudio AI Blog

This blog just got a new title: RStudio AI Blog. We explain why.

Why the new name, RStudio AI Blog? There is a straightforward reason. The previous title, “TensorFlow for R Blog”, was a good match for the content we covered so far: technical or applied aspects of performing deep learning with TensorFlow and Keras. Yet, our team (the Multiverse Team) is not working exclusively in those areas; instead, enabling distributed computing from R (sparklyr), integrating automated machine learning workflows (mlflow), and optimizing data ingestion (pins) are substantial aspects of what we do. We would like to have a platform we can use to tell you about our work in these areas as well. Furthermore, regarding the hitherto dominant topic on this blog, deep learning, we might also want to reflect about it in a less technical way, focussing on impacts on society, ethics, or even “just” epistemic questions.

Consequently, we needed a new name, but why “AI”? Maybe “data science” would work as well – however, the science in data science brings up connotations of formality and theoretic ambitions which we would rather avoid. Instead, AI appeared to be a more rigorous definition, understood as outlined in an article by Michael Jordan. Jordan envisions AI as a new engineering discipline that builds on existing knowledge about inference, optimization, computation, and data processing the way that chemical engineering and civil engineering built upon chemistry and physics, respectively. Supplementing those building blocks (from mathematics, statistics, computer science), the goal of this new discipline is to include guidance from the social sciences and the humanities.

By the way, as of this writing, the Multiverse Team consists of Daniel Falbel, Sigrid Keydana, Yitao Li, and Javier Luraschi. You can find us on Twitter under the #mlverse tag, or pass by our new mlverse channel on YouTube. Thank you for your support!