Artificial intelligence is real
MINING technology companies are utilising artificial intelligence in increasingly more innovative and disruptive ways.
Optika Solutions’ managing director, Matt Schneider, believes that by 2050, mines could be capable of thinking for themselves.
Speaking at the Mining Conference, he said that when it comes to decisionmaking, a small mine might work on about 50,000 decisions per day, while a large iron ore value chain might make well over one million decisions every day.
“It is important to think about artificial intelligence in the context of decision-making,” he said.
“Humans are not good at making decisions, computers are good at making decisions, as long as they do not involve creativity.”
With a lot of the decision making on the minesite being non-creative and administrative, a fusion between machine learning and human control has the potential to create new value throughout the whole value chain.
But minesites have been slow to catch on.
While we use AI and even deep learning applications on our phones every day through apps like Google Maps and Uber, Mr Schneider said that the question for the mining industry has focused on how the METS community can enable this new technology to be consumed by mine operators.
“We are inundated with data,” he said. “But what turns data from information to knowledge to wisdom is our capacity to tell the story.
“Humans are really great story tellers, so how do we get machines to help us tell stories? It could be a thought or an action, or ultimately, it could be about making decisions, and insights drive decisions.”
Technology is advancing and developing to meet specific problems, and this according to Mr Schneider has created the need for a golden thread of collaboration between minesites.
“Because digital will allow us to be connected and collaborative, we’re now able to see insights we couldn’t see before and those insights actually allow us to make decisions,” he said.
“Using digital technology, powered by AI, to come up with new operating models we can drive out new insights to create new value new models and new modes of operation that you can test before you move forward.
“And you can do all of that from your desktop.”