Deep learning use cases aren't limited to big tech companies

Industries that are not traditionally technology-driven are starting to find ways to use deep learning, proving the tools aren't just for large tech companies. When digital advertising company Laughlin Constable was approached by the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association about a project to use deep learning to identify pests in cranberry bogs, the idea was met with skepticism. First of all, it's not the kind of project an advertising firm typically takes on. And it was also unclear if the growers had the technical foundation on which to build this kind of deep learning capability. But speaking at the Spark + AI Summit in San Francisco, the company's vice president of engineering, Sam Saha, said he felt it was worth trying as a deep learning use case. "There are lots of businesses out there and they don't have the talent pool [to use AI]," he said. "It becomes a vicious cycle where the innovation isn't flowing downstream. At some point, you have to just get up and try." Deep learning not just for big tech companies. Most of the deep learning use cases we've seen in recent years have come from large tech players like Amazon, Facebook and Google. This has created a perception that, while a powerful tool, deep learning is just for the leading companies, with limited applicability in more general enterprise settings. But some are out to prove this perception wrong.