Blog Assignment #4

An example of a neural network application that I found on the Internet that helps make a product or service more valuable to both the customers and the company is a GPU-powered neural network that is being designed by Netflix that will be used for predicting better movie recommendations for its customers. This is actually a win-win for both Netflix and it’s consumers because for the consumer it creates a better experience. For Netflix it helps it to also better control and utilize it’s physical inventory and to also get the most benefit from licensing fees for digital content. The approach that Netflix is using uses GPU’s and the cloud for a much more powerful application that is in the vein of exascale computing. What this will ultimately do is to give Netflix a competitive advantage by exceeding the consumer’s expectations. If the network is significantly better at modeling and predicting users interests then the application will differentiate Netflix form its competitors and do so in a way that will be difficult for it’s competitors to replicate.

While searching for an expert system that helps to make a product or service more valuable to the customers and the company I found several but realized that that the neural network being created by Netflix is part of a predictive expert system that attempts to classify or identify the interests of the customer. The neural network is just the “brain” behind the knowledge system. The system being designed will use multiple decision trees and multiple decision variables that are in an ever-changing fluid state due to the customer constantly watching movies. It is an intelligent system that further defines or continually improves the quality of its suggestions based upon customer habits within a construct of categories or types of movies. Netflix is essentially doing what Pandora did for music. Pandora’s playlists are the result of the Music Genome Project that group’s music by multiple variables to create streaming music that will be in the vein of the musician or band that the customer used to create the channel. 

http://hothardware.com/News/Netflix-To-Deploy-GPUPowered-Neural-Networks-For-Deep-Learning-In-Movie-Recommendations/