AI and machine-learning (ML) could be held back by lack of skills in building applications and applying the technology effectively if rate of deployment comes anywhere close to matching the rampant hype currently sweeping the field. There have already been reports of skills shortages and a drain of the best developers and data scientists away from academia and smaller emerging AI specialists towards the big players such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, as well as the Chinese, which are investing huge sums in their programs. This threatens to segregate the field into islands of development peddling different technology stacks and combinations of standards – rather than the open innovative model that has stimulated other movements in the IT realm such…