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Miners Say They Dig AI But the Gold Rush Hasn't Come (wsj.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The chairman of Barrick Gold Corp made a bold prediction in late 2017: With the help of artificial intelligence and other digital tools, the world's largest gold miner would become a technology company that just happened to be in mining. A year later, Barrick has parted ways with its chief innovation officer, chief digital officer and many of the team tasked with making this transformation a reality, according to people familiar with the matter.
The revolution in machine learning, as predicted by Barrick Chairman John Thornton and other mining executives, has yet to come. Miners have said digital technologies like artificial intelligence, or AI, will revolutionize one of the world's oldest industries in the same way it has changed other businesses, from retail to hailing a cab. Some experts say the promise of AI in mining has been overhyped and progress has been slow. Companies, including Barrick and giants such as Rio Tinto and BHP Group, are running some AI-led projects. But implementation at some companies has hit cultural hurdles. Executives haven't always engaged, projects have taken longer than expected and companies have turned to other ways to modernize operations.
The revolution in machine learning, as predicted by Barrick Chairman John Thornton and other mining executives, has yet to come. Miners have said digital technologies like artificial intelligence, or AI, will revolutionize one of the world's oldest industries in the same way it has changed other businesses, from retail to hailing a cab. Some experts say the promise of AI in mining has been overhyped and progress has been slow. Companies, including Barrick and giants such as Rio Tinto and BHP Group, are running some AI-led projects. But implementation at some companies has hit cultural hurdles. Executives haven't always engaged, projects have taken longer than expected and companies have turned to other ways to modernize operations.
Yeah, but oil is way harder than gold. Gold is extracted from near the surface.
It is because it worked so good for metals that they knew to apply the computers to the harder problem of oil.
The point is, they can already easily find most of the gold in an area without much digging. Improvements only can hope to find the small amount that isn't already easy to find. Gold mines already don't mine all the ore they can find, they only mine the higher quality parts. They don't have a desire to dig up more of the lower quality stuff that they might find with an improved technique.
Whereas with oil, they can't find nearly as much as they want, and they can use almost anything they can pump out. Lots of room for improvement there.
I'm not skeptical that it might have some other use. But if there is some other use, that doesn't actually help it to be useful for the use discussed in the story. The potential existence of other uses does not in any way touch skepticism towards this application.
If it eventually replaces the geologists they currently use, it will do so without having significantly changed what gold ore is detected and dug up. Because that is not a limiting factor in gold mining.