While big data has garnered much attention in recent years, small datasets and artificial intelligence (AI) can provide valuable benefits on the battlefield, according to Margaret Loper, associate director of operations for the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Information and Communications Laboratory (ICL).

“There was a period of time where everything was about big data, big data, big data. We need lots of data. You have to have big data to learn over, to predict from. But the reality is, with this kind of proliferation of intelligence and computation at the edges, what we really have is a lot of small data, and small data can be very informative, Loper, who has also been serving as the ICL’s acting director, told SIGNAL Media.