AI explaining itself to humans, and it's paying off

Microsoft Corp's LinkedIn boosted subscription revenue by eight percent after arming its sales team with artificial intelligence (AI) software that not only predicts clients at risk of cancelling, but also explains how it arrived at its conclusion.

The system, introduced last July and described in a LinkedIn blog post on Wednesday (April 6), marks a breakthrough in getting AI to "show its work" in a helpful way.

While AI scientists have no problem designing systems that make accurate predictions on all sorts of business outcomes, they are discovering that...