India, Oct. 14 -- Lots of people are interested in artificial intelligence, and there are plenty of stories about the amazing strides that are being enabled by AI, in business, in medicine, and in any number of other areas. But the stories of wild successes hide a very different part of the AI process -- all the hard work that comes before that success.

Justin Nguyen, director of data science and AI and Sense Corp., likens those AI successes to snapshot photos he has taken at the summits of his favorite hikes in some of the world's most beautiful places. One photo shows an amazing view capturing a blue sky with puffy white clouds, miles of ocean coastline and then an entire forest, and hills of rocky outcroppings. It's spectacular.

"You...