Modern technologies are rapidly making their way into every aspect of society, transforming human lives in ways that were unthinkable just a few decades ago. As technology continues its rapid arc of upward growth, experts predict that the day is not far off when machines will augment human abilities and help humans make better life choices in every aspect of their lives.
This is where artificial intelligence (AI) will play a prominent role, injecting the spark of life into modern technologies as the intelligence of the machine or software and performing tasks which in general a human is capable of doing. AI’s reach is already all-pervasive, straddling industries ranging from healthcare to retail, food and beverage, transport, and more.
But what does Artificial Intelligence mean, and what role it really will play?
It’s an array of technologies from machine learning to natural language processing that bunched together to allow machines to gauge, grasp, act, and learn. In simple language, it is termed as an area of computer science that creates intelligent machines with the ability to work and react the way humans do.
What makes it so remarkable?
AI makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adapt to new theories and inputs, and above all, execute human-like tasks. From self-driving cars to chess-playing computers, drones, and more, all rely abundantly on AI technologies, like deep learning and natural language processing to process large amounts of data and recognize patterns in the data to accomplish specific tasks. In short, it will transform the relationship between people and technology molding human creativity and skills in a big way.
What was once thought of as mere science fiction is today a reality that has become common in human’s daily lives. For instance, fuelled by the dramatic growth of social media, digital devices, cloud computing, and the Internet Of Things (IoT), data is streaming bright and fast in real life, making for a great dataset for training AI systems. By the end of 2021, Gartner predicts that around 40% of new enterprise applications implemented by service providers will have AI technologies.
How AI has become the spark for modern technologies and can be masked out from the impact it has on the following technologies, all of which are its subsets.
NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION (NLG)
Machines are programmed with algorithms to convert structured data into a language that sounds natural in a format desired by the human user. The language is sought in a way as if the content was written or spoken by the human user.
NLG benefits content developers by helping them to automate content, deliver it in the desired format, and promote it on various social media and other media platforms (can be visualized in the form of charts, graphs, etc.) to reach the targeted audience. This way, human intervention becomes minimal while the data can be in the desired format.
SPEECH RECOGNITION
As the bridge between human and computer interactions, Speech Recognition through the computer converts human speech into an understandable format in several languages.
DEEP LEARNING
With hidden layers in artificial neural networks (a typical neural network (can have a maximum of 150 hidden layers) with 2-3 hidden layers), Deep Learning teaches computers and machines to learn by example in the same way as humans do. Here, the algorithms work in a hierarchy to automate predictive analytics.
MACHINE LEARNING
It empowers machines to make something out of data sets without it being actually programmed. Afterward, with the help of data analytics, algorithms, and statistical models, it analyses data and predicts future outcomes. This helps organizations and entities to accordingly make informed decisions driven by future scenarios.
ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION
As an application of AI that configures a robot (software application) to interpret, communicate, and analyze data, it automates partially or fully manual operations and thus prevents repetitive and rule-based operations.
AI OPTIMISED HARDWARE
As demand for AI software increases, so will demand increase for the hardware that supports it. This is where AI optimized hardware comes in; based on a new generation of AI chips, AI optimized hardware inclusive of CPUs handles scalable workloads, neuromorphic chips, etc., and performs complex AI calculations.
From Smartphones to smart home devices, recruitment tools, and more, chances are that you are exposed to AI every day.
SMARTPHONES
Today’s Smartphones with the latest Android and IoS updates come with built-in AI capabilities. Thanks to this, features like splices, app actions, adaptive battery, and smart assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa, SIRI, Bixby, are made possible. Likewise, Smartphone features such as the portrait mode effect to shoot and capture a great portrait shot are made possible due to the AI influence behind it. AI integration is also responsible for features like mixed and virtual reality elements, scene detection, and more.
SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS
If you are one of those using social media from Twitter to Facebook, Instagram, Quora, or Snapchat, know that most of your decisions are being influenced by AI. Right from the feeds that can be seen in your timeline to the notifications that you get from the apps, everything is being driven by AI.
AI studies all of your past interactions and everything else that you do on the social media outlets and tailors the experience just for you. This way, it makes all of your experiences interactive and engaging.
MUSIC & MEDIA STREAMING
Media streaming services like Netflix or Spotify or YouTube are immensely popular, thanks to AI which makes the decisions behind the scene for you, whether it is regarding watching a play or a sport event on a recommended video on YouTube or watching a recommended movie or show on NetFlix or just listening to a music event on Spotify.
ONLINE ADS NETWORK
Online ads networks use AI in a big way to track user statistics as well as dish out ads based on the statistics. So what ads or product recommendations you see online, know that it is AI that is making them possible.
SMART HOME DEVICES
Smart home devices use AI to learn about user behavior, and based on that, accordingly adjust the settings themselves. For instance, smart thermostats can adjust the house temperature based on preferences, and smart lighting devices can change the intensity and color of lights based on time and other factors. Smart voice assistants likewise can be used to control smart home devices. Time is not far off when humans will interact with all smart home devices only through AI.
SMART SECURITY DEVICES
AI is already playing a huge role in a broad array of security and surveillance devices, monitoring multiple monitors with feeds from hundreds or thousands of cameras at the same time. Likewise, technologies like facial and object recognition capturing feeds are monitored by an AI.
AI AND THE FUTURE
Imagine a scenario wherein humans will be communicating with bots for solutions without realizing that they are not humans. Well, that will be AI doing the work behind the scenes.
The future will not just see an ever-increasing amount of data with ubiquitous connectivity and high-performance computing but will also see a whole array of new generation technologies like driverless cars, drones, virtual assistants, and exoskeletons. AI will be there, playing a major role with its many subsets from deep learning to machine learning, continuing to find applications in everyday life while adding a new level of sophistication and efficiency to future technologies.
A report by a market research firm reveals that the AI market will evolve and grow from US$ 643.7 million currently to about US$ 36 billion by 2025. To be in the right place at the right time and reap the harvest that comes along, make sure to align your company’s requirements with Altusmeus, a global niche IT talent acquisition provider.Altusmeus services industry verticals for information management, big data, cloud computing, digital enterprise, mobile computing, human capital management, and next-generation infrastructure skills.
