The year 2017 witnessed great advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, making it a dominant theme in the tech world. US tech giants as well as start-ups were equally engaged in a contest to develop novel platforms based on this new concept. The AI fever will get more contagious this year and ahead. According to UBS, AI chip market is expected to soar to a staggering $35 billion by 2021, from roughly $6 billion in 2016.
Developments in AI Tech
Though there have been numerous developments worldwide in 2017, US continued to be the biggest contributor, thanks to innovative companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft that are investing on a large scale in AI.
Search king Google, which dominates the mobile market with its Android, has elaborate plans with AI. In May 2017, Google launched AutoML, a system that can create its own AIs. AutoML was later used to create NASNet, which could identify objects in videos in real-time. AutoML also helps developers with limited resources build high-quality machine learning models. Google was also recently seen experimenting with AI features in its Pixel 2 smartphone, to take on Apple’s latest iPhone models.
Google’s AutoML helps developers with limited resources build high-quality machine learning models.
Facebook is not far behind. It currently uses AI as a dominating strategy to detect or scan user posts with suicidal thoughts and to flag offensive live videos. Apart from this, Facebook recently appointed Jérôme Pesenti, an ex-IBM official, as its AI head.
Apple is yet to give us a breakthrough AI product, but firm’s interest is evident from the number of AI-related acquisitions it made last year. Meanwhile, Apple did design its own AI chip, the Neural Engine, which performs tasks like facial recognition, image processing and voice command interpretations for Siri.
Chinese Checkers
China is perhaps the foremost country that is offering some stiff competition to the US in the AI space. By 2020, the country aims to secure AI as a major economic driver. The government is currently planning to invest $2.12 billion to construct a tech park in Beijing that is exclusively meant for AI development research, a move to overpower its Silicon Valley counterparts.
China is currently planning to invest $2.12 billion to construct a tech park in Beijing that is exclusively
meant for AI development research, a move to overpower its Silicon Valley counterparts.
The popularity of the technology has not failed to spark a lot of discussion around how safe it is for humanity. This is what renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking recently told CNBC– “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
Oh wait – don’t go into the sci-fi mode already! We are pretty sure AI is here to make lives much easier. Undoubtedly, AI will continue to stay as a dominant trend in the coming years. It will continue to make headlines in 2018, especially in favor of tech firms.