If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."
However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) …
It is never easy to predict what society and technology will look like in the coming decades, but one futurist used the imaginations of children to come up with ideas. Futurist Brian David Johnson spoke to kids aged 8-13 as part of a study into their vision of life in the 2050s for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). 'The current generation of young minds is nothing like we've seen before', Johnson explained, saying they were born and grew up constantly connected. Every child he spoke to was optimistic about the future, with many showing'jump-out-of-their-seat' levels of excitement about'what is to come' as they reach adulthood. He used the conversations he had with the children and their parents to formulate predictions about the future of smart homes, food and personal virtual assistants. Futurist Brian David Johnson spoke to children aged 8-13 as part of a study into their vision of life in the 2050s for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Machine learning, task automation and robotics are already widely used in business. These and other AI technologies are about to multiply, and we look at how organizations can best take advantage of them. COVID-19 disruption has left enterprises with no choice but to reassess digital transformation investments and roadmaps. While less important projects are delayed, transformation projects involving AI and automation are receiving a lot of attention right now. In just the last 60 days, the adoption of varying levels of AI technologies across the enterprise surged with an incredible sense of urgency.
In the surreal past few months, P.W. Singer has watched the concept for his new science fiction thriller come to life. Singer is an author, an expert on 21st-century warfare at New America and, lately more than ever, a consultant helping companies in tech and other industries grapple with the repercussions of global unrest. His soon-to-be-released novel about social upheaval, automation and artificial intelligence, "Burn-in," is named after the practice of pushing a new technology to the breaking point. But Singer didn't expect the future of technology to arrive as fast as it has amid the fallout from COVID-19, forcing tech companies, governments and people everywhere to adapt on the fly. Get what matters in tech, in your inbox every morning. "Has Pandora ever been put back in a box?" Singer asked during a recent phone interview from his home near Washington, D.C. "Roles and applications that would have previously seen a more gradual transition over the course of years have been pushed forward in a matter of weeks."
The macro effects of the coronavirus impact are undeniable: Tens of thousands of lives lost, mass unemployment, life seemingly suspended in midair. But the pandemic's impacts have also rippled down to the minutiae of daily life, like social media behavior and messages on dating apps. Uncertainty is now an inescapable presence. As someone who's single, I often toil over what sex and dating will be like "after this is all over," when and if it's ever really over. While no one can know for sure, of course, I decided to ask futurists -- people who stare uncertainty in the face for a living -- for their thoughts.
This week at KGW we've been looking to the future to get a glimpse of what our lives might look like in the next 10 years A NASA-style command center, called Mission Control, at Oregon Health & Sciences University was just added a couple years ago. To keep it simple, it shows doctors the available beds across four hospitals: OHSU, Doernbecher, Hillsboro Medical Center, and Adventist Health Portland. The command center is staffed 24-7. Think air traffic control, but for hospitals. In 2016, OHSU turned away more than 500 people because a lack of beds.
Entrepreneur and investor Peter Diamandis predicts that the future of shopping will be "always on", thanks to ubiquitous augmented reality. Artificial intelligence is in position to streamline and personalise the process, while virtual reality shopping can be successful if it creates a more social experience. Brands should prepare for far more data collection by asking the right questions and using AI to correlate more details. SAN FRANCISCO-- Here's the future of shopping, as Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Peter Diamandis sees it: augmented reality glasses will present an "always-on" shopping mode, artificially intelligent digital assistants will know your taste better than you and clothing will be made exactly to your measurements. And it could happen faster than one might think, he says.
At the Last Futurist, we enjoy looking at AI Trends and digital transformation trends. In between those two are more broad technology trends. In fact these topics make up the mission statement of this new news site. However the last decade had a lot of technology and gadgets that didn't fare so well in the real world. The decade was mobile all the way, with mass adoption taking place the way we might expect the brain-computer interface (BCI) to achieve mass adoption in a future decade years from now. In the decade ahead the move to automated stores and electric vehicles are real trends, but it's important to differentiate the hype from the reality. Autonomous vehicles, quantum computing going mainstream, better self-learning AI, hang on a second! Even mass adoption of digital currencies is coming faster. From computers to the internet and smart phones, a few generations shows a lot of progress. But technology never stands still. Advertising has scaled a world of surveillance capitalism normalization and an AI-arms race is now taking place. Most technology trends and AI listicles only touch the surface of how humans are embedding technology increasingly into their lives. However looking at it from the perspectives of many industries and across technology and innovation stacks gives a more complete picture. The real world and customer experience are the real tests for new technological innovations and pivots. It will take decades for 3D printing, quantum computing and an AGI to even become mature, but an age of biotechnology and AI in healthcare, education and finance is inevitable. From Huawei, to ByteDance (TikTok), to Didi, China will wage major battles for global market share in 5G, consumer apps, E-commerce, mobile payments and ride sharing, among others. Chinese led tech companies -- with the support of the Chinese Government and venture funds such as Softbank Vision Fund -- can mean that in the 2020s China's ecosystem fully replaces Silicon Valley as the leader of innovation. In 2019, some believe this has already occurred.
One of our favourite conferences on technology and the future of gadgets and AI, has to be the Consumer Electrics Show. Subscribe to the Last Futurist, to read more articles like this. As the rest of the world returns to work, it's Sin City square and center like it happened all before. The spirit of technology never wavers, always moving forward and dares us to dream higher and better - for a more connected, more virtual, more human future. The smart home keeps getting smarter and artificial intelligence keeps finding new ways into our lives.