There once was — and still is — a clear misconception among the masses that Artificial Intelligence will take over the human civilization and robots will become our overlords! Thus, ensuring the end of humanity on the blue planet.
However, much of this ‘hysteria’ was before the adoption of AI across diverse industries. Now, tech leaders are expecting a new age in AI that will be way more impactful to our lives than many of the other scientific wonders of the last century.
Artificial Intelligence has gone through several phases of transformation. It has already proved its mettle in areas like medicine, astronomy, agriculture, climate change, etc.
Below is a look at some of the trends that are likely to turn up and shape the face of AI in 2022 and beyond.
Scaled up Language Modelling
The development of GPT-3 was arguably a small step for AI, but it was a giant leap for language modelling. Finding a common way to erect a human-machine communication bridge is no small feat.
It helps developers to turn simple language commands into codes.
Although it was rudimentary in its first iteration, it holds great promise for the near future. GPT-3 used around 170 billion parameters to interpret human language.
There is a newer version of it, GPT-4 which is still in production, that will speculatively have over 100 trillion parameters.
These systems will enable engineers to model prototypes that will blur the lines between “artificial” and “real” conversations that we can have with machines and humans respectively, not to mention the immense boost in the development and testing of program codes.
Dominant Role in Cybersecurity
Cybercriminals are declared to be the enemy number one of society by many industry watchdogs.
In 2020, the US alone faced over 1001 cyberattacks on businesses and individuals, exposing over 155.8 million records.
With the dominance of automation and wide usage of machines in processes, a small security loophole in even the auxiliaries makes the whole system vulnerable to cyberattacks.
It is relatively easier to pinpoint the point of failure in smaller systems. But in more complex structures, it becomes harder to even find the origin of the attack.
One of the things AI is great at is at picking patterns and pointing out anomalies should they occur. This could be an impregnable line of defence against hackers to stop them from getting into the system.
The net for the use cases of AI in cybersecurity is widening, and we are hoping to see immense progress in this field.
Development of AI Through AI
One of the hurdles in the wide-scale adoption of AI across industries is the lack of acumen and expertise of AI engineers in developing systems and processes for tools and algorithms.
The crisis is even reminiscent of earlier days of web development when it took experienced developer days to set up a simple website. However, the problem in the development of AI is taken care of by itself.
No-code and low-code techniques are developed with the aim to produce complex, multi-dimensional AI systems using existing AI tools.
This has been possible by developing simple interfaces and modular designs that can readily accept and process domain-specific data.
Combined with natural language processing and modelling, it is possible that soon the bulk of development in Artificial Intelligence is carried out through simple texts or verbal commands.
The pace of development in AI is unprecedented and it will continue to be so in the coming years.
Autonomous Transportation
Auto-pilot or auto-drive modes in aeroplanes and automobiles are not new.
But the entry of AI in this sector has seen drastic changes. The first and foremost example is Tesla. It has already implemented driverless mode in its cars with plans to make it completely autonomous by 2022.
Similarly, other core tech companies, such as Google, Apple, etc, are taking jabs at completely autonomous vehicles.
As of August 2019, Google’s Waymo, a self-driving car, is already ahead of the competition as it has completed over 20 million miles on public roads and over 20 billion miles in simulations.
Artificial Intelligence is set to change the face of the industry in the coming years and 2022 will be a stepping stone for that.
Birth of Metaverse
The next evolutionary step in the world wide web is said to be the metaverse. It is about constructing a virtual universe over the internet where users can make a life of their own. The word “metaverse” was taken from sci-fi literature but now it denotes something very real and coming soon.
Metaverse has become the fodder of chatter over the internet when Facebook changed its name to Meta, at the end of October.
AI will play a vital role in the development of a virtual environment where users have complete control over the elements so they can design and create their own world.
The mere creation of a metaverse will change the way we perceive technology and its application across industries. So, in the near future, it would not be a far-fetched idea to play a match of ping pong with some AI being one fine evening.
Synergy of AI & HI
There is still fear lurking in the minds of professionals that soon their jobs will be taken over by robots because they will be more efficient and less prone to make errors.
In reality, the development of AI systems has shown that for humans to work to their full potential, and robots to work properly, there is a need for synergy for both entities to learn and work together.
Throughout industries like marketing, engineering, Know Your Customer compliance, and other data-intensive fields, robots are helping humans to understand the systems better, store and process data in record time to further streamline the operations.
On the other side of the fence, engineers are fine-tuning AI robots and systems to be smarter. In 2022, we will see more collaboration between humans and AI tools to work toward efficiency, becoming an integral part of our personal and professional lives.
Ultimately…
The COVID pandemic pushed AI development further because of the drastic changes in social and economic setup.
Now, corporations are warming up to spending more in the research and development of Artificial Intelligence and its subsets, such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
According to the IDC Spending Guide, the global spending on Artificial Intelligence will reach $110 billion in 2024, more than doubling from its original $50.1 billion in 2020.
There is no denying that professionals have become more able in the company of smart machines and tools driven by AI algorithms. In turn, AI has become matured to a point where it can handle automation on its own. This trend, above all, will continue to grow in the coming years.