Every new year creates a new opportunity for optimism and predictions. In the past couple of years, emerging technology has permeated almost all areas of our lives. There is much to explore! In this article, I focus on three evolving technology areas that are already impacting our future but are only at the early stages of true potential: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and space systems.
Read MoreThe last winter season has witnessed unprecedented weather conditions across the state of California, driven by a series of over 30 atmospheric river storms from October through March. The impact is two-sided. On one hand, the aquatic deluge has brought much-needed rain and snow to the drought-stricken state, hence alleviating the ongoing multi-year drought in California. The laden snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains is also critical for the state's water supply, as it melts in the spring and summer to provide water for agriculture and cities. On the other hand, the storms have dealt a severe impact on life and property. Heavy rain and snowfall bring potential hazards such as flooding, landslides, and mudslides. 41 of California’s 58 counties have been placed under a federal emergency declaration, while 3 of them have been bucketed under a major disaster declaration. Within a 3-week period following Christmas 2022, an estimated 32 trillion gallons of water fell across California, which could fill the state’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, approximately 21 times.
Read MoreAI in healthcare now involves the use of machine learning algorithms and patient data fed in timely ways to these algorithms. IoT is making its way into hospital devices and equipment and is sending this data to computing facilities for AI to work its valuable guidance on it. This consistent data flow streamlines the patient experience by producing inferences from multiple data points, which help to guide and improve healthcare management capabilities with information and data while handling patients, equipment, and procedures.
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence is probably the most complex and astounding creations of humanity yet. And that is disregarding the fact that the field remains largely unexplored, which means that every amazing AI application that we see today represents merely the tip of the AI iceberg, as it were. While this fact may have been stated and restated numerous times, it is still hard to comprehensively gain perspective on the potential impact of AI in the future. The reason for this is the revolutionary impact that AI is having on society, even at such a relatively early stage in its evolution.
Read MoreAs technology evolves at a rapid rate – especially technology that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities – so too does the potential for bias, disconnect, misuse of data, and the automation of impersonal actions or decisions. With the vast amounts of data collected, stored, and exchanged, capitalist societies risk the commoditization of personal data at the expense of the individual, instead of using personal data to foster valuable individual and societal relationships.
Read MoreThe process of systems integration (SI) functionally links together infrastructure, computing systems, and applications. SI can allow for economies of scale, streamlined manufacturing, and better efficiency and innovation through combined research and development. New to the systems integration toolbox are the emergence of transformative technologies and, especially, the growing capability to integrate functions due to exponential advances in computing, data analytics, and material science. These new capabilities are already having a significant impact on creating our future destinies.
Read MoreIn our modern world, tomorrows stretch before us in profusion. Our working lives could last for eight decades. Think of the implications. It was only 12 years ago that the first iPhone was released. Smartphones are everywhere now and we rely on them to an astonishing degree. Think what new technologies may emerge over another 70 years! No longer can we simply learn for a while, earn for a while, and then retire.
Read MoreJust think for a moment about how much online searching you do. Need to find a nearby Thai restaurant? Just type your query into the search engine and presto: You receive page after page of results listing eateries in your area offering Pad Thai. Need to know the forecast in Austin? Again, punch in your query and you will receive no shortage of pages offering three-day forecasts, five-days forecasts, even year-round averages.
Read MoreI am a major sci fi fan. Well, at least I thought I was until I went to my first Star Trek convention in my 20s and realized that I was in the minority of people who did not speak Klingon or know episode numbers, titles or dates. Science fiction inspires technologists every day. Most recently, I have become inspired by Black Mirror, a show originally aired by the BBC and now offered on Netflix. The brainchild of Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror is the Twilight Zone for our times, giving us a glimpse as to how technology trajectories can be used to affect society in unintended ways in the coming decades.
Read MoreLast year was a transformative year for technological innovation. The threats from Covid19 upended our way of living, especially related to remote-work and pushed forward the timetable of digital transformation. As we move ahead into another year of unprecedented technology advancement, it is useful to examine some of the trends, & technologies that are already shaping 2021 and what may be on the future horizon.
Read MoreWhile AI is in its spring season and is sprouting up all over and the predictions for future revenues are pretty positive, I think it’s time to try and give AI an early grade in a number of areas. I’ve picked out my top 10 categories for grading AI and have assigned a grade. In order to understand the context of the grades, I have included a difficulty score and an expected time to maturity. This is my first cut at grading AI and I’m sure I will add to the dimensions and scale over time. Let’s examine the meaning of the grade categories listed below:
Read MoreOn June 24, an upcoming conference will explore the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sectors. AI World Government will gather leaders across government, industry and academia to discuss the challenges and potential solutions of AI in automating our expanding digital world. The event is described as “a comprehensive three-day forum to educate and inform public sector agencies on the strategic and tactical benefits of deploying AI and cognitive technologies.”
The topic of AI is garnering attention in government and industry. Research and consulting firm Gartner describes AI as a “technology that appears to emulate human performance typically by learning, coming to its own conclusions, appearing to understand complex content, engaging in natural dialogs with people, enhancing human cognitive performance or replacing people on execution of non-routine tasks.”
Read MorePowered by artificial intelligence, digital assistants have emerged as groundbreaking tools that transform the way business professionals work. From translating documents and converting files to provide research data and benchmarks, digital assistants are playing an important part in increasing productivity. In the following case study, we show how an AI-powered digital assistant makes a difference in a number of consultancies and large corporations. Let’s see how human augmentation is a “win-win”.
Read MoreToday the emphasis on AI is nearly all about machine learning and a form of machine learning called deep learning. These are data heavy (Data, Events, Voice & Image) approaches that deliver some very nice benefits, but are we getting hooked on data? We see folks everywhere creating data lakes about to be data oceans that we are going to boil later. Meanwhile we have to pay homage to expensive Data Czars and Data Scientists because we want to keep more data for the future and somehow AI will make sense of it later. I’m not so sure this is a strategy that will lead us to be competitive with others in the world.
Read MoreMany humans enjoy Artificial Intelligence personally at home – ranging from just-for-you movie recommendations on Netflix to product recommendations on Amazon. On the contrary, most humans don’t use AI professionally at work. AI-based recommendations are powerful and personalized for you, so why hasn’t it become an everyday phenomenon at work? What if, with your permission and oversight, AI could automatically do your repetitive tasks? What if AI suggested the answer for your next business email reply? What if AI could suggest solutions for your complex work problems based on decades of data from billions of humans and projects?
Read MoreWe hear a lot about how AI is progressing well these days and how it will help companies with all kinds of efforts from assisting customer pleasing experiences to implementing massive automation efforts. Well, it looks like AI will make it this time and there is a low probability that there will be another AI winter coming. So now we all have to deal with living with AI. I have been contemplating working with AI in my life, so I question how will AI help me and how do I work with it? Will it be like other technology that I have to learn to for life success or will it be more like a person that I have to get along with to thrive in the future? Will AI make our lives better or should we be practicing for those apocalypse scenarios I keep reading about? I think the answer will vary by roles the life that we play and where AI will add value to our lives. I think AI is evolving but in a good way.
Read MoreOne can't go anywhere today without hearing about AI, but I would say that half of it is around projecting how AI will be affecting our future and the other half is about data focused approaches. While there is nothing wrong about these discussions and articles, most of us are more interested in the results of AI which represents a family of approaches and algorithms in action to apply to business and everyday problems. Even though there are three major approaches to AI
Read MoreAI is blossoming, but the real advantage of AI is yet to come. While organizations are mesmerized by the power of AI on left-brained activities of facts, rules, and logic, the big opportunity lies fallow. It's the right-brained activities that help with insight, interpretation, intuition, judgment, and reasoning where the big benefits can be gleaned. The leverage of general policies, creativity, and constraints is not natural in the world of AI today. Because it is difficult today, many pass reasoning and judgment by these days. What if there was a way to deliver right-brained behavior with left-brained activities? There is, but I'll get to that later.
Read MoreUsually, the economy of scale, size, and reputation win the day, but this spunky and highly adaptive ad agency competes with AI plus better processes to put more pressure on the large ad agencies. I think this will be a trend in many industries with the upstarts starting to scare the incumbent "big dogs."
Read MoreRobotic Process Automation (RPA). It’s a hot topic among the C-Suite. Where to implement. How to implement. How many headcounts can be saved through robotic implementations? Business leaders want robots – powered by AI – to drive automation into every mundane task people now do … but there’s a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about what bots can and can’t do for an organization.
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