AI, ML & IoT - The Past, Present, and Future

The Past: Transitioning humans to meta-humans

1. Artificial Intelligence

AI made its debut in the 1940s. Forty years later, AI moved from academic applications to the world of business to foresee stock prices and solve complex business problems. Industrial robots joined factories in the 80s and revolutionised the packaging industry. Besides out-powering human labor, AI also started to outsmart humans. One such occasion was when the ‘Deep Blue’ supercomputer defeated the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in 1997. This kindled the interest of researchers and scientists across the world and the reign of AI began. 

Image Source: Data Flair

Machine Learning

AI allowed machines to act smartly based on the instructions, however, it didn’t allow machines to think independently. To overcome this, an advanced version of AI was created - Machine Learning (ML). Machine learning is a subset of AI that allowed machines to learn from experiences and improve future tasks. Here, the machines learn the way just like humans do. 

Image Source: Hacker Noon

Machine Learning is not as new as we think. The origins of Machine Learning dates back to a 1950s research on computers’ ability to learn. From there, experimentation escalated and ML has come a long way since then. From the auto-correct feature on our smartphone keyboards to the recommendation engines that guess your next favorite Netflix series - ML has become an integral part of our lives. AI assistants, speech recognition, and NLP systems have made each one of us feel like a dictator. Ahem!

Internet of Things

IoT has been around for many years, since as early as 1832. But it has never failed to awe-struck any generation. Earlier it started as a means for humans to communicate through machines. For example, electromagnetic telegraphs, telephones, etc. Later in the 20th century, IoT disrupted the logistics industry with RFID tracking, the manufacturing industry with RPA, the emergency management industry with early-stage failure detection systems, and much more. 

AI, ML & IoT - The Thunderous Trio

In the 21st century, IoT joined hands with AI and ML, revolutionizing the way the world works. Smartphones, smart homes, smart cars, and even the futuristic smart cities - IoT is making the whole world smarter. Self-driving vehicles, Google glasses, Google Lens, AI-based personal assistants, Marketing Automation, and what not? IoT didn’t just replace human intervention, but also acted as a natural extension to their abilities. Now, it has given us the superpowers that we once thought were fiction. AI-powered IoT is transitioning humans to become meta-humans.

The Present: Response to the Pandemic

Artificial Intelligence

AI-based search engines are turbo-charging the vaccine research for COVID-19. Besides vaccine research, AI is also assisting with the treatment of COVID-19. It runs systematic searches for existing licensed drugs through all available biomedical data. AI-based telemedicine systems help healthcare workers to offer virtual treatments, consulting, and diagnosis. You can’t find a better example to use the phrase ‘need-of-the-hour’. 

Source: Mobius

IoT

Telemedicine is the marriage of AI and IoT. IoT is accelerating the growth of therapeutic infrastructure enabling telemedicine in rural areas. Though the lack of skilled resources and high infrastructural costs are slowing down the pace of Telemedicine, government initiatives present promising growth opportunities. Telehealth programs allow clinicians to attend over 20 patients per week. This count is significantly higher because earlier, they were only able to handle 10. Studies suggest that the IoT healthcare market will hit a valuation of $188.2 billion by 2025.

Machine Learning

With all the advantages of IoT, comes it’s fair share of cybersecurity threats. One weak link can impose a threat over the whole network. However, ML-based cybersecurity systems seem to stand neck-and-neck with even the most powerful threats. With pattern identification, real-time cybercrime monitoring, and rigorous penetration testing, over 3,50,000 malware are detected every day despite each piece of code being 90–98% similar to its previous versions. Email spam detection is one of the most useful machine learning applications. 

Source: Customer Think

MLaaS & Post- Pandemic Business Continuity

Businesses will not go back to the way things were before COVID-19 but clients running machine learning models do not need to change thresholds. ML models can easily handle transactional changes caused by the pandemic. With deep learning and advanced analytics, businesses are able to make data-driven decisions. Though ML makes data processing easier, building your own ML model involves a lot of effort. This is where MLaaS saves the day. MLaaS is a customizable off-the-shelf machine learning solution. Targeted ads follow your prospects from the e-commerce sites to everywhere, bombarding them with irresistible offers. Automated UX optimization systems are improving conversation rates by 600%. Reinforcement learning ( RL) does all the homework to give you the best strategy to achieve a predetermined set of goals. Easy peasy!

The Future: Tech has got our back

1. Disease or disaster - AI's got your back

Besides helping us get through the pandemic, AI-based disaster management systems predict catastrophic situations and suggest necessary measures. Even if the disasters destroy the planet, AI would still save the human race with its autonomous spacecraft technology. 

2. ML is all set to replace content writers

GPT-3, an automated content creation system by OpenAI, mimics human writing. This AI system is so creative that you can’t tell the difference between the content is written by the system and a human writer.

3. Together, IoT & AI promise a future without Counterfeiting

AI-based counterfeit detectors help you spot counterfeit merchandise with just a snapshot. These detectors run a comparison of that image against a database in a blockchain ledger to decide on its authenticity.

4. ML in every app

Machine learning will become a part of almost every software application in the next five years. Think of it like having a personalized recommendation engine in every aspect of your life - That’s exactly how the future is going to be. 

5. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is being researched today and the projects around it are fascinating. AutoEmotive, an MIT project, aims to improve the safety of cars by analyzing the emotions of a driver and taking over control of the vehicle in times of high stress or anger. 

6. Advanced Virtual Assistants

Research is going on to get virtual assistants to understand faster speech and perform research, replicate human insight, and conduct experiments.