Cognitive Tech for a Better Future

Cognitive Tech for a Better Future?

We have smart watches, phones, cars, and appliances. Our cities use smart technology sensors to improve services and infrastructure, from traffic lights to parking lots to waste management and public safety. Smart has paved the way for connection and automation, but technology advancements are on the horizon that will allow humanity to realize a better future.??

It’s no secret that unprecedented amounts of data are being collected on a daily basis, equipping smart cities and digital companies with a certain degree of efficiency and profitability. However, most data points collected usually just sit in a data lake or the cloud — which alone is a massive data privacy risk — without being utilized. Cognitive technologies, on the other hand, are focused on maximizing insight extraction from over 90% of data collected, without storing the data we don’t need and compromising privacy.??

Cognitive technologies will bring about a uniquely personalized, human-centric, sustainable way of life by leveraging data and AI to augment human judgment, instead of working to bypass it. The cognitive city leverages data and human preference to learn better recommendations, anticipate needs based on trends, and proactively address issues to continuously improve the human experience. In this way, the cognitive city is never static — it evolves as its citizens change, as society changes, and as the environment changes.??

So, what might this look like on a practical level??

Urban Planning: Digital twin modeling using IoT and space mapping technologies will precisely pinpoint where buildings, infrastructure, and amenities should be placed for citizens and businesses to get the most value from their communities in the most sustainable way. The technology can also tell exactly where we might be able to conserve the maximal amount of nature, and how to strategize efficiently before we ever start building, saving time, energy, and resources.??

Healthcare: “Smart” is using AI to automate the cancer diagnosis process, knowing that AI can detect cancerous cells with a much higher rate of accuracy than trained physicians. However, cognitive technologies take into account much more context — blood samples, metabolism, family history, symptoms, etc., — before scanning the body for cancerous cells. If the cognitive technology detects cells that might be cancerous, it sends a comprehensive report with recommendations to the physician, for example noting that while there are some cancerous cells, they are likely to be destroyed by the body’s own immune system. In this way, the physician is augmented to make the most human-centric decision: perhaps electing to tell the patient to come back in a month for a follow-up rather than scaring them with a cancer diagnosis and starting them on radiation therapy.?

Home Maintenance: “Smart” is getting an alert that there is a leak in one of your main water pipes that is raising your water bill. Cognitive technologies detect the leak before it even happens using sensors that scan for weaknesses in pipe structure or a bolt that isn’t screwed properly, automatically dispatching someone to reinforce the pipe without you ever knowing.?

The possibilities are endless in the coming cognitive era. This will revolutionize the digital age simply by applying the data already being collected to help us in all facets of life, business, climate change, and more. We have made strides with smart cities over the last decade, but cognitive technologies and enablers, that keep human needs at the center, will help us realize a better future.??

#AI #CognitiveTechnologies #DigitalTwin #SmartCities #UrbanPlanning #Healthcare #Innovation ?