Technology Trends to watch in 2022

With the development of digitalization, people rely more and more on technology in literally all industries. Technologies and systems help doctors make diagnoses and predict the development of diseases and allow banks to assess the solvency of borrowers or check the legal capacity of counterparties. Online virtual assistants give nutrition recommendations or simplify financial transactions. Smart home voice assistants find out the weather or book tickets, and finally, you can talk to them. There is a number of tech trends to watch in 2022, and more to come!

?Emotion Recognition

Emotion recognition technologies have been around for years. Back in 2018, Gartner predicted that by 2022, 10% of all personal digital devices would be equipped with this feature. Today, there are many emotion recognition tools for various use. They can be found in national security systems and airports, educational institutions and start-ups for hire, software designed to detect mental illness, and crime prevention programs.

?AI-powered

The more tasks are delegated to automation and algorithms, the more acute the security issues and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Ensuring responsible operation of AI systems in the activities became very important, and in November 2021, the first UNESCO international Recommendations on AI ethics were adopted. The next step should be to disseminate the principles laid down in these documents for their practical application in the AI community.

There are multiple applications of AI in industries. For example, according to today’s approach, the authorship of inventions or works of art can be recognized only by a person. However, with the development of generative neural networks, artificial intelligence has created its own creations. So far, the recognition of copyright for AI is the exception rather than the rule. However, the more advanced generative AI becomes, the more relevant the discussion regarding regulation modification.

?The new life of crypto projects

In 2021, interest in crypto projects had grown significantly. CBInsights estimates that in the first three quarters of 2021, investments in this area increased by 384% compared to the whole of 2020 — from $3.1 billion to $15 billion. It is expected that by the end of 2021, investments in crypto projects will amount to 16% of assets in fintech companies and 3% of investments attracted by startups in general.

Time will tell what percentage of the crypto projects that have appeared recently will remain afloat. But it is evident that the technology's versatility will allow it to remain in demand and find new applications.

Move to metaverses.

In the 1992 novel “Snow Crash,” science fiction writer Neil Stevenson describes a three-dimensional virtual reality that unites the whole world. In 2021, metaverses began to be talked about as the next stage in the development of the online space, which will forever change the idea of what reality is. What is the metaverse, and why is everyone talking about it? “A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. In futurism and science fiction, it is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets” (Wikipedia). In the summer of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now Meta), announced plans to build a hyper-connected space of impressions that will combine entertainment, work, shopping, and communication in an interview with The Verge single virtual environment.

Some believe that soon the virtual world economy will become more prominent than the economy of the real one. Soon, we will buy 3D models of houses, cars or interior items in the same way we buy digital books or music.

Be ready for marketing without cookies.

Users are paying more and more attention to their privacy. Thus, according to a study conducted by Kantar for Securys Limited, almost 80% of online consumers read the terms of the privacy policy before making a purchase.

One of the consequences of the struggle for data privacy in the online environment was the actual rejection of such a technology for tracking user behaviour as cookies. Even though Google's initial plans to introduce cookie blocking were postponed from 2022 to 2023, it is evident that players in the Internet advertising and marketing market should already be ready for life without cookies.

?Pros and Cons of recommendation systems

Recommendation algorithms are a trend in the work of mass commercial digital services (from social networks and online cinemas to geo navigation systems and voice assistants). The downside of forming user preferences is that the consumers find themselves in a bit of an information bubble of their choices. They” lose the horizons, “ and the ability to fact-check decreases due to lack of access to critical information that does not fall into consumers’ stable preferences.

?The growing use of synthetic data

Requirements related to the security and confidentiality of data impose restrictions on access to them, including developers of artificial intelligence systems. If the data is not representative enough, incorrect, or of poor quality, this cannot but affect the operation of the algorithms. There were widely known examples when unrepresentative data led to discriminatory decisions.

The more problems arise with obtaining accurate data, ensuring their quality and representativeness, the more synthetic data demand. Synthetic data imitates accurate data, but they do not have real sources. This makes it possible to solve such a problem as privacy protection since even the leakage of such data will not harm real people.

While preparing a dataset based on actual data is time-consuming and expensive, synthetic data is generated automatically for specific tasks.

New approaches to the creation of medicines

The development of medicines is a long and time-consuming process. The complete cycle of creating a new drug can take 12-15 years, and the total costs can reach billions of dollars. At the same time, very few projects are successful.

Neural networks are faster and more accurate at analyzing all possible molecules with medicinal properties.

Another application of technology for the production of medicines is 3D printing. In 2020, the volume of the market for 3D printing of drugs was estimated at $175 million, and by 2025 it could grow to $285 million.

Subscribe to?IT Chapter?blog or follow?IT Chapter?for more insights!