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Some of the Fascinating Predictions in Science Fiction That Came True

Do you believe everything that you read, hear or see? Is it even the right thing to do? Who would have imagined Issac Asimov’s description of robots will be a thing of future? In the video where Sophia interacts with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at a Future Investment Institute panel in Saudi Arabia, it was a giant leap in the field of robotics.

It is rightly said, humans are as creative as they can imagine. Perhaps the only thing that distinguishes us from other animals. What you see today was imagined by someone years ago. For example, the flying machines, tanks are some of the things imagined by the great inventor Leonardo Da-Vinci. You can find so many references to the same in his writings and designs.

If you read about a cyborg from the future or armies made of robots guarding our borders that is a plausible concept. Today, the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has taken innovation to the next level but it will be unfair to not credit the writers/thinkers who imagined them at the first place.

Let us see some of the characters from the past that came out as an innovation in the present era.

1.K9 from Doctor Who and IBM Deep Blue

The brainchild of writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin K9 is the name of the fictional robotic dog in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977.

The dog was smart enough to defeat his master in the game of chess. Back then it was something that no one had imagined that the same could be possible.

Fast forward to 1996, IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue defeated champion Garry Kasparov and won its first game against world chess grandmaster. With Grandmaster Joel Benjamin as a part of the development team, Deep Blue was a part of the ChipTest project at Carnegie Mellon University. Its development began in 1985.

2.The Jetsons and Facebook Portal

Aired from September 23rd, 1962 to March 17th, 1963, Jetsons was way ahead of its time. With high-tech house gadgets, robotic household help and flying vehicles, it was all fictional back then. In an episode, there is the depiction of phone calls accompanied by an image in TV, something that we know as video calls today.

A similar device is available now that we know as Facebook Portal. It is a smart home device built for video calling and coupled with the voice control it is possible to check who’s at the front door, listen to music, watch the news and more.

3.Rosie the Robot Maid from the Jetsons & Tin Cat from Tom and Jerry and iRobot Roomba

One of the criticisms that we commonly hear about AI is that it will take away manual jobs. And the first time we saw this was in Tom and Jerry, where Tom was replaced by a mechanised tin cat. Also, we were fascinated to see something like a robotic household help (Rosie the Robot Maid) in Jetsons. But, back then no one imagined that this can be the future!

iRobot Roomba is a robotic vacuum cleaner that can clean the house with zero human interference. Similar to iRobot Roomba there is Moley Robotic kitchen that can prepare any dish from scratch and then clean afterwards.

4. Star Trek’s Universal Translator and Google Assistant interpreter

Imagine being a polyglot! How cool that would be? Where you interact in the local language where you are visiting. Keeping the same concept in mind, Star Trek’s creators thought of a universal translator. If you think this to be a novel fascination, you should know that the idea was first mentioned in Murray Leinster’s 1945 novella “First Contact”.

However, Star Trek’s Universal Translator is not yet completely available as it operated by scanning brain-wave frequencies and using the results to translate them into words. Captain Kirk used a handheld translator to communicate with the Companion (the cloudlike entity that kept famed scientist Zefram Cochrane alive) in 2267.

But a part of it has been manifested in reality and is known as Google Assistant interpreter. Google Assistant’s interpreter mode can translate conversations in 27 languages.

Conclusion

A lot has been going on in the technology space in the last few decades. What felt like fiction is only a matter of time to be manifested in reality. So next time you have ideas like teleporting yourself to different location don’t undermine your imagination, maybe someone somewhere is working hard to make that dream come true.

5 Ways Technology Will Change The World in The Next 5 Years

The fact that technology has been evolving the world rapidly for the last ten years is no news. From growing social media platforms and new job profiles to tech in medicine and space, everything is backed and fronted by tech. With the current happenings, faster disruption can be expected. Let’s take a look at what all can tech enable for us in the next five years.

1.AI led manufacturing

Thanks to COVID-19, the growth in AI led operations will grow manifold. Most companies that are primarily into building products will soon focus on and make use of cloud-based technologies to transform and present product and process data from manufacturing lines. In the next five years, this abundant data and the algorithms analyzing and processing it will enable manufacturing lines to deliver better output and enhance product quality. This will lead to a reduction in waste by half. We can then enjoy products of a much higher quality, that are also produced much faster and are available at a lower monetary and environmental cost.

2. New Age Computing

The age of quantum computing will begin. Through simulation of complex chemical reactions, newer advancements in drug development can be expected. Quantum chemistry calculations will help in achieving materials of desired properties and design. Imagine having better catalysts for the automobile industry that can help in reduction of emissions. Quantum computers will be able to remove the ‘trial and error’ method that pharmaceutical companies apply right now, which is time consuming and costly. A shorter product development cycle and a heavy reduction in the costs for R&D can then be expected.

3. 5G for the global economy

What we notice now the most as we sit in our homes and work through video conferencing is that poor quality networks are a hindrance. As we know, 5G networks can easily resolve this issue. Moreover, 5G will also revolutionize telehealth, telesurgery and ER services. From smart factories to real-time monitoring, 5G private networks can make this possible.

Imagine having self-driving bots! 5G will not only help with speed but also cut mobility costs greatly.

4. Robots in retail

Robotics is not new and has already been a boon for many industriesHowever, there are so many sectors like grocery retail that haven’t been tapped yet. A new robotics application called ‘microfulfillment’ is going to change that. This uses robotics at a hyper local level which will bring about a massive change in this gigantic industry. Higher productivity will result in positive returns in the online grocery business. Microfulfillment centers are currently located and used in real estate at the store level. They are 5-10% more cost effective than a physical store. Imagine the possibilities! The next 5 years are going to only spell growth for retail if robotics is to be incorporated.

5.Virtual and Physical spaces

The importance of tech in communication has been so apparent in times of Covid-19. The lockdown forced us to get in touch with our colleagues, friends and family with the help of video conferencing because of which we were able to understand that virtual can very much be the new physical. The progress of communicating like this is only going to increase with AI technology. The very thin line between physical space and virtual space is now blurred and will remain so. From global events to world conferences, everything will have a digitized format to it. In such a scenario, data privacy will have to be given top priority. Data control and security will have to be worked on if this has to be made a norm and a reality in the next five years.

With so much advancement in tech in the near future, we can only hope for our lives to get simpler, better and more productive. How all of this will together impact our overall lifestyle is not clear. Everything has its pros and cons and we aren’t really thinking about the bad side yet. With all these, perks, should we?

How AI is changing the BFSI Sector – An Analysis of Trends America’s Top Banks | AI for Banks and Fintech

In this article, Read about the growing dependence of tech talent to revolutionize AI for Banks and Fintech. While companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft continue to be the forebearer of cutting-edge technologies, the rise and rise of artificial intelligence in the BFSI sector is showing how this has become everyone’s favourite child. This is true even for traditional businesses, that thrived decades without slightest of technological reforms.

Reasons are many. However, the most common one is that, that emergence of AI in the BFSI range from automation and potential to cut jobs to startup acquisitions. In this article read about how top banks and other financial institutions have analysed the applications of AI in their regular day to day operations.

C-suite executives are eager to leverage AI for automating risk management processes, such as fraud detection and regulatory compliance. Following are the part of the bigger picture.

What applications are used by big shots like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo?
What is the scope of penetration of AI tools by customers and employees in these organizations
What is the common thread that binds innovation in AI in companies like these and what does that mean for the future of banking?
How much has been invested in AI and emerging tech innovation across leading US banks?

In this article, let’s delve deeper into the implementation of AI by the seven leading commercial banks in the U.S. as ranked by the Federal Reserve. Since a lot of businesses are dependent on a flawless financial infrastructure, we will also see how this paradigm shift will also impact business and commerce.

If you are to see the prioritization of AI applications by the seven leading US commercial banks to better serve their customers, improve performance and increase revenue, the trend has multiplied in the past few years. For the industry’s leading giants, the future of finance will be heavily influenced by emerging fintech and AI applications.

Read about Elon Musk and his relation with AI

Banks Will Have Trouble Acquiring AI Talent

According to a report, there is an interesting trend that fancied our attention. Only larger US banks seem to have the resources to build robust AI applications for addressing business problems. This may reflect the tremendous difficulty of obtaining and retaining machine learning and AI talent.

Tech giants (Amazon, Google, and Facebook) are more generous than their financial counterparts. With their reputation for innovation and higher profit-per-employee ratios, allowing them to shower top talent with higher salaries and excellent perks, it’s increasingly difficult for mid-sized banks to hire talent to drive innovation. It’s unlikely that even behemoths like JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo will be able to compete well against the tech giants in the AI talent war of the next decade.

Banking Chatbots Are Hype

Trends in AI like “Chatbots” and “conversational interfaces” inspire enthusiasm and excitement in the banking world. However, they make up roughly 13.5% of the product offerings in banking. It is way less than expected, given that they make up nearly 39% of the AI use-cases across the top 100 banks.

Customer-facing functions like Customer Service, Wealth Management, Marketing, and Sales made up only 25%. In contrast, risk-related Functions including Online Fraud and Cybersecurity, Compliance, Risk Management, and Financing and Loans made up 56%. Banks are understating their use of AI for other use-cases, most banks are investing in AI for compliance and risk monitoring more than any other business area.

Internal Document Search – Contract Intelligence (COiN) and Predictive Analytics – Emerging Opportunities Engine by JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase increased its technology budget to $11.4 billion in 2019. In 2017, JPMorgan Chase designed a chatbot (COiN) to analyze legal documents and extract important data points and clauses thereby automating the process and reducing human intervention that typically takes 360,000 hours for 12000 contracts.

We Misunderstand Elon Musk’s interpretation of AI. But why?

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Elon Musk’s interpretation of AI is widely misunderstood.

You might want to call Elon Musk as someone who is a revolutionary inventor and one of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley, but when it comes to AI, he is pessimistic. However the same is not true for other technologies. In his speech at MIT in 2014, he called AI as ‘Humanities biggest existential threat’ and compared it with Frankenstein.

If you are someone who follows the tech entrepreneurs of the silicon valley, then you have definitely heard of the love-hate relationship of AI and Elon Musk. Before you completely brand him as anti-AI or Conservative, read below before forming a bias.

Being one of the early proponents of AI, Elon Musk is one of the first investors in DeepMind. He also set up the $1 billion OpenAI research lab. But what is it that makes him tweet things like, AI is more dangerous than nukes or WWIII, more dangerous than nukes.

Read why Microsoft is Replacing employees with AI

Being a critique of AI, Musk’s comments are not well received by AI researchers. According to them, Musk’s statement, “ AI will soon become just as smart as humans and said that when it does we should all be scared as humanity’s very existence is at stake.” is nothing short of ludicrous.

One of the AI researcher at a U.K university on the condition of anonymity said,

“I instinctively fall on dislike, because he makes up such nonsense, But then he delivers such extraordinary things. It always leaves me wondering, does he know what he’s doing? Is all the visionary stuff just a trick to get an innovative thing to market?”

After his investment in Deepmind and it being acquired by Google, he set up a new $1 billion AI research lab named OpenAI in Silicon Valley, which has a particular focus on AI safety.

He tweeted in September 2017 that, most likely AI could be the cause of Third World War as a response to Putin’s statement who said that the nation who leads in AI would be the ruler of the world.

And this might sound like something straight from a sci-fi movie, Musk’s eyes had fancied another deep-tech startup Neuralink. The start-up wants to merge people’s brains and AI with the help of a Bluetooth enabled processor that sits in the skull and talks to a person’s phone. In July 2019, the company said human trials would begin in 2020.

Now the question that might come to your mind, if he is so intimidated by the emerging technology, what makes him invest in AI?

The probable answer is, he wants to keep things closer which he thinks might pose risk to the existence of humankind. Maybe he is apprehensive of the fact that AI is turning humans into cyborgs and hence staying close to what he thinks is an ‘enemy’!

Microsoft is Replacing Employees with AI

Until yesterday (not literally but almost) AI was a fancy word that was too far fetched to be true so soon. I mean robots and the likes were only a thing in the movies, right? Replacing humans? You must be kidding me!

No, we aren’t kidding you because not only has Artificial Intelligence – AI started rooting itself in our minds but has also begun to create waves in the real work world. Now, these waves are pleasant for some while a Tsunami for many others.

For instance and for news, Microsoft has taken over the job of taking everyone’s job. We mean that they’ve replaced dozens of journalists with artificial intelligence. This means that journalists have been fired. We are talking about the employees who maintained the homepages on Microsoft’s MSN website and its Edge browser. They have been told (indirectly, of course) that robots will most definitely do a better job than them. Is there really a subtle way to say this? We aren’t sure.

Around 27 employees at PA Media were told that they have only a month’s time to say goodbye after Microsoft decided to make AI the star employee of the month, year, decade and so on.. and to stop employing real people to select, edit and curate news articles on all the homepages.

Is this notice too short? Of course. Besides the fact that AI has been in the news since quite some time now and there has been a lot of talk around how it will replace humans in so many ways, employees didn’t expect it to happen this fast. They also didn’t expect Microsoft to give such a short notice. They’re not surprised as they knew this would come sooner or later but they’re startled because it’s too sudden.

Humans over Artificial Intelligence AI

In defense of humans over Artificial Intelligence, one employee deemed the decision extremely risky, as the AI might not be able to deliver results as per the “very strict editorial guidelines” which can only be adhered to by humans at all possible times. Use of AI could lead to violent or inappropriate content being presented on opening the browser and there could be an underage person sitting on the other end of the screen.

Well, only time will tell who beats whom but we know one thing for sure. The fight is real. With so much happening across the world where we have a fight against racism and a pandemic, here we are in a fight against tech too! Human beings or AI? Who do you think will be the real winner here?

AI in the Fight Against COVID-19

2020 has been a disaster. The first quarter of the year is almost over and people have no other option but to sit inside their homes, while a China originated human-killing virus wipes a considerable amount of the world population. While ‘Thanos’ was an imaginary being in the Marvel Universe, his aim was no different. He wanted to relieve the world of half its population and restore balance. The COVID-19 is no different situation apart from the fact that killing innocent humans is not going to restore the balance on earth, not after it has been subjected to all the malicious atrocities that it has been subjected since the arrival of mankind.

The virus which is also known as coronavirus is said to be originated in the city of Wuhan, China and suspected to be contracted from animals to humans. As people kept mingling and travelling all over the world, the virus too was spread. The current situation is so bad that most advanced countries like the USA and healthcare dominant countries like Italy are on the verge of giving up. All the global leaders, dignitaries and citizens of most of the infected countries are just asking the same question. When will this end?

In the fight against coronavirus, artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (ML) have all of a sudden great role to play. While doctors, physicians, pharma companies and scientists are directly engaged in this duel of humanity against the virus, AI and ML are now being used as human allies for the answer to we all looking to hear.

How will AI and ML fight the disease?

For most of us, AI and ML are just boxed in computers. Apart from seeing AI and ML suggest products from our last google search, none of us has actually seen AI work in real-time. What most people would know AI as just a bunch of codes which work behind the scenes to make things easier in front of the screen. However, if you think so, you are wrong. You can not physically see AI and ML do its job, but AI and ML are contributing to this fight, a whole lot more than you can imagine.

AI and ML can effectively track the disease spread and the trends which points out where the medical help is most needed and where the virus is most likely to spread. This helps medical professionals to quickly act and helps to curb the spread of the disease. AI or as we know artificial intelligence is beyond normal human learning and use its past learning patterns to quickly identify where the things could go wrong. Based on its learning and combining its previous knowledge with insights, it can predict where the disease could go next based on the population flow and density.

Artificial Intelligence can also match the symptoms of COVID-19 and the required treatment or any other therapy that is required. AI is also streamlining the best treatments for the disease which we still await an effective vaccine. Not only this, but AI and ML are also being used to analyse millions of drugs, elements and formulas with high speed to develop a vaccine. AI might seem to be working at its full speed, but a vaccine is still a year or more away from being developed.

Now coming to the other side, AI and ML must also contribute to risk management. AI is as good as 95% correct most of the times. With more and more learning, AI continuously improves and thus corrects itself. However, it is quite dicey at this point to depend on AI alone, especially when the data samples (available data on COVID-19) is very less. Will AI still be that effective when it comes to less available data and also predict the failures? This is still to be understood at large unless there is a huge amount of data available for artificial intelligence to learn from.

For any organisation or company using AI and ML as a tool in the current crisis, it is clear that AI and ML are no more proprietary or experimental technology anymore. The current situation has help demonstrate AI and ML have far more usage and applications, especially when human knowledge and efforts seem to have seen a dead end.