5 Artificial Intelligence Trends to Look for in 2019

Image Source: forbes.com

As can be expected, a lot of progress was made in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) in 2018. If it wasn’t something new coming from Amazon’s Echo line or Google’s Google Home series, both of which employ AI to enable Alexa and Google Assistant to do everything they can, it was something related to autonomous cars, enterprise tools and artificial intelligence applications, or robots that are more lifelike than anything that’s come before them.

In other words, artificial intelligence was a hot topic in 2018, a statement that is true regardless of industry or social circle. After all, we already touched on the consumer electronics industry with our mention of smart speakers, the automotive industry with autonomous cars, a wide breadth of industries with enterprise tools, and the robotics industry with, well, robots. When we put all of this together, we arrive at the conclusion that artificial intelligence is changing lives daily and disrupting industries left and right.

Whether you think this is a boon for society that will allow us to reach new heights, or a detriment that will ultimately prove to be our downfall, you will most likely agree that the more you know about it, the better. To make sure that you know as much as you can, our discussion for today will revolve around five artificial intelligence trends you can expect to see in 2019.

1. Improvements to Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is one of the most widely known artificial intelligence applications that’s taken the world by storm. Like its name lends, it’s a technology used to identify people (their faces) using digital patterns taken from their facial features. Today, facial recognition is employed for a variety of uses like automatic tagging on Facebook, unlocking smartphones and computers, aiding in forensic investigations, and so on.

As we move through 2019, expect improvements to facial recognition technology that lead to higher accuracy and reliability. When this happens, also expect other uses for this AI technology to pop up and improve, such as using it to prevent retail crime, make advertising much more targeted, protect schools and other places from threats, and so much more.

2. Less Biased Data

Seeing as how we just covered facial recognition, it’s appropriate that the next AI technology of 2019 we’ll cover deals with biased data. In facial recognition, this comes in the form of AI systems having trouble identifying women and darker-skinned individuals because the vast majority of their training has been geared toward identifying white males. In other areas, biased data has been appearing more often as machine learning models are increasingly used for decision making processes related to hiring potential employees, lending mortgage loans, releasing prisoners from parole, and so on.

3. Integration of AI into New Technologies

It seems as if artificial intelligence is integrated into more and more technologies every year, and 2019 will be no different. For instance, one of the most anticipated advancements that’s still ongoing has been the convergence of AI and the Internet of Things (IoT). With machine learning behind them, IoT platforms will be able to gain real-time insights and detect patterns and anomalies about the information their sensors gather and generate. Now take this thought and extend it to varying technologies like blockchain, biometrics and quantum computing—the results are truly mind-boggling.

4. Advancements in Reinforcement Learning

Unlike supervised learning that uses labeled databases of input and output pairs, or unsupervised learning that finds connections between unlabeled data, reinforcement learning relies more on sequential decisions. In this way, it’s more “real” than the other learning methods because it’s more closely aligned to how we as humans learn. That is to say, instead of using data recognition, it uses experience and how to use it to move toward a goal. For example, how a game of chess is played.

Today, reinforcement learning is used in areas like gaming and robotics, but it’s not as prevalent as many would like for it to be. As more industries experiment with it in 2019, expect a lot more advancements coming our way.

5. Interconnecting Neural Networks

To put it simply, (artificial) neural networks are computer systems modeled after the human brain and nervous system. They aim to emulate how our brain works, such as how we learn from examples. With computer systems, this translates to them learning without being programmed with any task-specific rules. Unfortunately, though demand for neural networks is high everywhere it can be used, most find it a challenge to choose the best framework to develop their own models. Making this problem worse is the current incompatibility between competing neural toolkits that makes integration impossible. Thankfully, with tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook working together to develop an Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), other tech companies will soon follow suit and work on interconnecting neural networks themselves.

Let’s Take a Second Look At the Latest Trends of AI

As we just saw, 2019 has a lot in store for us, and a lot of it is thanks to artificial intelligence. From improvements in facial recognition technology, to growth in reinforcement learning, here’s what you can expect from AI as we move toward 2020:

1. Improvements to Facial Recognition

2. Less Biased Data

3. Integration of AI into New Technologies

4. Advancements in Reinforcement Learning

5. Interconnecting Neural Networks

Enjoy what’s to come!