Many think of AI as chatbots or simple automation. But AI breakthroughs are making waves across industries and sectors, from healthcare to logistics to entertainment. These inventions are setting the stage for a future that feels straight out of science fiction.
The roots of today’s AI can be traced back to 19th-century inventor Charles Babbage’s difference engine and British codebreaker Alan Turing’s 1950 paper defining the Turing test for assessing whether or not a machine is intelligent. But it was only in the 1980s that AI experienced a renaissance, thanks to faster computers, more algorithms and more funding.
This led to a surge in innovations in a number of standard AI sub-areas, including vision (image and video recognition and generation), natural language processing (understanding and generating), problem solving and planning and decision-making. Some of the biggest breakthroughs were made in the areas of image classification and generation, and autonomous systems, as well as generative models that can create new data rather than just classifying or analyzing existing data.
For example, generative AI is used in 3D design software to help engineers build lighter but just as strong aeroplane components that improve fuel efficiency and sustainability. And scientists are using generative AI to speed up breakthroughs in medicine and materials science by predicting how proteins fold into 3D shapes, which can then be studied for signs of disease or drug resistance.
For companies, this means taking advantage of these advances to boost competitiveness and innovation. And the best way to do that is by breaking down organizational siloes and embracing cross-functional collaboration to ensure AI projects deliver on business priorities.