Like the other major events of healthcare in 2020, the Annual Meeting of Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) also had to be held as an online-only event forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual platform of RSNA was very well designed, and it provided ample opportunities for customers to connect to the right representatives from each company.

The virtual meeting room was a unique tool on the RSNA platform where customers can visit the room just like they would walk into a physical booth without any prior appointments. The company representatives engage with the visitors and transfer the meeting to a private room seamlessly. This feature was quite helpful for those visitors who had not secured prior appointments with the vendors to have discussions and product demonstrations.

The vendors, though, had mixed responses when asked if the virtual meeting were as effective as in-person meetings. While most agreed that there cannot be a substitute for physical meetings, some exhibitors claimed that their live virtual programs had good traffic from the customers and partners. COVID-19 has disrupted the traditional way of conducting trade shows, and it might be precipitating a larger digital transformation of the marketing departments within the vendor companies.

Five large themes can be defined from the RSNA virtual floor this year. Artificial intelligence and enterprise imaging were the predominant themes and formed the framework for the other two themes of workflow efficiency and precision medicine. Moreover, cybersecurity was another emerging theme and it has a potential for huge growth.

Artificial Intelligence in the Post-Pandemic Era

It is quite clear that artificial intelligence (AI) was the No. 1 theme for RSNA this year. Even with just one-third the usual number of exhibitors in the virtual event, almost all players seemed to be pointing out their artificial intelligence capabilities.

Quite understandably the event was dominated by the larger players, and the usual AI showcase had a far fewer number of companies and startups. The key AI theme this year, then, as Platform plays for AI could be biased from that perspective. Platform-based approaches are not really new to radiology AI. Hints were being dropped at RSNA 2019, but this year the AI platform initiatives were the heart of the AI messaging.

For more coverage based on industry expert insights and research, subscribe to the Diagnostic Imaging e-Newsletterhere.

But, what was also curious was the diverse set of strategies evolving, even within the platform play approaches. For example, GE Healthcare had a direct focus on imaging AI with its Edison platform (with Open AI Orchestrator becoming part of the broader offering of health services), whereas Philips Healthcare focused more on precision diagnosis with AI solutions forming a part of that broader strategy (IntelliSpace AI Workflow Suite, IntelliSpace Precision Medicine). Siemens Healthineers has an even broader approach, where their Digital Marketplace goes beyond imaging to support the broader healthcare community (and a somewhat diluted focus on the radiology AI marketplace type approach). We also saw more players developing and/or refining their approach including Sectra [Amplifier], Fujifilm [REiLI], Canon, among others.

But, to not be biased with the virtual nature of this event, we also looked at what happened through 2020, for imaging AI. Several startups leveraged their capabilities to offer solutions for COVID-19 screening and diagnosis, some even securing emergency authorizations (e.g. CuraCloud). Most offered their solutions for free to hospitals, as well, doing their bit to support our COVID-19 warriors. Interesting enough, some of the mature, established start-ups did quite well during this phase of uncertainty Aidoc, for example, announced that it had tripled its revenues in the first three quarters of 2020, and private conversations with some other AI vendors gave us the same impression. Indeed, similar to broader digital health trends in healthcare, the adoption of AI in imaging has improved for several use cases in 2020, thanks to the negative effects of this pandemic.

An emerging trend was the interest in imaging AI companies from non-imaging vendors. Qure.ai announced a partnership with AstraZeneca (AZ) during RSNA week. AstraZeneca's interest lies in the early identification of lung cancer cases by undertaking lung imaging in emerging markets, such as Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In addition, Qure.ai's solutions are built to address the specific needs of the imaging departments in those regions. This is likely to improve the uptake of AI in emerging markets since players, such as AZ, are driving a use case that resonates well with the local market conditions. To really enable the uptake in emerging markets, Qure.AI has also addressed other concerns. Their qTrack smartphone app, allows film-based X-rays to be converted to digital images using only the users smartphone camera and allows for cloud-based algorithms to assess signs of tuberculosis, as well as serves to record patient data. Innovations such as these, and the qBox solution that we covered last year, are key to ensuring AI reaches the masses even in emerging markets.

Enterprise Imaging- Enabler of Efficiency and Productivity

Implementation of enterprise imaging solutions is a time-consuming process. With most hospitals working on skeletal staff due to COVID-19 and the subsequent financial distress that it brought upon them, implementing enterprise imaging during the pandemic was an impossible task. However, this presented an opportunity for both the vendors and the hospitals to consider innovative deployment models. Providers developed an affinity for cloud-based solutions as it does not require investing as much time and effort by the hospital staff as compared to a traditional on-premise implementation. This year witnessed a flurry of activities in cloud-based imaging with various vendors launching solutions that truly leverage the cloud-computing capabilities to realize tangible benefits in the clinical environment.

Earlier in the year, Change Healthcare launched its cloud-native Enterprise Imaging Network that enables aggregation and sharing of imaging data in a secure environment. Hyland launched its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for enterprise imaging during the event that is intended to relieve the hospitals of their responsibility for application and hardware maintenance. SaaS also enables hospitals to pay as per the usage with components being added only when the hospital demands. The trend towards SaaS in enterprise imaging augurs well for the hospitals who are currently reeling under severe financial stress, as it does not require huge upfront capital spending. Fujifilm highlighted its Synapse Cloud Services for hosting its Enterprise Imaging portfolio in a cost-effective and scalable environment targeting the teleradiology providers, critical access hospitals, and imaging centers.

For those concerned about the bandwidth and privacy issues that come with the cloud solution, GE Healthcares Edison HealthLink might be the right solution. Edison HealthLink is a new edge computing technology that permits clinicians to process the clinical data and act on it even before it reaches the cloud. TrueFidelity image reconstruction, CT Smart subscription, and eight other applications are already available on Edison HealthLink. Hyland introduced edge rendering of its zero footprint NilRead viewer that runs a local instance in low internet bandwidth conditions.

With enormous growth in the number of AI applications in imaging, the responsibility of integrating them into the workflow to ensure that they work seamlessly, has been taken up by the enterprise imaging vendors. The latest offering from Agfa Healthcare, RUBEE for AI is aimed at helping the hospitals in choosing the right AI solution for their needs. RUBEE aims to save the time for providers by offering them a curated set of intelligent applications that can be seamlessly integrated into their workflow in quick time.

Enterprise imaging involves networking multiple elements of imaging from different departments and centers and, as such, poses tremendous challenges in integrating the solutions from various vendors. The expertise of vendors like Altamont Software becomes extremely important with enterprise imaging strategy in perspective. Altamont Passport is a product that incorporates routing, pre-fetch, modality worklist, DICOM SR integration solutions to ensure a smooth workflow at an enterprise level. The Altamont Connectivity Platform provides the users with the necessary tools to integrate any image into their EMR or any enterprise system.

While challenges in enterprise imaging continue to emerge new solutions that address these are also being introduced, indicating the broad-based participation of the imaging industry.

COVID-19 has brought back the focus on efficiency and financial sustainability. With this crisis in the background, enterprise imaging will continue to evolve continuously over the next few years to develop into a unified medical record for all types of images in the enterprise. AI will be the toolkit for many efficiencies and productivity improvement initiatives. The developments in these two key domains will be a major driver for the growth of the imaging industry in the next decade.

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Artificial Intelligence: The Winner of the RSNA 2020 - Diagnostic Imaging

Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang doesnt need a crystal ball to see where artificial intelligence will be used in the future. He just looks at his customer list.

The four-year-old startup, which recently hit a valuation of more than $3.5 billion, got its start supplying autonomous vehicle companies with the labeled data needed to train machine learning models to develop and eventually commercialize robotaxis, self-driving trucks and automated bots used in warehouses and on-demand delivery.

In 2020, that changed as e-commerce, enterprise automation, government, insurance, real estate and robotics companies turned to Scales visual data labeling platform to develop and apply artificial intelligence to their respective businesses. Now, the company is preparing for the customer list to grow and become more varied.

Scale AIs customer list has included an array of autonomous vehicle companies including, Voyage, Aptiv, Embark, Nuro and Zoox. While it began to diversify with additions like Airbnb, DoorDash and Pinterest, there were still sectors that had yet to jump on board. That changed in 2020, Wang said.

Scale began to see incredible use cases of AI within the government as well as enterprise automation, according to Wang. Scale AI began working more closely with government agencies this year and added enterprise automation customers like States Title, a residential real estate company.

Wang also saw an increase in uses around conversational AI, in both consumer and enterprise applications as well as growth in e-commerce as companies sought out ways to use AI to provide personalized recommendations for its customers that were on par with Amazon.

Robotics continued to expand as well in 2020, although it spread to use cases beyond robotaxis, autonomous delivery and self-driving trucks, Wang said.

A lot of the innovations that have happened within the self-driving industry, were starting to see trickle out throughout a lot of other robotics problems, Wang said. And so its been super exciting to see the breadth of AI continue to broaden and serve our ability to support all these use cases.

The wider adoption of AI across industries has been a bit of a slow burn over the past several years as company founders and executives begin to understand what the technology could do for their businesses, Wang said, adding that advancements in natural language processing of text, improved offerings from cloud companies like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud and greater access to datasets helped sustain this trend.

Were finally getting to the point where we can help with computational AI, which has been this thing thats been pitched for forever, he said.

That slow burn heated up with the COVID-19 pandemic, said Wang, noting that interest has been particularly strong within government and enterprise automation as these entities looked for ways to operate more efficiently.

There was this big reckoning, Wang said of 2020 and the effect that COVID-19 had on traditional business enterprises.

If the future is mostly remote with consumers buying online instead of in-person, companies started to ask, How do we start building for that?, according to Wang.

The push for operational efficiency coupled with the capabilities of the technology is only going to accelerate the use of AI for automating processes like mortgage applications or customer loans at banks, Wang said, who noted that outside of the tech world there are industries that still rely on a lot of paper and manual processes.

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How artificial intelligence will be used in 2021 - TechCrunch

Medical device specialists often monitor the work of surgeons to provide case support during procedures in the operating room. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical proctoring has gone remote.

COVID has dramatically accelerated the need to have a remote tool, when you either don't have access to the hospital, or when there are travel restrictions that make it really difficult, said Jennifer Fried, CEO and co-founder of ExplORer Surgical, a company that provides a software platform for case support during surgery. ExplORer offers the training platform in three formats: in-person, remote or hybrid.

Launched out of the University of Chicago Department of Surgery in 2013, ExplORer recently added augmented reality technology that acts as a virtual laser pointer for medical device specialists to provide on-screen guidance for surgeons similarly to how sports announcers use a Telestrator to mark up plays.

2020 is history: Where do pharma and healthcare go from here?

Explore biopharma's ongoing work to combat COVID-19 and to fight the world's other diseases at the same time through CEO interviews, panel discussions, and daily news recaps.

Introduced in November, ExplORers two-way audio/video system is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The AR technology lets medical device reps zoom in or out and use a laser pointer to highlight items on the screen for the doctor. Scrub nurses that prepare the surgical instruments use the customized content in the platform to guide them through the workflow.

RELATED:COVID-19 has caused a surge in telemedicine. Is telesurgery next?

Before COVID-19, physicians would fly around the world to proctor cases. In fact, six to eight surgeons would be in the room to do a procedure. With the pandemic, proctors are logging into the OR remotely, according to Fried.

Medical proctors can draw on a fluoroscopy image, share their screen and warn doctors what to look for during a procedure such as implanting a device in the body.

The ability to do that in a live, real-time way that's also compliant is really a game changer in this environment, Fried told Fierce Healthcare.

Fried noted that an ExplORer customer recently began a large U.S. clinical trial with surgeons in Europe while their clinical specialists were in Australia. The remote proctoring software has helped facilitate this collaboration.

Remote proctoring will likely continue after the pandemic because of its cost savings and efficiency for medical professionals, according to Fried.

What we're seeing with COVID is, I think, people are getting more and more comfortable with remote support, as it has become a necessity, Fried said. I think that trend is going to be here to stay.

RELATED:Healthcare is ramping up AI investments during COVID. But the industry is still on the fence about Google, Amazon. Here's why

The AR features will be particularly valuable for medical proctors to help physicians through complex invasive procedures, noted Art Collins, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and a senior medical adviser to ExplORer Surgical.

This expert training is critical when surgeons need to switch an implant operation from a large incision and open approach to minimally invasive or a catheter, Fried noted.

Remote proctoring solutions like those that ExplORer offers will incorporate artificial intelligence features such as computer vision to collect data on procedures and feed it automatically into a surgeons workflow.

AI and machine learning will become more impactful as the data set of video feeds increase, as a larger data set empowers better insights, Collins told Fierce Healthcare. As the use of video becomes standard practice in the OR and procedure suites, AI technologies will increasingly be able to interpret video feeds.

In addition, medical proctors will use image-object recognition and machine learning to analyze what is happening in the OR, Fried said. The AI technology could suggest best practices based on knowing that a surgeon took an instrument off the table, as one example.

You could say this step is taking a lot longer and know that because this instrument hasn't been put back onto the table, she explained.

ExplORer has built early iterations of this machine learning technology and plans to launch a commercial case in 2021, Fried said.

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How artificial intelligence and augmented reality are changing medical proctoring during COVID-19 - FierceHealthcare

In my previous column, I looked at the problem of artificial intelligences forcing hardware to consume too much power, which could lead to an unsustainable spike in demand at data centers in this country by 2025. To test out their appetites for more power, I employed several advanced artificial intelligences, and also their close cousins machine learning, cognitive computing, deep learning and advanced expert system technology. For that column, I only measured how much power they consumed, but my original intention was to actually test them out to show some innovative things the technology was accomplishing. I am circling back to that effort now.

For many years we have been reporting on the technology of artificial intelligence, about how its being built out and made more efficient, or how it can be paired with other technologies like quantum computing to become even more accurate. At the same time, the government has been keenly focused on AI ethics, ensuring that our newly created smart programs and machines dont go rogue or make mistakes that could get people hurt. The Defense Department now follows five ethical principles when using AI, while the intelligence community has its own artificial intelligence ethics guidelines.

There is still a lot of learning to do, but at this point we have pretty much covered the basics in terms of building out smart AIs and related technologies, power consumption issues aside. That is why we are starting to see a lot of interesting reports on projects that make use of AI, like figuring out which fishing boats out in the ocean are using forced labor or planning how we can safely get people to Mars.

These are some of the most interesting AIs that I have collected over the past few months, what they do and how well they perform.

COBOL Colleague

The federal government invested big in the COBOL programming language back in the day. It was designed for business, finance and administrative systems within both private companies and government organizations. Today, however, its not actively used for any new projects, having been replaced by more efficient languages. Most COBOL programming today is used to maintain existing systems written in the language that cant easily be replaced or recoded. The problem is that nobody is learning how to code in COBOL anymore, and most programmers that already know it have retired.

That is where Colorado-based startup Phase Change Software and their COBOL Colleague AI comes into play. Instead of trying to teach COBOL to modern programmers, it scans existing programs written in the language for vulnerabilities and problems, and zeros in on exactly what lines need to be fixed.

There is certainly a skills shortage, however, the real problem is that the knowledge of the application is disappearing, said Steve Brothers, COO of Phase Change Software.

Deploying an AI to look at code is almost like hiring a skilled human programmer. In the case of COBOL Colleague, it wont make changes to the code on its own but will show where any changes are needed. Then skilled programmers, even if they are not totally familiar with COBOL, can make the necessary fixes.

ToxMod

ToxMod is an interesting artificial intelligence made by Modulate Inc, a company that specializes in innovative AI. ToxMod is designed to regulate live comments in voice chat rooms and is able to distinguish subtle differences between, say, someone using an explicative in frustration, and someone using it as an attack or as part of a hateful tirade. To give ToxMod a real workout, its being deployed in the ultimate toxic environment, the chat rooms of video games.

Since ToxMod can differentiate something like honest frustration expressed in a toxic way from malicious intent, it can also advise matchmaking or reputation algorithms to improve the player experience, said Carter Huffman, Co-Founder and CTO of Modulate. Additionally, each games private ToxMod instances learn over time about their communitys specifics, on top of ToxMods universal core algorithms which evolve and improve automatically behind the scenes.

ToxMod can listen to and understand emotions, volume, inflections and other factors to determine if speech should be flagged. If hateful speech is detected, site moderators are alerted along with an audio clip to back up the AIs claim. This will let moderators check the AIs work while identifying bad actors and preemptively resolving a problem before it grows into something more serious.

The Test

This last one is mostly just for fun, but I was so impressed that I felt like I needed to include it here. The Test is, on the surface, a series of three games available for less than $2 each on the Steam gaming platform. The games are kind of bizarre in nature. Players sit in front of a demonic-like figure at his desk and are asked a series of very personal questions. The questions consist of typical personality type questions like If you found money on the street and knew who it belonged to, would you return it? But there are also a series of very strange scenarios and off-the-wall questions like if you were starving at home would you eat your pets, if pink is a prettier color than red, or if would you stop a zombie apocalypse if you could.

Behind the scenes, developer Randumb Studios is likely using an expert system as opposed to a true AI to track results and prepare advice for players. The questions were so strange that I really didnt think much of it, though I did try and answer honestly. But the final results, especially for the second game, really floored me.

It told me that I was working too hard and that I needed to take some time to recharge my batteries because I was not doing anyone any good if I was spread so thin that nobody was getting my best. It advised me to allocate two units of personal time for every one unit I spent working for others, which would be a key to both my happiness and success moving forward.

The strange thing is that I was really thinking about this exact same thing over the past two weeks, especially with the holidays approaching. I was worried about burnout and keeping a good work and life balance, and had spent quite a few evenings contemplating that exact topic. But I never told the game this, and dont see how its bizarre questions led it to that conclusion.

I guess that is the magic of expert systems. Its why those little 20-questions toys that ask you yes and no questions can always guess the song or the movie star that you are thinking about. But the leap that The Test made with me was a lot bigger than that. I still dont know how they did it, but am very impressed with the results.

The really amazing thing is that we are really just scratching the surface about what AI can do. In the near future, even the projects highlighted here will seem trivial compared to what is possible.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

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Artificial Intelligence Begins to Realize Its Potential - Nextgov

One of the best-performing IPOs of 2020 was SaaS company C3.ai Inc (NASDAQ: AI). The stock priced at $42, above its initial range of $30 to $33, and closed at $161 in their first week of trading.

Growth Ahead: C3.ai is called a disruptive enterprise software vendor by Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives.

It's "the LeBron of AI setting up for massive growth," said Ives,who initiated the company with an Outperform rating and $200 price target.

C3.ai has a subscription model that could drive 30% revenue growth annually and strong gross margins, said KeyBanc analyst Michael Turits.

The analyst has a Sector Weight rating on shares of C3.ai based on valuation.

"AI is the new internet for the enterprises," said Piper Sandler analyst Arvind Ramnani, who rates the stock Overweight with a $166 price target.

Ramnani said the company's revenue and gross margins are supported by strong gross retention and partnerships that will drive sales.

Related Link: IPO Outlook For The Week: Airbnb, DoorDash Lead Highly Anticipated Week

Partnerships: The company's partnerships with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) area positive for Ives.

Turits mentioned a partnership with Baker Hughes and said it has a minimum value of $450 million for a five-year contract. Raytheon (NYSE: RTX)and Adobe (NYSE: ADBE) are were also mentioned.

"C3 has established lighthouse go-to-market and development partnerships with leaders in industries like energy (Baker Hughes), defense (Raytheon), financial services (FIS) and horizontal partnerships like CRM (Microsoft/Adobe)," the analyst said.

Analysts On C3.ai's Valuation: Wedbush Ives' price targetcomes from a valuation of 27x EV/revenue for fiscal year 2026.

Turits is cautious on C3.ai shares due to valuation. The analyst said three customers equal 44% of the company's revenue and has a relatively small number of customers.

"Despite its large, dynamic market opportunity, we view AI as fully valued at 82.2x EV/revenue (CY21E)," he said.

C3.ai is valued at 35x 2023 estimated revenue of $325 million by Ramnani.

Morgan Stanley analyst SanjitSingh initiatedshares with an Underweight rating and $100 price target. The analyst said there is "compelling growth ahead," but success is priced in.

AI Price Action: Shares of C3.ai were trading down 13.65% at $120.11 at last check Monday.

View More Analyst Ratings for AI View the Latest Analyst Ratings

2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Is C3.ai The 'LeBron' Of Artificial Intelligence? 4 Analyst Takes On Recent IPO - Benzinga

The year 2020 was long and treacherous, but the biggest bright spot for me was the official launch of Neural. Thats our AI sub-brand here at TNW and the section youre reading this article in.

More specifically, Neural is me (Tristan Greene), Thomas Macaulay, Ivan Mehta, and the contributors and colleagues who help us put out fresh, original, exciting content in the world of machine learning every day.

It was a tough year to be a reporter but Thomas and Ivan managed to exceed our expectations at every turn with incredible insight and consistent excellence. With that in mind, Im proud to present some of my favorite articles from Tom and Ivan this year.

Between the two of them they covered some of the biggest events, breakthroughs, and stories in the world of machine learning and artificial intelligence. But, more importantly, they provided keen insight and analysis that you wont find anywhere else. And they also adhered to our biggest principal here at Neural: we cover AI for humans (not robots, businesses, or governments).

So, if youll indulge me, heres an Editors Choice list of just a few of the many articles my team published this year.

But first, heres my contribution:

Stories pictured above here and here.

And those are just a small sample of the wonderful work weve put out here at Neural. Check back in with us in 2021 where well continue to bring you news, analysis, and trusted opinions on the world of machine learning and its impact on humans.

Published December 29, 2020 22:00 UTC

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Heres what happened in the world of artificial intelligence in 2020 - The Next Web

Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Automation Can and Will Replace You in the Near Future - Heres the How and Why in Short Form

Experts from around the world estimate that this could be at least 50% of the future labour market by the end of the decade and this has now been accelerated through lockdowns and the work-from-home concept (abbreviated WHF).

Simple logic, if not needed at the office, why bother keeping home workers the new global WHF cohort anno 2020 - when it can be automated and replaced by algorithm and artificial intelligence?

Big tech and proponents of the gig economy argue that AI, automation and robotisation will create as many new jobs as it destroys.

The Big question is - which new jobs will be created - and that depends largely on each persons individual skill set.

Its safe to say that the higher the intelligence and intellectual capacity of someone, the greater the chance of a successful career. Add to that a good education at a major university, most likely followed up by a Masters degree and the chances of career success grow exponentially.

The reality however is that not everyone has the required skill set or intellectual capacity to study and pursue a successful career. And some are not even bothered, owning to perhaps a supportive family nursing the career development of their offspring. On the other side of the spectrum, the career ladder may be distinctively different. Not everyone wants to become a coder or data scientist, some just may want to be creative or pursue culinary endeavors. And the latter two - the creative and the culinary - have a distinct advantage where AI cannot compete; creativity cannot be programmed, only copied or simulated.

At the bottom of the labour market - the blue collar worker - which usually involves low-skilled, repetitive manual labor such factory workers, the future looks rather bleak. Just about any blue collar worker can and will be replaced by robots or robotics. Think car manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, to name but a few of the obvious. And soon driverless taxis and trucks will impact the transport and logistics industries beyond recognition.

White collar workers have a relatively better future, although not easily replaceable depending on required skill set, they can be substituted through automation and RPA (Robotic Process Automation). Think insurance brokers, travel agents and accountants.

University graduates, experts and specialists have a distinct advantage; they cannot- as yet - all be replaced by AI and automation. Think doctors, lawyers and scientists as well as many other specialized occupations such as artists, musicians and athletes. After all, no one wants to see robots performing a live concert or playing sports at the Olympics.

The biggest challenge however will be how to prepare for a continuously evolving labour market where rapidly advancing tech will have the comparative advantage. And the only answer to this vexing question is that society will need to focus on humane tech and ensure that the human element does not go lost in automation, algorithms and robotics.

Technology should serve humanity and not the other way around.

The Corona Crash and How to Survive and Thrive in the New Reality is available onAmazon,LuluandBarnes & Noble.

Eleftherios Jerry Floros is an author, speaker and consultant on all things crypto, tech and digital disruption.

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Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Automation Can and Will Replace You in the Near Future - Heres the... - BBN Times

Artificial Intelligence or AI, which appears to be the newest and most exciting frontier in science and engineering, attempts to emulate humans in performing complex tasks by means of learning, adapting and automation. Alan Turing, who is widely considered to be the father of artificial intelligence, presented his ground-breaking Turing Test in 1950 setting a benchmark for AI. In order to be intelligent, a system needs to have certain capabilitiesincluding natural language processing, knowledge representation, automated reasoning, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. It was proposed that these six technology branches would collectively form an AI and surprisingly, all six components remain relevant today even after 70 years.

Today we are at the crossroads of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and AI is gradually occupying the centre stage of this unprecedented transformation. It is no wonder that all the tech giants are now involved in a relentless race to surpass each other in acquiring superior AI capabilities, while their non-tech clients and partners are heavily embracing AI to sharpen their competitive edges. Harvard Business Review in one of its recent editions suggested that companies should look at AI through the lens of business capabilities rather than a mere collection of technologies. Thus, AI should be integrated as one of the core components of any complex business process instead of being categorised as a supporting tool. Specifically, AI can cater to three important business needs: process automation, extraction of cognitive insights, and cognitive engagement with clients and employees. Interestingly, AI applications are no longer restricted to corporations, but is gradually encompassing a variety of domains, from farming to manufacturing, hospitality to healthcare, public services to professional services, judiciary to defence and others. Innumerable examples of successful AI applications can be cited to demonstrate the and ubiquity of AI and its farreaching and profound impacts.

It is now obvious that AI has started to fundamentally disrupt the way we live and work. This will continue to happen in the foreseeable future with even greater speed, intensity and coverage. As AI penetrates every sphere of human life, it is imperative for us to formulate a roadmap to see the opportunities and identify its likely threats. Like any other technology, AI is neither an unmixed blessing nor a silver bullet for all our problems. Rather, AI poses some genuine concerns that must be addressed with appropriate strategies.

Unlike the preceding automation boom, AI is not only taking over the routine back-office roles or bluecollar jobs but also threatening to pervade the cognitive domain that has traditionally been under human control for thousands of years. Now the question arises, what approach is suitable for a developing country like Bangladesh? Should we turn a blind eye to AI? We can't afford to ignored it because the powerful AI-wave generated on both sides of the Atlantic is transcending continents and is not far from reaching Bangladesh. As a matter of fact, an AI-driven world is no more a matter of choice but an irreversible destiny that we are all heading towards. Nevertheless, we should not blindly follow other nations in adopting AI applications. Instead, we should frame policies and strategies which are commensurate with our own needs, necessities and priorities. For instance, we have a large young population and as such, we wouldn't want a big chunk of the available jobs to be taken over by AI. Hence, we should choose those problems for applying AI at the first phase that we haven't been able to solve with the traditional approaches and age-old systems. For instance, we are now facing serious problems of credit scam and cyber heist in our financial sector, corruption and inefficiency in public service delivery process, rampant violence against women, frequent violation of traffic rules and road accidents, wastage and pilferage in the utility delivery system and so on. Along with fixing some of these pressing problems of our time, AI can also be chosen to perform those tasks which involve a lot of risks and/or very high levels of precision such as firefighting, ship breaking, handling industrial chemical, predicting natural disasters, diagnosis of critical diseases and so on.

We must revisit our education system and reinvigorate it with soft skills such as critical thinking, creative problem-solving, leadership, collaboration and teamwork, social responsibilities, and ethics along with emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In this way, we'll be able to convert our young population into skilled manpower, a critical input for realising our AI ambitions. Besides, we should also attempt to develop capability to serve the overseas markets, where AI is gaining ground very fast. Thus, we can diversify our heavily imbalanced export basket and realise our aspiration for economic prosperity. Countries like Taiwan and South Korea have leapfrogged as a developed nation through harnessing the semiconductor revolution, while countries like India and Philippines have enormously benefited from the business process outsourcing boom. Today, another revolution is beckoning that Bangladesh can attempt to exploit for its economic prosperity. If this train is missed, our path to prosperity might be harder and longer.

No matter what technology we opt to develop or which algorithm we choose to apply, fostering social welfare and upholding humanity through the sensible use of technology should be the ultimate goal. Again, no technological development should be allowed to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, or create any form of disparity or injustice. Therefore, a carefully crafted policy should be adopted and implemented to secure our future in the AI-driven global order.

Md Abdul Bari is a civil servant who is currently pursuing his Master's degree at the University of Queensland, Australia.

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Bangladesh in the age of Artificial Intelligence - The Daily Star