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From artificial intelligence (AI) that can recognize faces, choose music for you based on your mood, and even drive your car, the technology has come a long way in recent years. Although the concept of intelligent machines has been around since ancient history as part of Greek mythology, only in recent decades has the scientific community made significant advances in practical uses of AI.
Consumer applications for AI only took off in the past few years, with the introduction of Amazon’s Alexa, the AI that resides in the handy little Bluetooth speaker, Echo. The business world, too, is just starting to explore AI’s possible applications in big data analysis for customer relationship management, marketing, and more. Most of the world’s tech giants are taking note, exemplified through both internal investments in AI research and development and the acquisition of AI startups.
The market for enterprise applications of AI is expected to surpass $30 billion by 2025, with a tremendous focus on better, faster, and more accurate ways to analyze big data for a variety of purposes. The impact AI advancements could have on various aspects of life and business is undeniable.
It’s worth exploring exactly how the world’s leading tech companies are investing, in order to see where AI capabilities will take us in 2017.
Facebook Strives For The World’s Best AI Laboratory
Facebook has announced plans to construct the “best AI lab in the world” and has already developed a personal assistant powered by AI, dubbed “M.” Future AI developments will likely include regular updates for its existing AI technologies and resource allocation for its AI lab, which appears to be a form of think tank dedicated to solving some of the technology industry’s biggest challenges with AI. As the world’s top social media platform and one of the world’s most profitable companies, Facebook is well-poised to make great strides in AI technology.
Google Goes On Buying Spree
Google has acquired 11 different private AI companies in recent years. Some of the technology resulting from these investments has been developed for improving Google’s search functions. We’ve also seen the launch of Google Assistant, a virtual assistant backed by machine learning that provides users with an easy-to-use, voice-controlled assistant on Google Pixel smartphones and devices equipped with Google Search.
Google’s acquisition of DeepMind in 2014 for $400 million is one of the largest AI acquisitions to date, and Google teams have been pushing the DeepMind technology to its limits. Its new machine learning system, dubbed “TensorFlow,” will soon be released for free to the public. TensorFlow mimics human brain behavior in image and speech recognition and translation, making it one of the most robust AI systems.
Apple Aims At Digital Signage Applications
Apple, too, has acquired a number of smaller AI companies, including Turi—a machine-learning platform for developers and data scientists—and Tuplejump, another machine learning company.
Perhaps most noteworthy is an acquisition that took place in mid-2015: the purchase of Vocal IQ. This company’s expertise in AI promises to put Siri at the head of the ever-growing pack of virtual assistants.
Additionally, on the heels of introducing advanced facial recognition technology in the latest version of iOS, Apple announced that it will focus on facial recognition technology for digital signage in the coming months.
Salesforce Software Integrates AI Capabilities
Salesforce plans to integrate AI into all of its customer relationship management
(CRM) cloud systems with Salesforce Einstein. Companies that rely on Salesforce programs will now be able to access and capitalize on the tremendous amount of data Salesforce gathers, and the AI system is geared to learn from every piece of data entered. Through Einstein, patterns and predictive models can be created much more quickly than humans are capable. The system could even automate certain tasks, freeing up human employees’ time to focus on creative tasks and personal connections. Salesforce Einstein will learn from each company’s entries and find patterns and insights faster than ever, as well as offer more robust predictive analytics, allowing companies to uncover the best next action for any customer or prospect in any stage of the sales funnel.
Uber Acquires AI Startup
The success of any autonomous vehicle rides on the car’s AI systems and deep learning capabilities. With Uber’s intense focus on self-driving vehicles in the past year, it’s not surprising to learn the ride-share company purchased a small AI startup, Geometric Intelligence. The company will become part of Uber’s dedicated AI lab at Uber headquarters in San Francisco.
Microsoft Ventures Helps Fund AI Startups
Microsoft Ventures recently unveiled a new fund for AI startups. This fund is meant to help AI companies striving to positively impact society by improving machine learning, big data analytics, cloud computing systems, cybersecurity, and software as a service (SaaS). Microsoft also has in-house plans for AI and recently launched Project Oxford, an AI system meant to understand human interactions using facial, speech, and emotional recognition.
IBM Invests in Watson Improvements
IBM carved a space as an AI pioneer years ago when its Watson computer won Jeopardy! against human opponents. IBM continues to enhance Watson’s capabilities, and a recent partnership with Nvidia jumped its response rate to 1.7 times faster than before. Watson is capable of reading 40 million documents in 15 seconds and understands grammatical and contextual nuances. This technology is going to help businesses analyze immense quantities of data much more quickly than ever thought possible.
Intel Finds Nervana
Intel wants to make AI a foundational element of business and society as a whole. The company’s new Nervana platform can deliver a tremendously faster training process for deep learning models Backed by robust developer tools, Nervana should encourage innovation and maximize the social benefits of AI through an easy-to-use, cross-compatible platform.
Big Data, From The Board Room To The Living Room
As AI continues to evolve across a variety of companies and for countless applications in a multitude of industries, the investments we’re seeing today hint at amazing things in the near future. The developments in both existing technologies and new applications will help close the gap between big data and what we can do with it.
Computing power has never been cheaper, so it’s easier than ever for tech giants to invest in AI applications. AI has the potential to completely reshape the business and technology worlds, ultimately affecting the industries that run our daily lives, such as education, healthcare, manufacturing, and agriculture.
Additional Resources On This Topic:
Artificial Intelligence: Closing the Gap Between Data and Understanding
When AI Chatbots attack: What You Need to Know About the Struggle to Program Empathy
Why Deep Learning and AI Will Change Everything
Daniel Newman is CEO of Broadsuite Media Group, principal analyst at Futurumand author ofBuilding Dragons.
