Crystal Gaze 2021: Predictions on How AI is Going to Change the World

Huawei hosted the Light Reading Webinar  “How AI is Going to Change our World” taking place on December 1. The speakers at the event included:

1. Mark Beccue, Principal Analyst, Omdia
2. Tim Danks, CIPP/E VP, Risk Management & Partner Relations, Huawei Technologies (USA)
3. Professor Barry O’Sullivan, Full Professor (Chair of Constraint Programming), University College Cork
4. Neil Sahota, IBM Master Inventor, UN AI subject matter expert & lecturer, UC Irvine

This is what the speakers at the event had to divulge about their interaction with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in data science projects.

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How AI is Working in 2020: AI Early Adopters Are Accelerating Commitments Amind Growing Confidence

Mark Beccue, Principal Analyst at Omdia

“Through conducting a June 2020 enterprise survey titled, “AI Market Maturity,” informative insight has been gleaned from AI end-users and vendors on organizational structure, goals, strategy, data privacy, accountability, and COVID-19. While AI penetration is low, AI early adopters are accelerating commitments and confidence is growing. Sectors like business intelligence, customer service, IT, and operations are examples of early adopters that are leaning heavily into AI through investments and deployment.

Across sectors, respondents identified four use cases to be the most appealing: predictive analytics, IT workflow automation, chatbots, and intelligent CRM.

The COVID-19 will likely create an AI gap, with early adopters accelerating as they are already reaping the benefits of their investments and laggards delaying AI adoption until better economic conditions are in place. A core benefit of AI is its ability to remove humans from specific tasks and decisions.

However, there are questions on where the responsibility lies for when something goes wrong and how AI works and delivers results.

62% of respondents expressed concern, indicating the AI accountability gap must be addressed.

Meanwhile, over half of both end-user and vendor respondents agreed that AI needs regulation for success.”

AI and the Role in Evolution of Technologies

Tim Danks, VP, Risk Management & Partner Relations at Huawei USA

“Artificial intelligence is playing a leading role in the evolution of technology, forcing dramatic changes across industries. Given the rapid increase in connectivity, computing power and the explosion of data, AI is expected to join the ranks of the steam engine, the electricity generator, and the printing press to become another general-purpose technology that will significantly impact human life. AI computing will take up 80% of the total workload in computing centers by 2025, compared to the current level of less than 10%. AI is one of the core technologies in the 21st century and will have a profound impact on the future of mankind.

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Case Study: If You Hop Into Olli, You Can Even Have a Conversation With Watson.

Neil Sahota, Lecturer and Chief Innovation Officer of Global AI Initiatives at UC Irvine

The convergence of tech is what will drive digital transformation. For example, Olli is a solar-powered, 3D-printable self-driving bus that holds up to 12 people. It was completely designed by IBM Watson, which isn’t a human; it’s an AI platform.

We just said we’re looking for a green, efficient transportation vehicle that can be used in a local setting. It offered a variety of ways to build this vehicle as well as different types of materials that can be used to build it.

Then humans came in to select a design, but otherwise, it was essentially created by Watson. If you hop into Olli, you can even have a conversation with Watson. This is convergence when all these technologies come together. Imagine that in the near future you can go into the doctor’s office and they’re actually able to look at everything such as your medical history, records and references in one touch. This confluence of various tech will be a huge accelerator for precision medicine and other sectors.”

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One of the Challenges About AI Is That It’s Extremely Hyped…

Professor Barry O’Sullivan, Professor (Chair of Constraint Programming) at the School of Computer Science & IT at University College Cork

A lot of people talk about AI and machine learning interchangeably, but AI is the broader term for which machine learning is a subsection.

One of the challenges about AI is that it’s extremely hyped. It’s one of the most hyped tech we’ve ever seen. There was huge optimism that we’d see self-driving cars in 2020 and we haven’t seen that yet. However, we have seen huge innovation in AI spurred by COVID-19. Some people have used AI to build diagnostic tools where deep neural networks would read lung scans.

Together with the European AI Alliance, we’ve identified seven key requirements for trustworthy AI:

• Human Agency and Oversight
• Technical Robustness and Safety
• Privacy and Data Governance
• Transparency
• Diversity, Non-discrimination and Fairness
• Societal and Environmental Well-being
• Accountability

In Europe, we take a risk-based approach, where risk is the potential impact on the fundamental rights of individuals or organizations, so AI systems will be labeled as high risk or low risk.

There is no future for AI unless we have the skills to deliver the technology. The #1 challenge we have internationally is talent. We need to train and educate people technically, legally and ethically. We need to recruit people of various backgrounds as well like psychology and business. This is a multi-faceted team sport at this point; everyone has a role to play.”