Artificial Intelligence is the new buzzword but where is AI headed?

Of late, there has been a cacophony around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how this constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act will alter our lives completely. Just set ChatGPT aside, it is not the messiah that descended from the sky recently. AI is not a new phenomenon. Heard of Alan Turing, Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy? Call them the OGs of AI, who used this technology much before the world even accepted AI as everyday vocabulary. (And if you have not watched the film The Imitation Game in which Benedict Cumberbatch essays the role of Alan Turing who, during World War II, broke the Germans’ notorious Enigma Code, go watch it now.)

Let’s quickly go back in time and look at AI before it became the contemporary buzzword:

• The 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis featured the first AI robot
• In 1950, Isacc Asimov’s predictive short stories created an imaginary world where robots control society
• In 1951, using vacuum tubes, motor engines and clutches, Marvin Minsky and Dean Edmonds created the first AI-wired neural network and called it  SNARC (Stochastic Neural Analog Reinforcement Computer)
• In 1960s,  Joseph Weizenbaum created Eliza, the world’s first chatbot wired by AI. Think of Eliza as an ancestor of Siri & Alexa
• In 1980s, AI found its first use case with XCON
• In 1997, AI takes to chess when world chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer in what has become one of the most famous chess matches of all time
• 2018: Self-driving cars hit the road
• 2022: ChatGPT upped the game for AI and its capabilities shocked the world

AI is now the omniscient, omnipresent modern-day God that can do anything, solve everything, has an answer to everything. Eyebrows are being raised about its ethical consequences but the world cannot afford to wish it away. AI is here to stay and drive the economies. By 2030, China and the UK estimate that 26 per cent and 10 per cent of their GDPs, respectively, will be sourced from AI-related activities and businesses, and AI is estimated to boost India’s annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points by 2035.

So, where is AI headed? A few industry leaders share their opinions:

DaveAI: Headquartered in Bengaluru in 2016, DaveAI is an AI Sales Experience Platform, powered by Virtual Sales Avatars that empowers brands to create immersive and interactive sales experiences using advanced AI solutions. It is a full-stack AI platform that has a conversational AI platform with automated speech recognition, natural language processing and speech to text generation capabilities, state-of-the-art 3D visualisation capability, and an online learning genetic algorithm that is a multi-dimensional affinity engine which predicts affinities between customer & product attributes

“In the coming years, AI will have a significant impact on Media/Advertisement, Mobility, and App/Web development areas. However, as a researcher, I am also keen on seeing AI's impact on education and healthcare in developing economies like ours,” says Ananthakrishnan Gopal, CTO & co-founder, DaveAI.

Kiya.ai: An AI-based omnichannel & open finance solution provider, kiya.ai offers digital solutions that enable financial inclusion, multi-experience, and generate intuitive, predictive insights for smarter decisions. With 500-plu clients in 50 countries, Kiya.ai was named #1 best-selling financial technology provider in five categories including Global Leadership in Product Breadth by IBS Intelligence.

“Beyond financial crime, banks capitalise on AI to enhance customer relationships and lower costs. Looking ahead to 2024, another significant trend on the horizon is the rise of AI in identifying deepfakes,” says Rajesh Mirjankar, managing director and CEO of Kiya.ai.

Invincible Meta: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a fledgling concept but a rapidly maturing technology that has been part of our daily existence for a considerable period. AI's essence is its diversity, presenting a spectrum of forms and intricacies.

These varieties include:

• Rule-Based AI: Basic AI operating on predetermined rules
• Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI): Specialised AI excelling in specific tasks
• AGI (Artificial General Intelligence): AI with human-like cognitive capabilities, still theoretical
• ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence): An advanced form of AI surpassing human intelligence
• Transcendent AI: A pioneering concept representing AI beyond current horizons”, according to Ajay Setia, Founder & CEO, Invincible Meta

AI-enabled Breath Measuring Wearable ‘Breath Band’: Breath AI, a Pune-based deep sci-tech venture, has launched an AI-driven wearable technological device made to sense, track and map the breath and provide pathways to people for a healthy life. Branded breath Band or BB, the wrist-wearable device is a non-invasive technology solution that will help the users to monitor their health parameters pivoted to body, mind and wellness (BMW) through the often ignored element of ‘breath’.

“We have introduced a wearable device by integrating an ancient science of breathing with the modern AI-led technology. Having partnered with Kaivalyadhama, a Yoga Institute in Lonavla for the research and trials, this smart wrist band creates a bridge between the breath and the mind to track stress, sleep and the complete profile of the user,” Sanjay Phadke, technologist, integrator and the founder of Virtual Sense Global Technologies, says.

India’s First AI University: Universal AI University is India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) University. Located in the Karjat (near Mumbai), the Universal AI University that became functional in August 2023 offers a specially designed curriculum in the field of Artificial Intelligence and has tailored special undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in AI and Future Technologies. AI is embedded in every program with foundational understanding of all the new technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), IoT (Internet of Things), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality), AR (Augmented Reality). In the final year, the students will do a mandatory project of how AI is impacting their chosen field,

“With the world moving towards more automation and digital transformation, AI education and research is highly important for a country to stay competitive in the global economy. AI will have innumerable applications and will be a complete game changer in the way we live our lives,” says Prof. Tarundeep Singh Anand, founder and Chancellor of Universal AI University.