Over the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that artificial intelligence is the next major frontier for the technology sector. Many countries have identified this, and thus the race has already kicked off with many countries eying the global AI leader spot.
Cutthroat competition between China and the U.S
China and the US have already established themselves as significant powerhouses when it comes to technology, and the same applies to the AI sector. The two countries have invested and continue to invest heavily in AI. According to Quarts, China plans to invest roughly $7 billion into AI over the next ten or so years. The country’s government expects the AI industry to be worth around $150 billion by then. So far China has the most robust plan towards being a leader in the AI sector.
Meanwhile, the AI push in the US is not pursued by the government directly but by organizations such as IARPA and DARPA but they do receive financial support from the military. The private sector in the US is also heavily involved in AI pursuits.
The European Union
According to a European Commission report, the EU plans to invest about $24 billion(€20 billion)in AI from 2018 to 2020.$1.8 billion equivalent to €1.5 billion was invested in research in 2018 as part of the EU’s initiative called the Horizon 2020 Fund.
United Kingdom
The UK also among the country making strides in AI. It recently announced a partnership between the private and public sector that will create AI investments worth over $200 million. The UK government has also promised to invest around $30 million which will be used to develop AI tech incubators.
France
The French government has also expressed interest in AI and has already backed it with research investment worth $1.8 billion, equivalent to €1.5 billion. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, announced a few weeks ago that his country’s venture into would mainly target data.
Germany
Germany is also one of the countries that have announced plans to venture into AI. Germany wants to rival China in its aggressive pursuit of the technology although the European country has not laid down any financial plans for AI. Nevertheless, e-commerce giant Amazon announced plans to invest $1.5 millionwhich will be used to create a new research center near the Max Planck Institute AI campus. The latter deals with AI research.
Russia
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin stated a while ago that the country that will lead the AI race would rule the world, suggesting that he and his government take AI seriously. Russia invests roughly $12.5 million on AI every year. Russia’s AI pursuits involve both private and public organizations. However, a large percent of AI efforts are undertaken by the Russian military to enable automated war machines.
Canada
Canada took the lead when it comes to investing in AI as soon as it realized the impact of the technology on research. The country committed $125 million about two years ago. Canada also plans to continue investing in the sector so that it can keep up with the other countries that have also been investing in AI.
Sweden
Sweden is one of the countries that are rapidly moving towards mass automation which means that machines will soon overtake many of the jobs that are currently handled by humans in the country. Artificial intelligence will be at the heart of this shift.
AI will be a significant part of the society moving forward
AI is rapidly penetrating mainstream industries and the past few years have revealed some of the areas that will depend heavily on AI. For instance, autonomous vehicle systems primarily rely on AI to achieve efficiency. Autonomous driving is something that major companies such as Uber are currently working on.Statistica estimates that the global partially autonomous vehicle industry will be worth about $36 billion by 2025 although the industry is still under development.
So far the autonomous vehicle industry has seen investment from major companies such as Uber, Google, and General Motors among others. AI is also becoming a significant part of the mobile device market as well as the overall electronics device industry. For example, mobile digital assistants such as Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Bixby among others are already popular in the market thanks to smartphone penetration in the global market.
AI is also slated to become a significant part of cybersecurity in many countries. China is the best example of AI integration in cybersecurity to reduce or curb crime. The Asian country has invested heavily in an AI-backed system that consists of a comprehensive network of cameras that are used by the country’s police force to track down persons of interest. In the same way, AI can be implemented in other systems to achieve higher levels of efficiency.
Compelling statistics that explain why countries are investing heavily in AI
According to the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), more than 19 industries will benefit from AI in a substantial way, and their implementation of AI will generate anywhere from $3.5 trillionto $5 trillion annually. It also suggests that AI will help to generate as much as $2.6 trillion extra value in sales and marketing and over $2 trillion worth of value in the manufacturing and supply chain management sector.
The MGI report also notes that the implementation of AI in deep neural networks will offer significant efficiency over traditional analytic methods. Efficiency will thus be one of the critical benefits that AI will offer. A trucking firm in Europe experienced this firsthand after using AI to optimize its delivery activities and eventually managed to lower its fuel costs by 15%.
Growing demand for AI
The push for technologies such as 5G and the rapid advancement of mobile devices will be among the key drivers of the increasing demand for AI. This demand is also happening internationally. For example, the Internet of Things is a large segment that consists of devices that rely on technologies such as 5G and machine learning to communicate with other devices and achieve their intended purposes. This technology will also help to reach new peaks of autonomy that is designed to make life easier or more comfortable for human beings.
AI has even penetrated homes through household items such as smart TVs, smart fridges, among others. Tech companies are also developing robots, cybersecurity solutions, speech recognition software and other technologies that rely on AI.
Challenges that come with AI
Every new technology comes with concerns about potential downsides, and that is also the case with AI. There have been concerns that AI will pave the way for malicious hackers to exploit loopholes in systems so that they can take advantage of data. However, it can also be argued that the right countermeasures against such threats can be implemented.
There are also concerns that malicious hackers can somehow gain access to AI-controlled systems in an organization and use such access to launch an attack. Competitors can use such an attack against their rivals. Nonetheless, this is part of the downside that comes with the creation of new technology. There are always potential threats and even actual threats that occur, but then developers are still working on solutions that address such issues.
The onset of new technologies in the past proved to be a double-edged sword because it comes with new opportunities while also rendering some jobs or companies obsolete. The same applies to the dawn of the AI age where companies may find themselves falling by the wayside if they fail to adopt the AI or fail to innovate fast enough to keep up with such industry trends. The people who work for the companies or industries that are obliterated by the new wave of technology trends will likely end up losing their jobs.
AI itself was designed to solve some problems or at least to help make life easier and more intuitive. In this case, we have seen that AI has a lot of benefits that it can offer to various industries and that have fueled the demand for more AI-based technologies or solutions.
What the future will look like with AI in it
Every year, technology is woven tighter into the fabric of the society, thus making our lives more digital and our daily routines revolve around this technology. The current trends especially the fast-tracked adoption of AI suggests that AI has a solid place in the future.A will likely act as a catalyst that will fuel the development of innovations and perhaps even act as the backbone that will support new technology breakthroughs.
We should be able to experience better service delivery in sectors such as healthcare, retail, and government services as countries continue to adopt AI. The impact of AI in the future, therefore, depends on how it will be embraced and implemented.
