Guest Blog: Artificial Intelligence IS the digital edge

From the BLACK BOXCommercial Services Marketing Blog -- In this post, we’ll take a look at how artificial intelligence is the epitome of the digital edge and some predictions on where it’s going in 2018. In a future post, we’ll look at how artificial intelligence is being utilized in different industries.

Artificial Intelligence Today and Everyday

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now, not in some distant future. In 2018, we are going to see an explosion of AI in all industries and all verticals.

AI has changed how we work, play and live and its impact is growing—rapidly. AI improves the customer experience, increases productivity, protects the public, accelerates research, diagnoses patients, prevents machine failures, analyzes data, recommends music, and the list goes on and on.

As consumers and professionals, we are the drivers of artificial intelligence. We expect personalization and unprecedented levels of quality, agility and speed - and AI provides it.

We interact with artificial intelligence every day, although we may not realize it. Every time you talk to Siri or Alexa, you’re interacting with artificial intelligence. At the high-end, there are self-driving Uber cars. In between, there are IoT devices everywhere from factories and smart buildings to your home and car.

Every artificial intelligence touch is computing at the digital edge. It’s literally the place where people and devices meet. It’s machines working and thinking for us. Analyzing data. Giving us information. Making decisions for us and ultimately, making our lives easier on the spot—at the edge.

In 2017 Intel Intel introduced its Movidius Myriad X chip microprocessor, billed as "the next-gen VPU [vision processing unit] delivering artificial intelligence at the edge for drones, robotics, smart cameras, virtual reality/augmented reality solutions and more. Myriad X is the world’s first SOC [system-on-chip] shipping with a dedicated Neural Compute Engine to give devices the ability to see, understand and react to their environments in real time. High-performance, low-power AI at the edge will unleash the autonomous devices of the future."

What is artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is automating processes that previously required human interaction. A high-end example is the aforementioned driverless Uber car (which you can get in downtown Pittsburgh, PA). A simpler example is a chess-playing computer.

AI is often thought of as machine learning when it is actually a subset of it. AI is the ability of a machine or computer to think and learn from experience. Instead of robotic automation, AI learns from deep data and adapts through progressive, deep learning algorithms to let the data do the programming. For example, Alexa and Siri are all based on deep learning.

AI takes data analysis from hindsight to foresight with a greater ability to predict events, such as monitoring HVAC systems and sending out maintenance crews to prevent system failures. Another example might be a financial system that prevents fraud instead of just detecting it. But AI is very task specific. The system designed to detect financial fraud can’t monitor HVAC systems.

The future of artificial intelligence

AI is big and getting bigger. The artificial intelligence market is predicted to be a $100 billion industry by 2025.

In a recent survey, 75% of executives say AI will be actively implemented in the next two years. It’s estimated that in 2018 alone, 1.3 million industrial robots will enter service and that data created by IoT devices will be 277 times higher than the amount of data being transmitted to data centers from end-user devices.

Consider this. Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Baidu have already spent over $8 billion on dedicated AI investments. Recently, Sundar Pichair, Google CEO said “Particularly over the last three years, we have felt that with machine learning and artificial intelligence, we can do these things better than ever before. They are progressing at an incredible rate.”

Artificial intelligence is the intelligent digital edge. Intelligent devices do more than simply collect and mindlessly deliver data. They are able to process data on the spot instead of sending it to the cloud for analysis. Whether in industry, public spaces or even in your home or car, IoT devices are beginning to effectively analyze data in real-time—and at the edge. AI is at the heart of the digital transformation.

Whether it’s as simple as the wireless in your home to power Alexa and machine learning sensors on the factory floor to complex medical diagnosis and even self-driving cars, AI is driving new business outcomes and has forever changed our expectations of what’s possible. The intelligent digital edge is the foundational technology that enables AI and all the promises it holds in every facet of life. For instance, Uber has hired hundreds of self-driving car experts from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Currently, AI experts are the most on-demand hires on Wall street. In the not so distant past, these types of jobs didn’t exist.

The question now is how can businesses use AI to give them a competitive edge. AI is no longer an option. It’s critical for organizations to realize AI’s full potential and to take advantage of the specific strengths of humans and machines. Executives need to consider where AI can create the most long-lasting and profound advantage. To do that, they need the right partner to help them embrace digital transformation and leverage the right technologies at the intelligent digital edge.

To learn more about how we can help you with your transformation at the Intelligent Digital Edge, go to BlackBox.com or contact us.

Below, in a video from Dec. 2017, Microsoft Developer's Chipalo and Olivier discuss Azure IoT Edge, a new service that allows users to deploy cloud intelligence such as machine learning or AI to run on local IoT devices. Go to Microsoft's IoT Edge product page to learn more.