If you’re wondering how important artificial intelligence is to your business’s future, all you have to do is follow the money.In 2021, private companies invested $93.5 billion in A.I.–more than double the total private investment in 2020. That’s according to 2022’s “The AI Index Report,” an annual report by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. With more funding comes more inventions: the number of A.I. patents filed in 2021 was up 30 times compared with 2015, according to the report.To make sure you’re up to speed on the latest A.I. developments, here are seven trends cited in the report.1. The U.S. and China are collaborating on A.I.As the entire world races to improve A.I. technology, collaboration can advance discoveries and breakthroughs. Based on the number of research publications shared by two or more countries, the U.S and China are leading global collaboration efforts in the field, despite ongoing political tension between the countries.2. Language models are getting smarter, but also more biased.Language models–a statistical model to predict words, such as when Gmail gives you automated suggestions for reply emails–are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This is because there is more and more data to pull from to create more accurate outcomes. However, since data that feeds algorithms can include racist, sexist, or ageist biases, larger models can have more severe biases.3. A.I. ethics are increasingly important.Algorithmic fairness and bias has shifted from being an academic pursuit to a mainstream research topic. “Research on fairness and transparency in AI has exploded since 2014, with a fivefold increase in related publications at ethics-related conferences,” the report notes.4. A.I. is getting faster–and more affordable.Using tools like automated recommendations, object detection, and language processing has never taken fewer resources. Since 2018, the cost to train systems has decreased by 63.6 percent, while training times have improved by 94.4 percent, according to the report.5. More companies rely on extra training data.The more data a company has, the more it can feed into its A.I. tools to improve accuracy. Companies that don’t have as much data collection as industry leaders such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix are increasingly sourcing data from third parties or external sources to fill in the gaps.6. Global A.I. legislation is growing.The number of bills passed into law containing “artificial intelligence” grew from one in 2016 to 18 in 2021, according to the report. The countries with the most legislation passed are Spain, the U.S. and the U.K.7. Robotic arms are becoming more affordable.Cheaper access to robotic technology makes it accessible to more startups. The median price of robotic arms has decreased by roughly half in the past five years–from $42,000 per arm in 2017 to $22,600 in 2021, according to the report.
Source: https://www.inc.com/anna-meyer/artificial-intelligence-ai-index-report.html
