The Latest In AI And Its Applications

AI is becoming a disruptive force that is redefining the modern industry. This article features some exciting applications of AI, along with a glimpse into the future, illustrating how AI will continue to transform industries and our lives

- Sani Theo

Sophia, an artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid, was in the news recently for becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. In October 2017, Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship. This AI-powered robot is famous for speaking at the United Nations, and interviewing celebrities and world leaders.

Sophia, developed by Hanson Robotics, is an example of the most sophisticated AI-powered robots built by humans in recent times. It can imitate human gestures, facial expressions, and make conversations in the form of answering certain questions and initiating discussions on predefined topics.

AI was founded as an academic discipline in 1956. Since then, AI techniques have become an essential part of the technology industry. Different types of AI-powered robots are being developed in different parts of the world, including the US, China, Japan, Korea and India. As per reports, two-thirds of global investments in AI poured into China. This led to the AI industry grow 67 per cent last year alone.

China developed its first humanlike female robot called Jia Jia in 2016, at its University of Science and Technology. Then, there is Erica, a Japanese female robot created by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, who is considered the most beautiful robot in the world.

AI technologies

Latest AI technologies include natural language generation, speech recognition, virtual agents, machine learning, deep learning, biometrics and AIoptimised hardware. AI experts break AI down into three broad categories: artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial super intelligence (ASI).