How Technology is Set to Shape the Future – From Medicine to Mobile

Although there is an expected degree of fear over the uncertainty imposing AI technology might have on our career prospects, the applications of it into multiple industries remains tremendously exciting. Today we look at two industries about to be affected in a very real and positive way by tangible advances in AI – mobile and medical.

Neural Engines Enter Our Mobile Devices

Apple’s new iPhone X has been billed as the future of the smartphone, powered by a neural engine which enables it to deliver advanced features such as facial recognition and the running of augmented reality apps. The clever contraption consists of two processing cores dedicated to handling machine learning algorithms and it is these that power AI tasks by performing a colossal 6 billion operations per second.

It is not the first time the effects of AI-powered technology have been seen in our mobile devices, but it is one of the first times the machine that powers it has been put directly into our phones. Previously, AI-driven tasks have been powered by the cloud meaning private data travelled far to public servers and we needed an Internet connection in order to power its functionality. This new way of using the technology in-phone will be more convenient and hopefully more secure.

Apple’s not the only company to do this either – Chinese tech company Huawei and Chipmaker Qualcomm are getting in on the act too with similar devices.

Computer Diagnosis

The medical industry is also looking to save on cost and improve the accuracy of patient treatment with AI technology. From reading X-rays to analysing diseased tissue, computing could help deliver a cost-effective way of reporting important patient data.

Another anticipated use of it in the medical field is with diagnosis. Computers can house huge amounts of patient information from bioinformatics and genetic blueprints to name a few, in order to determine tiny variances and thus make comparative diagnoses based on “healthy” vs. “unhealthy” samples.

Through automation of the above, the NHS hopes there is potential to use AI to competently complete tasks previously undertaken by specialists, whom we know are at breaking point with their workload. The time frames given for this to happen among different articles tend to be within the next two decades.

To drive and manage tech innovation, you need human tech talent and it’s tremendously exciting to see tomorrow’s IT and technology roles being shaped today across multiple industries. With our workforce stressed, we hope AI can (as well as providing new jobs of its own) serve to help us do our current jobs better and, further down the line, improve work life balance for our workforce.