Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Predictions for 2020 + my 2cents

Last Updated on January 21, 2020 by Henry John

Last year and even in the last decade (the 2010s), we have seen AI’s popularity, development and deployment rise.

Will it continue in this year?

Better still, what should we expect of Artificial intelligence this year?

What are the major predictions by major voices on artificial intelligence for 2020?

As an AI enthusiast, I pay attention to what AI industry experts are saying (their predictions and expectations) will happen this year with relation to artificial intelligence.

Their predictions are shocking, fascinating and expected.

Here are my two cents on some of these predictions:

PWC predicted that “fewer companies will pursue AI at scale in 2020”

This prediction goes in the direction of “the AI trend will go down a bit”, and I don’t think so.

They even have a chart that explains and supports their prediction.

AI Predictions for 2020
Source: PWC

PWC, I strongly disagree with you guys on this one. You probably sampled the wrong executives.

“Few companies will pursue AI at scale”, come on PWC. If you had predicted that ‘less’ companies will be pursuing AI at scale, that would have been a different case.

But few, really?

Few means I can count them.

Jeff Catlin, the CEO of Lexalytics, predicted that “2020 will be a high water mark in AI acquisition”.

On the 15th of January 2020, Bloomberg reported that Apple acquired an AI company, So much for fewer companies pursing AI in 2020.

Sudhir Jha, Senior Vice President and Head of Brighterion, Mastercard, predicted that “enterprises will finally transition into deploying complex AI models in production at scale”.

The way I see it, 2020 is going to be another high year in the AI industry, more companies are going to pursue AI at scale.

“AI powered lab assistants will discover new materials” according to IBAI.

This is a bold prediction, one that will disrupt industries if it come to pass. We need newer and better materials for manufacturing and construction, if sustainability is the endgame for us.

For me and for the construction industry, it would be great if AI could discover new materials that can replace concrete and steel with relation to sustainability, cost, flexibility and capability.

I think beyond sustainability, new materials can give rise to new technologies and it would be great to see AI at the core of such developments.

“Vehicle AI is going to be designed to break the law” Stefan Heck, CEO of Nauto.

This is expected, even beyond Vehicle AI.

It is expected that AI in general will be used to break laws. This is one of the numerous disadvantages of artificial intelligence.

And I think, people should be more concerned about AI developers who develop AIs with the goal of using it for illegal immoral purposes. Rather than creating buzz of how Super AIs will extinct humanity.

The real threat with AI are the threats we see today and in the foreseeable future.

Lexalytics CeO, Jeff Catlin also predicted that “AI training sets will be involved in major data breaches”, this is consistent with general expectations amongst AI enthusiasts.

“AI will engineer AI for Trust” IBM

IBM are one of the few companies that have played major role in artificial intelligence development and happen to be around for so long.

In their AI predictions for 2020, they stated that “to trust AI, these systems have to be reliable, fair and accountable”.

IBM are saying the right words here: reliable, fair and accountable AIs.

AIs have been proven to be biased severally, and debates are going on, on “who should be held accountable for AIs actions?”. The developers or the system?

IBM strongly believes that “during 2020, components that regulate trustworthiness will be interwoven into the fabric of the AI lifecycle to help build, test, run, monitor, and certify AI applications for trust, not just performance”.

I can see holes in this predictions and I want to harshly criticize it. But, I expect this IBM’s prediction to materialize, albeit, not at a significant scale.

Very few companies or institutions will make this their 2020 AI priority. Most of them will prioritize enhancing AI’s performance over AI’s trustworthiness.

“Deepfakes will uplevel the danger of social engineering” Haiyan Song, SVP and GM of Security Markets, Splunk.

Developing deepfakes has proven to be a scenario of ‘humans sitting on a keg of gun powder’. It can blow up before our faces.

Going deep into 2020, deepfakes are one of the AI-technologies that doesn’t get me excited, even though I know that they are used for creative and beneficial purpose. Like they are being used in the movie industry.

Deepfake from the name alone sounds shady.

I saw a competition on Kaggle (an AI developers’ community) on developing deepfake detecting systems with a price worth $1 million dollars. And I thought, ‘well, that is great news’.

I rather expect systems that can detect deepfakes easily in 2020, than worry about its expected dangers, anyways.

I’m looking forward to see which team will win the Kaggle competition and develop the best deepfake detecting system amongst its peers.

What’s Next

There are so many other predictions, like the level 5 (full) self-driving cars predictions (which I believe will not happen this year).

The reality is that full self-driving cars won’t be rolling out this year.

Ignore Tesla and their consistently unrealistic full self-driving car development timeline.

At the very least, we are 2 – 3 years away from level 5 autonomous cars.

And even before this cars can roll out, there will be a very long regulatory sessions worldwide and nation-wide in the US and other countries.

In general, I have a good feeling about AI’s development and deployment in 2020.

One more thing I expect to play a key role in artificial intelligence development this year is 5G.

Let’s watch out.

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