Another Technology Wave

Amid all the hype, hope, and handwringing about artificial intelligence (AI), another technology tide has quietly been rising, and attracting massive amounts of investment.

It's all around us and keeps proliferating unabated -- in sensors, trackers, production machines, appliances, wearables, vehicles, and buildings. Welcome to the edge, which is likely to shape and shift our jobs and businesses before AI makes its mark. Many of the devices and products seen here at ZDNET represent the edge wave.

The edge and Internet of Things (IoT) are big business. At least 23% of respondents to a survey from the Eclipse Foundation say they spent between $100,000 to $1m on IoT and edge in 2022, and 33% expect to spend this much in 2023. 

One in 10 anticipate spending more than $10m in 2023. More than half (53%) of enterprises currently deploy IoT solutions, with an additional 24% planning to introduce them within the next 12 to 24 months.

Hybrid cloud is the vehicle on which edge projects are riding. At least 42% of respondents suggest that edge deployments are made possible by hybrid cloud. The intersection of edge and the cloud -- typically seen as polar opposites in technology landscapes -- has not been lost on cloud vendors, especially Amazon Web Services (AWS).

"More and more new use cases and customer requirements have increased the need to have edge computing on top of cloud," says Yasser Alsaied, vice president of IoT for AWS, in a discussion with ZDNET. "Edge infrastructure is important for companies that want their applications closer to their users."  READ MORE...

Global Disaster from Artificial Intelligence

Culturally, humanity is fascinated by the prospect of machines developing to the point of our destruction. Whether exploring threats from The Terminator, the Matrix, or even older films such as War Games, this type of story enthralls us. 

It’s not simply technology that fascinates us; what’s compelling is the prospect of technology drastically changing our every-day lives.

Our stories, however, are rooted in reality. As artificial intelligence (AI) is refined over the coming years and decades, the threats may not merely be stories. 

There are many potential ways in which artificial intelligence might come to threaten other intelligent life. Here are 6 realistically possible ways that AI could lead to global catastrophe.

1. Packaging Weaponized AI into Viruses
The world has seen several high-profile cyber-attacks over recent years. Simpler tactics such as Denial of Service attacks have escalated into high profile hacks (such as Experian) and even into ransomware attacks. 

In parallel, the number of interconnected devices and platforms has exploded with the advent of the Internet of Things and increased accessibility to consumer mobile products.  READ MORE...

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. These devices range from ordinary household objects to sophisticated industrial tools. With more than 7 billion connected IoT devices today, experts are expecting this number to grow to 10 billion by 2020 and 22 billion by 2025. Oracle has a network of device partners.

Over the past few years, IoT has become one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. Now that we can connect everyday objects—kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats, baby monitors—to the internet via embedded devices, seamless communication is possible between people, processes, and things.

By means of low-cost computing, the cloud, big data, analytics, and mobile technologies, physical things can share and collect data with minimal human intervention. In this hyperconnected world, digital systems can record, monitor, and adjust each interaction between connected things. The physical world meets the digital world—and they cooperate.

While the idea of IoT has been in existence for a long time, a collection of recent advances in a number of different technologies has made it practical.

• Access to low-cost, low-power sensor technology. Affordable and reliable sensors are making IoT technology possible for more manufacturers.
• Connectivity. A host of network protocols for the internet has made it easy to connect sensors to the cloud and to other “things” for efficient data transfer.
• Cloud computing platforms. The increase in the availability of cloud platforms enables both businesses and consumers to access the infrastructure they need to scale up without actually having to manage it all.
• Machine learning and analytics. With advances in machine learning and analytics, along with access to varied and vast amounts of data stored in the cloud, businesses can gather insights faster and more easily. The emergence of these allied technologies continues to push the boundaries of IoT and the data produced by IoT also feeds these technologies.
• Conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Advances in neural networks have brought natural-language processing (NLP) to IoT devices (such as digital personal assistants Alexa, Cortana, and Siri) and made them appealing, affordable, and viable for home use.

TO READ MORE ABOUT IoT,  CLICK HERE...