In my most recent post that appeared on IoT Times, I suggested that artificial intelligence is the killer IoT app for 2020. Presently, there are scores of businesses, organizations, and institutions of every kind that are undergoing their own form of digital transformation by utilizing AI. With each passing day, more and more enterprises are recognizing that if they don’t become a digital enterprise, they risk becoming irrelevant. Technology-centric companies, as well as those in traditional industries, are racing to modernize their business processes, their product lines, and their workforces by leveraging the IoT as well as the advantages that increased connectivity, big data, and especially AI can bring.
The reality of this is readily evident. Manufacturing companies are employing the use of robots with machine vision to make smarter products by building more intelligence into those products. Smart farms are utilizing intelligent drones that “see” by using advanced camera technology and digital imaging to manage soil conditions and monitor crops. Health-care organizations are using 3D-printing intelligence to develop medical devices, while medical care providers are leveraging AI-based applications to treat patients. Retailers are baking AI into their online and offline shopping experiences to improve service and personalize customer offerings. These are just a few of the industries in which AI is being put to work.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WRONG DECISION IS MADE BY AI?
What I stressed in my previous post with respect to AI was the importance for connected systems builders and providers of taking a cautionary approach when incorporating AI into a solution. The reason for this is that with AI, it is the technology and not the user, in most cases, that is making the decisions within the product’s operation. What happens, then, when the wrong decision is made? If the system or the product does something unsafe, does this open up the system builder or product manufacturer to responsibility?
