ABU DHABI’S AI STUDENTS SET THEIR SIGHTS ON THE FUTURE
Abu Dhabi will open the first university in the world dedicated to artificial intelligence research, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, as the enormous potential for AI to address global challenges and spur economic growth becomes clear.
“Over the next few decades, humanity has some huge problems to contend with: climate change, sustainability, eliminating poverty.
“We can either be discouraged or we can look to the potential of the pervasiveness of technology to solve problems small and large,” said Prof Daniela Rus, a member of the university’s founding board of trustees and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, at the launch event for the university on Wednesday.
To help address the pressing challenges, the university is offering Master of Science and PhD degrees in three of the fastest-growing areas of artificial intelligence: machine learning; computer vision; and natural language processing.
Prof Rus wants prospective students to ask, “not what tech can do for them, but what they can do for technology”.
So, what will the university’s students be researching – that is, what will they be doing for technology – and why does each speciality matter?
Machine learning
Machine learning is the study of algorithms and statistical models that use computers to accomplish a task without explicit instructions from human beings, instead relying on patterns and inference based on data.
This field of AI has attracted as much as $7 billion (Dh25.7bn) in venture capital as of 2016, according to US consultancy McKinsey, making it one of the biggest categories of AI research.
Machine learning can be used to determine the most efficient transport routes, which can cut down on congestion and reduce carbon emissions. It can help diagnose disease to speed up treatment-related decisions and analyse environmental trends and renewable energy resources. Machine learning can also detect patterns in images to improve security or make scientific breakthroughs.
Machine learning is already a part of everyday life, from credit card fraud protection to Netflix recommendations.
IBM uses machine learning to help wind and solar companies predict conditions up to a month in advance, using its Wattsun technology that helps renewable power plants charge up and prepare to capture the energy of a sunny or windy day.
Computer vision
This field of AI studies how computers can be used to interpret visual imagery and physical surroundings.
The market for computer vision is forecast to be worth $17.4bn by 2023, up $5.5bn from 2018, as demand for robotics systems that can see and navigate grows, according to research company MarketsandMarkets.
This technology is being used and developed for automating tasks in space, inspecting underwater structures such as offshore drilling platforms and in drones to inspect forestation and agriculture.
Computer vision has applications for the UAE’s large industrial and manufacturing sectors, particularly in oil, gas and petrochemicals, which can improve productivity and efficiency through automated monitoring systems supported by this technology.
Natural language processing
Star Trek’s universal translator – a device capable of instantly translating any language, allowing conversation between anyone – could soon become a reality. The Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama, recently spoke enthusiastically about advances in instant translation at the Aqdar World Summit in Moscow.
Before long, it will be possible to communicate instantly and accurately in any language in the world, despite not knowing a single word, he predicted.
This will have an immediate impact in the UAE, which is home to about 200 nationalities who speak two dozen languages between them.
This field of AI, known as natural language processing, is working to develop computers able to extract meaning and intent from spoken and written text in a readable and grammatically correct form. The technology powers the likes of virtual assistants Alexa, Siri and Google Translate, and is also used to gain insights from enormous sets of data.
Fourteen per cent of the world’s companies are using it in some capacity, according to a survey by Deloitte.
For state agencies working in defence, public safety, transport or health, they can come up against some of the same challenges as a non-native speaker in a strange land. Agencies can struggle to make sense of huge volumes of unstructured text or data to make “informed decisions, improve services and save lives”, according to Deloitte. Natural language processing can be used to investigate crime or offer insights for analysis by “connecting the dots” within massive amounts of data.