Friday, December 25, 2020

AI in energy markets

  December 25, 2020    Nikhil Verma

 Research and markets has published a report on artificial intelligence use in energy market.

The artificial intelligence in energy market is poised to grow by USD 8.06 billion during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 48% during the forecast period. The artificial intelligence in energy market analysis includes product segment and geographical landscapes. The leading artificial intelligence vendors in energy market include ABB Ltd., Alphabet Inc., Flex Ltd., General Electric Co., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Origami Energy Ltd., Siemens AG, and Verdigris Technologies Inc.

https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5180875/global-artificial-intelligence-in-energy-market


The 2020 AI Breakthrough Awards - undersanding the state of the AI in 2020

  December 25, 2020    Nikhil Verma

AI Breakthrough is part of the Tech Breakthrough market intelligence organization. The AI Breakthrough Awards recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market. The awards are given across different categories. Knowing what the winners are up to in 2020 is a good way to understand the capabilities of AI technologies. These are companies that have looked to commericalize what is achievable via AI in 2020. It is a good way to do a sense check of AI capabilities outside hype and anticipation this field generally creates.

The list of the 2020 AI Breakthrough Award winners is available at: https://aibreakthroughawards.com/2020-winners/

Built In's 34 Artificail Intelligence Companies Building a Smater Tomorrow

  December 25, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Built In realeased a list of 34 companies that bring innovative AI based solutions to the market:

  • Regulatory and Legal: Ascent, Casetext
  • Healthcare: Tempus, Freenome, Insilico Medicine, Zebra Medical Vision, Zymergen
  • Agritech: Blue River Tech
  • Fintech: Alphasense, CognitiveScale
  • Auto: Nutonomy, AEye, Nauto, Zoox
  • Generic industries Big Data: Datarobot, Narrative Science, Neurala, Clarifai, Vidado, Cloudminds
  • Others: Grammarly, Persado, , X.ai, AIBrain, Figure Eight, H2O.ai, Next IT, Nvidia Corporation, Orbital Insight, OpenAI, Sherpa, Sift, Soundhound, Vicarious

The link to the full article that was first published in Sep 2020 can be found here: https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-roundup 

Monday, November 30, 2020

MIT Technology Review: The way we train AI is fundamentally flawed

  November 30, 2020    Nikhil Verma

This article aptly sums up the difference in real life expectations and theory. It speaks about "Underspecification", which is a known issue in statistics, where observed effects can have many possible causes. The training process can produce many different models that all pass the test but — and this is the crucial part — these models will differ in small, arbitrary ways, depending on things like the random values given to the nodes in a neural network before training starts, the way training data is selected or represented, the number of training runs, and so on. These small, often random, differences are typically overlooked if they don’t affect how a model does on the test. But it turns out they can lead to huge variation in performance in the real world.

One option is to design an additional stage to the training and testing process, in which many models are produced at once instead of just one. These competing models can then be tested again on specific real-world tasks to select the best one for the job.

Full article is here: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/18/1012234/training-machine-learning-broken-real-world-heath-nlp-computer-vision/

Saturday, October 17, 2020

PWC's "Time for Trust" Blockchain report 2020

  October 17, 2020    Nikhil Verma

PWC in its "Time for Trust" report 2020, published in Oct 2020, predicts Blockchain to add USD 1.76 trillion to the global economy and enhance around 40 million jobs by 2030. Of the total economic impact of USD1.76 trillion, 30% is predicted from China followed by 23% from the USA.

PWC has grouped the major use cases for blockchain into five categories:

  • Provenance
  • Payments and Financial Instruments
  • Identity
  • Contracts and Dispute Resolution
  • Customer Engagement
The report can be found at: https://cloud.email.pwc.com/blockchain-report-transform-business-economy-download-now.html

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Cloud services and exponential data growth

  July 15, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Cloud services are seeing significant growth in the last five years. Four major players combine to dominate almost 60% of the cloud’s infrastructure. 



According to Raconteur, by 2025, an average internet user will have around 4,909 data interactions per day, an increase from 1,426 in the year 2020. The scale of global datasphere is expected to be five times bigger in 2025 than it was in 2018, growing from 33 zettabytes to 175 zettabytes. Each zettabyte, by the way, is equal to 1 trillion gigabytes.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

The 2018 PWC survey on blockchain

  July 12, 2020    Nikhil Verma

In Aug 2018, PWC published the results of a survey of 600 executives from 15 territories on blockchain. 84% participants said that their organisations have at least some involvement with blockchain technology.

A distributed, tamperproof ledger, a well-designed blockchain doesn’t just cut out intermediaries, reduce costs, and increase speed and reach, it also offers greater transparency and traceability for many business processes. Gartner forecasts that blockchain will generate an annual business value of more than US $3 trillion by 2030. It’s possible to imagine that 10% to 20% of global economic infrastructure will be running on blockchain-based systems by that same year.

It was no surprise that the industry leading the charge was Financial servcies, where turst is the key issue and has inefficiences due to its many intermediatries. Also, a lot of banking is digitial and Blockchain being a digital technology is ready to take this sector to the next level. 





Blockchain has a 60%+ CAGR growth potential over the next 7 years

  July 12, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Blockchain Technology Industry" in July 2020. It expects Blockchain technology market to reach US$142.5b by the Year 2027 from US$4.4b in 2020 despite the Covid19 crisis. This respresents a US$142.5 Billion by the Year 2027.

Of this, growth in the Private segment is readjusted to a revised 62.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period adjusted for business implications of the pandamic and resultant economic crises. This segment currently accounts for a 24.6% share of the global Blockchain Technology market.

The U.S. Accounts for Over 30.6% of Global Market Size in 2020, While China is Forecast to Grow at a 60.9% CAGR for the Period of 2020-2027

The Blockchain Technology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.4 Billion in the year 2020. The country currently accounts for a 30.61% share in the global market. China, the world second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$22.1 Billion in the year 2027 trailing a CAGR of 60.9% through 2027. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 57.5% and 54.5% respectively over the 2020-2027 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 43.1% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$22.1 Billion by the year 2027.

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Speeding up learning in machine learning by Rice University

  May 30, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Couple of research topics from Rice University computer scientists that can speedup the learning in machine learning alogirthms. One is on SLIDE or sub-linear deep learning engine which is claimed to be the first algorithm for training deep neural nets faster on CPUs than GPUs. The other one is MACH or Merged Average Classifiers via Hashing where training times are about 7-10 times faster, and memory footprints are 2-4 times smaller.

TensorFlow Quantum - open source library for Quantum machine learning

  May 30, 2020    Nikhil Verma

In Mar 2020, Google released TensorFlow Quantum (TFQ), an open-source library for the rapid prototyping of quantum ML models. TFQ provides the tools necessary for bringing the quantum computing and machine learning research communities together to control and model natural or artificial quantum systems; e.g. Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) processors with ~50 - 100 qubits. Under the hood, TFQ integrates Cirq with TensorFlow. Cirq is an open source framework for NISQ computers. Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers are devices with ~50 - 100 qubits and high fidelity quantum gates - these Quantum computers with 50-100 qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the capabilities of today's classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably.

A note on NISQ devices: NISQ devices will be useful tools for exploring many-body quantum physics, and may have other useful applications, but the 100-qubit quantum computer will not change the world right away- we should regard it as a significant step toward the more powerful quantum technologies of the future. Quantum technologists should continue to strive for more accurate quantum gates and, eventually, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing.

How a quantum computer actually works

  May 30, 2020    Nikhil Verma

A good article explaining how quantum computing works. It gives an overview of why quantum computers give us a potential advantage only in certain kinds of problems. Those problems are generally ones where it is easy to check an answer after you have it, but incredibly difficult to find it in the first place. 

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Forbes AI 50: America’s Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies

  April 01, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Artificial intelligence is infiltrating every industry, allowing vehicles to navigate without drivers, assisting doctors with medical diagnoses, and mimicking the way humans speak. Forbes and data partner Meritech Capital have put together a list of private, U.S.-based companies that are wielding some subset of artificial intelligence in a meaningful way and demonstrating real business potential from doing so. The list of top 50 companies span categories like human resources, security, insurance, and finance, with healthcare, transportation, and infrastructure. Together the startups touting AI received a record $7.4 billion in funding in just the second quarter of 2019, according to CBInsights.

Read the full Forbes article here https://www.forbes.com/sites/jilliandonfro/2019/09/17/ai-50-americas-most-promising-artificial-intelligence-companies 

Scientists linked artificial and biological neurons in a network

  April 01, 2020    Nikhil Verma

The three labs, scattered across Padova, Italy, Zurich, Switzerland, and Southampton, England, collaborated to create a fully self-controlled, hybrid artificial-biological neural network that communicated using biological principles, but over the internet.

The three-neuron network, linked through artificial synapses that emulate the real thing, was able to reproduce a classic neuroscience experiment that’s considered the basis of learning and memory in the brain. In other words, artificial neuron and synapse “chips” have progressed to the point where they can actually use a biological neuron intermediary to form a circuit that, at least partially, behaves like the real thing.

Read more about it here https://singularityhub.com/2020/03/10/scientists-linked-artificial-and-biological-neurons-in-a-network-and-amazingly-it-worked/

Engineers crack 58-year-old puzzle on way to quantum breakthrough

  April 01, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Another happy accident in the world of science - this time with significant implications for development of quantum computers and sensors. A mishap during an experiment led quantum computing researchers to crack a mystery that had stood since 1961. A team of engineers at University of New South Wales Sydney controlled the nucleus of a single atom using only electric fields. "This discovery means that we now have a pathway to build quantum computers using single-atom spins without the need for any oscillating magnetic field for their operation," says UNSW's Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering Andrea Morello. "Moreover, we can use these nuclei as exquisitely precise sensors of electric and magnetic fields, or to answer fundamental questions in quantum science."

Read more about it at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200311121822.htm

Using AI and big data to estimate economic recovery post covid19

  April 01, 2020    Nikhil Verma

Researchers on WeBank’s AI Moonshot Team have taken a deep learning system developed to detect solar panel installations from satellite imagery and repurposed it to track China’s economic recovery from the novel coronavirus outbreak. The team used its neural network to analyze visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared images from various satellites, including the infrared bands from the Sentinel-2 satellite. This allowed the system to look for hot spots indicative of actual steel manufacturing inside a plant.  In the early days of the outbreak, this analysis showed that steel manufacturing had dropped to a low of 29% of capacity. But by 9 February, it had recovered to 76%.

Read more about the finds at https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/satellites-and-ai-monitor-chinese-economys-reaction-to-coronavirus

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Forbes Blockchain 50 for 2020

  February 20, 2020    Nikhil Verma

In mid-Feb 2020, Forbes released the top 50 blockchain companies. To qualify, Blockchain 50 members must be generating no less than $1 billion in revenue annually or be valued at $1 billion or more. It gives value insights into the technology being follwed by these companies and potential future mainstream implementation of this technology

 Click here for Forbes Blockchain 50

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Increasing government focus on Blockchain - India, Australia, China, US update

  February 08, 2020    Nikhil Verma

It looks like blockchain is at the cusp of becoming mainstream with various governments releasing their roadmaps for the blockchain future. This is significant, as government adoption will assist in main-streaming of this technology. Further, it will drive the much-needed clarity in regulations which is important given the many sensitive areas this technology can touch - like finance, privacy, data localization etc.

The Australian Department of Industry released a 52-page framework in Feb 2020 detailing how industry can drive the adoption of blockchain tech to empower the future and remain competitive. The report recognizes that blockchain's application for the purpose of tracking and recording data can add value to many sectors—such as agriculture, healthcare, real estate and retail, to name just a few.

In 2019 NASSCOM reported that nearly half the states in India have initiated blockchain projects to address different elements of citizen service delivery. While most projects are in the pilot stage, the state governments have taken a progressive approach to ensure start-ups and niche providers have a conducive framework to participate in these initiatives. Earlier in early Feb 2020, India's Niti Aayog (the policy think tank of the Government of India) released the India's blockchain strategy policy paper. The policy paper is being released in two different parts. Part one deals with basic concepts, trust systems, the economic potential of smart contracts and blockchain, ease of doing business and different ongoing use cases. Part two will be released in the coming weeks which will mainly cover different recommendations for using blockchain technology in India.

Earlier, in Oct 2019, the Chinese leadership encouraged Chinese enterprises to ‘seize the opportunity’ in using and accelerating the development of blockchain technology, in what appeared to be one of the first instances of a major world leader backing the tech.

As of the end of 2019, the US Congress introduced 21 bills addressing cryptocurrency and blockchain policy that could be considered in 2020 by the second year of the 116th Congress. U.S. legislators are examining the landscape of how this new technology has been and could be impacting businesses, consumers, and society at large. Although Congress introduced a total of 22 bills that involve cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology, there are three main public policy areas that will likely be the continued focus of the 116th Congress into 2020.

1. The National Blockchain Roadmap: Progressing towards a blockchain-empowered future.
2. Blockchain: The India Strategy
3. US update.

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