IBM forecast: Smarter AI, medical labs on chips, smart sensors, more …

IBM Research’s latest “5 in 5” technology innovation forecast focuses on big advances that will come in physical nanoscale size as well as taking its supercomputer Watson into further advances of Artificial Intelligence. Read – and be amazed.

For example: Will psychiatrists exist in the future?

The annual list focuses on what Big Blue scientists believe will be the top five “ground-breaking, scientific innovations with the potential to change the way people work, live, and interact during the next five years.”

The newest five:

• “With AI, our words will be a window into our mental health”

• “Hyperimaging and AI will give us superhero vision”

• “Macroscopes will help us understand Earth’s complexity in infinite detail”

• “Medical labs “on a chip” will serve as health detectives for tracing disease at the nanoscale”

• “Smart sensors will detect environmental pollution at the speed of light”

Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research ho holds a Ph. D., wrote in a blog post about how his team was “struck by the powerful implications of the ongoing effort to make the invisible world visible, from the macroscopic level down to the nanoscale. Innovation in this area could enable us to dramatically improve farming, enhance energy efficiency, spot harmful pollution before it’s too late, and prevent premature cognitive decline.”

Here are brief summaries of the top five as explained by the good doctor:

“With AI, our words will be a window into our mental health. In five years, what we say and write will be indicators of our mental health and physical wellbeing. Patterns in our speech and writing analyzed by cognitive systems will enable doctors and patients to predict and track early-stage developmental disorders, mental illness and degenerative neurological diseases more effectively.”
“Hyperimaging and AI will give us superhero vision. In five years, our ability to “see” beyond visible light will reveal new insights to help us understand the world around us. This technology will be widely available throughout our daily lives, giving us the ability to perceive or see through objects and opaque environmental conditions anytime, anywhere.”
“Macroscopes will help us understand Earth’s complexity in infinite detail. The physical world before our eyes only gives us a small view into what’s an infinitely interconnected and complex world. Instrumenting and collecting masses of data from every physical object, big and small, and bringing it together will reveal comprehensive solutions for our food, water and energy needs.”
“Medical “labs on a chip” will serve as health detectives for tracing disease at the nanoscale. New techniques that detect tiny bioparticles found in bodily fluids will reveal clues that, when combined with data from the Internet of Things, will give a full picture of our health and diagnose diseases before we experience any symptoms.”
“Smart sensors will detect environmental pollution at the speed of light. Environmental pollutants won’t be able to hide thanks to new sensing technologies that utilize silicon photonics to accurately pinpoint and monitor the quality of our environment. Together with physical analytics combined with artificial intelligence, these technologies will unlock insights to help us prevent pollution and fully harness the promise of cleaner fuels like natural gas.”

By the way, here are some past predictions made by IBM scientists: