Five important technological breakthroughs in 2016

Business Standard looks at five disruptions that could change our lives in a big way

The digital and technology space is changing at such a rapid space that it's easy to get lost in the sea of new developments. However, there are some disruptions that leave an indelible mark and make a great impact in our lives. Business Standard takes a look at five such technological breakthroughs in 2016:

Artificial intelligence

The concept of AI has been there for a long time. What speeded up R&D in this field is the increase in computing power of systems and advancement in AI research. Instead of programming everything a computer has to do, researchers fed large amount of data into the system and got the computer to figure out how to get the result with the given inputs. In March 2016, Google's AlphaGo, a computer algorithm, beat world champion Lee Se-do in the ancient Chinese board game of Go. The event was significant because the game involves moves based on intuition. This year AI entered the mainstream, already giving a taste of its power through chatbots and personal assistants. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg built his own a home Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant called Jarvis, which can perform tasks like switching lights on and off, identifying people at the door, playing music, preparing toasts, scheduling etc. Although at the experimental stage, the AI is coming to home sooner than though with other products like Amazon's Echo and Google's Google Home. 

David Eden, Future Technologist and Product Innovator at Tata Communications, says AI is set to change the face of telecom sector.  "To offer people and businesses the ‘always-best-connected’ experience, regardless of device, location, network type or operator, the telecoms industry will start to harness the power of AI. This will be the biggest shift the industry has seen in years: we will start moving away from a fragmented, distributed network matrix to a global, ubiquitous network topology, powered by AI.  We will no longer have to think about whether we are using Wifi, a mobile network, Bluetooth, or one of the many IoT network technologies. Ultimately, we won’t need a mobile phone, a wearable or any other device to access this connectivity universe – our innumerable applications will become a virtual platform as we interact with them or even put them on our bodies," says Eden. 

Self driving

The year 2016 saw a series of partnerships among car manufacturers, technology companies, and ride-hailing service providers. Though it remains unclear as to how the combination will work, the one thing now known is that they have set their eyes on the road to self-driving. Besides Uber, the pioneer in app-based car-hailing service, others like Lyft, Didi Chuxing, and Ola in India, are all working to bring a serious change in attitude towards car ownership. Self driving promises reduction in driving-related injuries and fatalities; allowing people with physical disabilities to move with more freedom, and reducing the need for parking spaces and structures. Despite several hiccups, Tesla, Google and some other car manufacturers have made a visible progress. The latest battle between Uber and California’s transport regulators over testing self-driving cars on roads is a proof to the changes on the ground. As self-driving cars getting closer to the finish line every day, concerns about driving job cuts loom large.

Blockchain

The technology underpinning blockchain is set to disrupt the financial services for good and brings in much needed transparency and security. The idea of blockchain came into limelight after invention of digital currency Bitcoin. It is a distributed ledger that has records of all the previous transactions, agreements, contracts in a chronological order. Any tampering of these records is extremely difficult because these records are also updated in number of other systems in the blockchain network. Any new transaction, changes or addition of new member is possible only through consensus of systems in other network. This makes it hard for hackers to access the data. Since, the records are present in more than one system, it is more transparent. Since the verification process is easier and takes less time, financial services are also executed at a greater speed.  More than 40 international financial institutions are already testing the technology. In October 2016, ICICI Bank became the first Indian lender to complete a banking transaction using blockchain technology.   

Reusable rockets

A rocket is manufactured at the cost of millions of dollars but can't be launched a second time. This is what prompted SPACEX founder Elon Musk to build reusable rockets. Musk believes it can reduce the cost of travelling to space a hundred-fold. After four failed attempts, on April 8, Falcon 9, a two-stage rocket designed, launched Dragon on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA and, for the first time, landed the first-stage of the Falcon 9 back on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. India took its first step towards reusable rockets when it successfully tested reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), capable of launching satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere.  "My feeling is that such a programme if it's initiated today it will take about ten years before you can have first operational system. So, that's a long way to go," said scientist G Madhavan Nair.

Virtual Reality

The year 2016 saw the dawn of VR products. According to a venturebeat report, there were about 16 million VR users in 2016 which includes Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Samsung’s Gear VR, HTC’s Vive, and Google's Daydream, most of which were launched in 2016 itself. The VR headsets' immersive experience has created a lot of excitment chiefly among gamers, but it holds a great promise in the fields like healthcare, ecommerce and education. High cost and the size of the hardware still remains a big stumbling block for a wider adoption. Whether VR become real in 2017, is yet to be seen. Still Niantic's augmented reality game Pokémon Go and Snapchat's spectacles has proven to be a big hit among the users and it shows there are a large number of customers who are waiting for an affordable VR device.