Applications of AI in Niche and Emerging Areas
There is no denying the fact that Artificial Intelligence is the breakthrough technology of recent times. Machines have come a long way from assisting humans in mechanical operations to performing smarter tasks using cognitive intelligence. Every day, we are coming across interesting applications of AI.
The ability of Deep Learning algorithms to learn and predict efficiently has opened the doors of possibilities. Nowadays, AI is impacting many other areas, as well. In this blog post, we will discuss some niche applications of AI. Let’s discuss such application in detail.
Applications of AI in self-driving cars, image processing (Prisma, Google Photos), and chatbots are something you must be experiencing in your daily life or hearing about it a lot on the internet. However, there are many other niche areas where AI is creating a significant impact. These niche areas of applications don’t get as much attention in the press but they are actively featured in AI research publications. With this blog, we aim to explore these niche domains and develop a deeper and well-rounded understanding of applications of AI.
Astronomers deal with a lot of data in the form of signals and images. Analyzing and categorizing this data is a humongous task. Astronomers are now leveraging the power of unsupervised Machine Learning to automate this task, which was previously done by thousands of volunteers.
Alex Hocking, a Master’s student from the University of Hertfordshire, who led the work on one such system, commented:
Image: ML algorithm identifying the elliptical galaxies from an image. Credits: Royal Astronomical Society.
AI is helping astronomers make the blurry and noisy images better. Researchers have used neural networks to enhance the already existing data as well. The deployment of such Machine Learning algorithms have certainly reduced the human effort and, at times, have enhanced the images better than their original source. What did Alex Hocking say about teaching a machine to see?
The future of AI in astronomy looks brighter as more and more astronomers are shifting to advanced Machine Learning techniques to analyze the astronomical data. During this era of extensive space exploration, maybe AI can help identify a habitable planet by deeply analyzing the images and signals.
Machine Learning algorithms have been used to model the best building layout to minimize energy consumption. It is important to adapt to energy efficient construction practices. The machine learning powered energy models can provide the best solutions by combining the analysis from historical and current data.
Certain buildings in Manhattan, NY are already being constructed using Machine Learning powered energy modeling.
Talking about energy conservation, AI is being deployed in optimizing electricity grids for entire cities. Grid4c is one of the companies providing predictive analytics solutions for smart grids. Machine Learning algorithms can analyze the data from millions of smart meters. Clubbing this data to the consumer behavior gives a holistic solution for smart delivery of electricity. This method can learn from user behavior and appliance usage. This will help suppliers understand the peak usage time and the downtime at the granular level. Thus, optimizing the overall supply by the smart electricity grid.
AI is entering even one of the most traditional verticals, Agriculture. The idea is to produce more with same resources. This is where AI is helping farmers. The AI research is exploring various aspects of farming, most notable areas being automated intelligent irrigation and detecting crop diseases.
Intelligent machine learning algorithms are helping farmers automate and optimize irrigation. It reduces water wastage and optimizes water supply to the crops. AI-driven system can analyze soil, weather and crop type to deliver optimized water supply.
Input and output: Detecting bacterial disease using image processing in beans leaf.
