10 positives from 2020

Happy new year 2021.

The only way to go from here is positive. In these tough times we all need to spread some positivity. By the way, as per recent reports, even Google is telling its scientists to give AI a ‘positive’ spin. This article is an attempt to share 10 positive technical developments from 2020, which as per me are great steps towards a brighter future.

1. Space X flies crew to International Space Station: Space X became the first private company to send humans into space. World's first crewed commercial spaceflight took 19 hours from Florida to International Space Station (ISS). It took Space X 18 years to reach this goal. SpaceX has big plans. CEO Elon Musk has ambitious plans for space tourism. His dream is to fly people around the moon before landing them on the lunar surface. His future plans also includes establishment of Martian cities and put a million settlers on the red planet.

2. DeepMind AI cracks 50-year-old problem of protein folding: Google AI offshoot DeepMind’s program called AlphaFold, outperformed around 100 other teams in a biennial protein-structure prediction challenge called CASP (Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction). This is a giant leap in solving one of biology’s biggest challenges, which is to determe a protein’s 3D shape from its amino-acid sequence. AlphaFold system was trained on data consisting of approximately 170,000 protein structures. It took the team more than two years to achieve this feat.

3. SK Telecom uses robots to fight Covid-19 spread : South Korean companies SK Telecom and Omron Electronics Korea developed an autonomous robot to carry out contactless temperature screenings, to automate safety checks to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Using SK Telecom’s AI-based video analysis solution and running on its 5G network, this clever robot detected people gatherings, moved to those areas of these gatherings and played a message stressing the importance of social distancing. The robot, fitted with a thermal imaging camera, also identified people not wearing face masks and asked them to wear one. This robot equipped with UV (ultraviolet) lamps and sprayers had capability to disinfect 33 square metres of surface areas in 10 minutes.

4. University of Minnesota researchers use 3D bioprinting to create beating human heart: Researchers from the University of Minnesota have taken a revolutionary step in the field of cardiology. Real human cardiac myocytes were used to 3D print a miniature functional heart pump in the lab. This has huge implications for researchers as heart disease is one of the biggest causes of sudden deaths globally. This 3D printed heart is capable of functioning for over six weeks. But this feat was not an overnight success as it took the researchers almost two years of failed attempts before they achieved this feat.

5. Logically.AI launches fake new buster tool ahead of US elections: UK-based fact-checking enterprise Logically launched its tool that allowed US users to analyze and evaluate the credibility of online articles, fact-check dubious claims, and highlight toxic comments on social platforms. This tool comes as a Chrome browser extension helping curb misinformation and fake news. This helps spread of credibility and confidence. Tools like Logically.AI helped people, platforms and governments identify misinformation across the internet.

6. Proximie surpasses 5,000 remote AR driven surgical procedures in 35 Countries : Proximie is a plug-and-play remote collaboration platform using a live video stream with augmented reality tools. During COVID-19 pandemic, Proximie's usage exploded and it was used to perform an average of 700 procedures per month. Designed by founder-CEO Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, a working surgeon herself, Proximie is a technology platform that uses a combination of AR, artificial intelligence and real-time communications, to allow clinicians to virtually collaborate with each other from anywhere in the world. Proximie has been deployed in 35 countries across 5 continents.

7. Apple and Google releases a phone technology to notify users of coronavirus exposure : Apple and Google teamed up in bid to use smartphones to track coronavirus spread. The companies came up with an unprecedented collaboration to leverage their technology to help trace and contain the spread of coronavirus in April. The software relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect when someone who downloaded the app has spent time near another app user who later tests positive for the virus. Apple and Google released the technology to automatically notify mobile phone owners of potential exposure to the coronavirus. Some countries like UK launched their own mobile APP with similar functionality.

8. Deep Learning algorithm outperforms experts in making alzheimer’s diagnosis: An algorithm trained on patients' MRI scans, basic demographic information and scores from a cognitive impairment tests has outperformed the manual diagnosis by experts. Scientists verified performance of the AI model with three national cohorts, which included data both from people who had received an Alzheimer's diagnosis and those with normal cognition. Scientists from American Heart Association, Boston University, etc trained this algorithm.

9. Elon Musk unveils Neuralink pig : The tech entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled a pig whose brain, as per him, has been implanted with a small computer. He described the coin-sized implant as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires”. Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016 with the goal of creating a wireless brain-machine interface, something scientists hope can help cure neurological conditions and allow people with paralysis to control a computer mouse. In 2019, Neuralink unveiled a prototype that involved implanting tiny electrodes into the brain and a device planted behind the ear. This new 2020 device is tinier and does not require the visible ear device. It would be implanted in the brain by a surgical robot under local anesthesia.

10. AI makes scientists even more confident of nuclear fusion reactor by 2025 : TAE, one of the companies working on the nuclear fusion problem, said that machine learning has enabled them to take a giant leap towards the target of commissioning first working thermonuclear fusion reactor by the year 2025. Google’s been helping TAE come up with modern solutions to decades-old math problems by using novel AI systems to facilitate the discovery of new fusion techniques. Fusion reactors (not to be confused with common fission reactors) are considered the holiest of Grails when it comes to physics achievements. According to most nuclear experts, a successful fusion reactor would function as a near-unlimited source of energy. In other words, if there’s a working demonstration of an actual fusion reactor by 2025, world could see an end to the global energy crisis within a few decades and it would also be a massive step towards "net-zero emissions by 2050".

Disclaimer: Focus of this article is technical achievements of 2020. My prayers are with those who lost their loved ones in 2020. My salute to thousands of NHS front line bravehearts who are fighting this pandemic. My gratitude to volunteers and fundraisers like Captain Tom Moore, Anis Ali, Tobias Weller and Zane Powles.