10 AI Applications That Will Shape the Future
Artificial intelligence (AI) is pushing the boundaries of science and technology, flying military drones, diagnosing diseases, and designing enzymes that digest plastic waste. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of people use consumer-facing chatbots every week, radically transforming education, child development, and human connection. TIME magazine highlights 10 ways AI innovations are shaping the future.
Vaccine Development
The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines required several factors: years of messenger RNA (mRNA) research, massive political will, and an influx of money. But to shrink the timeline from 15 years to just 12 months, scientists also relied on a new arsenal of AI-powered tools that helped with everything from genome interpretation to clinical trial data cleaning. Similar tools are now helping accelerate vaccine development. Facing a potentially pandemic pathogen, Timothy Endy, a program leader at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a public-private partnership promoting vaccine development, says, “We could have a new vaccine designed in a matter of days.” CEPI aims to develop and deploy a new vaccine within 100 days. Endy adds, “I think we’re close to that.”
Human-Machine Relationships
Human-machine relationships are catching on. Millions of people are turning to AI-based chatbots to play roles that combine friend, therapist, and romantic partner. One AI role-playing platform, Character.AI, now has 20 million monthly active users—half of whom are female and half were born after 1997.
“For many, it’s a fun distraction that they get a lot out of,” says Kate Devlin, a professor at King’s College London who researches AI and human intimacy. Devlin sees value in AI companionship, as long as people understand that AI isn’t conscious. But she notes that vulnerable people—especially children or those with mental health issues—may be exploited when sharing their deepest feelings with AI tools not designed for therapy. However, with increasing use, Devlin believes society is resilient enough to find a way to navigate this period of change. “We’re very good at being human,” she says.
Tracking Wildlife
To monitor wildlife, conservationists use a network of motion-activated cameras in some of the world’s most isolated corners. But the deluge of images they capture can take weeks to sort through and find a single noteworthy sight. Wildlife Insights, an AI tool born from a collaboration between the World Wildlife Fund, Google, and other companies, scans millions of images and pinpoints animal locations with 99.4% accuracy—enabling researchers to do “more important work,” says Abby Heimer, WWF’s program manager. In March, they released the open-source tool, trained on 65 million images, for use by conservationists everywhere. “The threats to biodiversity are enormous,” says Heimer. “This tool allows us to respond quickly to these threats.”
Education
As educational institutions race to contain artificial intelligence, its prevalence is increasing. In July, US teachers’ unions partnered with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic in an initiative to train 400,000 teachers in AI over the next five years. In August, OpenAI announced a partnership with the Indian government to deploy its AI to schools across the country. Rose Luckin, a professor at University College London with extensive experience in AI and education, believes that the widespread use of AI by students has disrupted systems that were already failing to prepare them for the future. But with these changes come new opportunities, although regulation and understanding the limitations of AI are essential to protecting vulnerable populations, she says. “The key thing to understand is what relationship do we want between human intelligence and artificial intelligence?”
Circular Recycling
More than 350 million tons of plastic waste are produced annually. But AI-designed enzymes can “recycle plastic back to the chemical compounds used to make it, enabling countless recycling applications for all the materials that are currently being landfilled or incinerated,” says Jacob Nathan, founder and CEO of London-based Epoch Biodesign. The company has designed enzymes for three major groups of plastic using machine learning, which could help analyze not only textiles but also packaging materials, among others. The startup, which spun out of Nathan’s high school project in 2019 and has since raised $35 million, will complete its first production facility later this year, which, according to Nathan, is expected to be able to process 150 tons of waste annually.
Medical Diagnostics
AI tools that help diagnose strokes, cancers, and other medical conditions are becoming an integral part of healthcare systems around the world. Qure.ai, which uses AI to interpret diagnostic images such as x-rays and ultrasounds, is used in more than 4,500 locations in over 100 countries. Viz.ai’s diagnostic algorithms are used in more than 1,800 hospitals across the United States and Europe. AI systems also show promise as clinical companions. In a pilot study conducted by Penda Health, a Kenyan primary care company, in collaboration with OpenAI, Penda’s AI system, designed to enrich physician knowledge and used on thousands of patients, reduced medical diagnostic errors by 16%. With increasing adoption, the global healthcare sector is expected to see significant improvements.
Children’s Toys
AI toys are an emerging but growing market. Companies like Curio sell AI-powered stuffed animals that talk to young children in age-appropriate language. One of these toys was designed and voiced by singer Grimes. Others, like Miko 3—an interactive robot that teaches and listens—are designed to aid learning. In June, OpenAI partnered with toymaker Mattel; their first product is expected to be announced later this year. Anne-Sophie Seret, executive director of the Everyone.AI global initiative, which works with governments and companies to ensure children’s protections when using AI, warns that these toys, without safeguards, could impact critical developmental periods during childhood. She emphasizes the importance of setting standards and guidelines and proactive engagement with the companies that make these toys. “Once a teddy bear is under the Christmas tree, it’s hard to get it back,” she adds.
Mapping the Earth
In July, Google announced an AI system that acts like a virtual satellite, combining optical, thermal, radar, climate, and other data to accurately map the Earth’s land and coastal waters. Christopher Brown, a senior research engineer at Google DeepMind, explains that the resulting unified dataset “gives scientists and researchers a consistent, global understanding of the planet.” Governments, businesses, nonprofits, and academics can use the highly computationally efficient, customized maps enabled by this model—already used by more than 50 organizations—for a range of tasks, from mapping ecosystems and supply chains to analyzing how the planet has changed over time. Brown is optimistic that this technology, by removing barriers to entry, could “revolutionize Earth science.”
Factory Automation
While industrial robots have been a feature of factories since the 1930s, their “brains” have only recently begun to catch up with technological advancements. Xiaomi now operates a so-called dark factory in Beijing—so automated it can operate with the lights off—producing a flagship smartphone every six seconds with only a handful of technicians overseeing the system. Meanwhile, German tech giant Siemens is pioneering AI-powered industrial copilots, which help engineers direct robots using natural language and automatically identify mechanical faults, achieving efficiency gains of up to 30%, according to Peter Koert, chief technology and strategy officer. He adds that much of AI’s future impact depends on transforming the industrial world. “Ultimately, it represents the majority of the economy.”
Autonomous Military Drones
Loss of signal—often due to complex jamming—previously meant the demise of a drone. But when some of the 117 drones involved in Ukraine’s Operation Spider went down in June, their onboard AI took over, according to Ukraine’s Security Service. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, who led Brave1, a government initiative to connect Ukraine’s defense and technology industries, says the operation that destroyed 12 Russian bombers is the clearest example of AI’s capabilities on the battlefield. He adds that while today’s drones can track pre-defined targets, future models are moving toward greater autonomy. “Essentially, the situation on the battlefield depends on who wins this autonomous drone battle,” Fedorov adds.
