What the Tech !!

Introduction:

Technology as a field has not only evolved and cemented its roots in recent times, especially in the past year but also is branching out in various fields and as a result is giving out such extraordinary and effective inventions as its fruits in fields which were too robust to be automated. And as Arthur Clarke once said

“ Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.

So, let's look at and analyze how this magic has prevailed in various fields in 2023 and will be expanding in 2024.

Artificial intelligence:

Technology has become synonymous with the term “ Artificial intelligence”, yet it is just a part of it. But how has this field turned into such an essential part of technology? Let's look at some numbers. According to “ The state of AI in 2023” Mckinsey report, almost 79% of the industry employees have had their fair share of exposure to AI (within and outside work ) and 22% of them regularly use AI tools for their benefit. And these numbers spread across all kinds of industries like Energy, Finance, Business, Legal, Healthcare, Telecom, etc. This comes mainly because of the ability of cost-cutting that the organizations are given by AI utilization and in turn companies invest in AI for more than one function of their products. With many funding deals of many startups falling apart, the AI industry saw an investment of 17.9 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2023 with OpenAI becoming the largest beneficiary boosting its value up to 80 billion dollars and becoming the world's third-largest startup. And hence, becoming the favorite investment target of VCs. Keeping the numbers aside, how did AI benefit a general consumer?

Helping monitor a patient in healthcare, helping in navigating a location, analyzing network traffic for cybersecurity, and many virtual assistants like Siri, for carrying out different tasks. One of the largest used tools in the form of Chat-up for helping out with a variety of tasks. Generative AI is making influencers and general people that don't even exist and building a field and a world of its own. And hence, AI is not just a tool anymore but a way of living your daily life.

Green tech:

Green technology has seen a boom after the COVID-19 pandemic mainly because of the increase in importance of health and governments now being able to view sustainable energy sources to be quite cost-efficient as compared to traditional fossil fuels if the setup of its infrastructure is done correctly. According to reports of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the first half of 2023 saw an investment of 358 billion dollars worldwide (an increase of 22% from the previous year within the same time frame). Electric aviation also saw a good push which included Heart Aerospace, a company developing in this sector getting an order of 40 of their ES-30 which is an aircraft powered by battery. EVs are just having a great year one after the other. In India, EV sales increased by a whopping 157% compared to the previous financial year with 2-wheeler EVs leading the sail. With a worldwide projection of revenue of 623.3 billion dollars in 2024, this market is achieving new heights as each year passes by. And solar saw an investment of 239 billion dollars just in the first half of 2023 with China being its biggest investor. And just not these, many green tech markets like vertical agriculture, hydrogen-fueled cells, wave power, etc. look forward to emerging as significant fields (by size) in 2024.

Gaming:

After a dip in 2022, the gaming industry made a comeback in 2023 and had a positive YoY(Year on Year) of 0.6% in terms of revenue, generating over 184-187 billion dollars and as predicted China being its biggest contributor. Mobile gaming was its biggest contributor in terms of revenue having generated over 90.4 billion dollars and PC + console gaming giving almost the same amount of revenue with, interestingly enough, Hogwarts: Legacy, being the best-selling game ( not necessarily because of its gameplay). Minecraft achieved a milestone by completing 300 million in sales from the day of its release (the highest for any game).

Also, we got a taste of RAGE ( Rockstar advanced game engine) version 9 in the form of a GTA 6 trailer, with the engine improving water, vehicle and light physics. And also focussing on improving interaction with NPCs with the help of AI. Interesting developments in AR ( Augmented reality ) / VR (Virtual reality) gaming are taking place and hence, enhanced gaming experiences and interactions within games are coming soon. An important part of AR/VR gaming which is fitness gaming (includes boxing, cycling, etc.) is also gaining momentum. With a value of 11.1 billion dollars and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7 % ( during 2023-2030), this is a very interesting part of gaming ready to explode.

Automobile:

The utilization of technology in cars in recent years has increased a lot. Especially in luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW, JLR, etc. Where the former CEO of JLR, Ralf Speth, in 2019 said “ We are an IT company” due to the advancement in technology used inside of cars. Previously, IoT utilization was limited to expensive luxurious cars like Tesla, Mercedes, etc. But now even our Indian brands like Mahindra are trying to implement it in their cars from 2022. A dedicated app for car functioning, V2X technology like adaptive cruise control, and traffic sign recognition, have been integrated with this regard. And therefore, more brands in India, especially in 2023 have tried to bring more active features in their cars under ADAS ( Advanced driver-assistance system). 9 cars in total with having an ADAS system in them with 3 of them coming from Indian brands and that too with level-2 ADAS. Now, at a global level as well car tech has leveled up. Toyota, a brand that had previously focused solely on hybrids and hydrogen-fueled cell battery cars, is now going for fully electrically charged batteries but with innovation. Instead of normal electrolyte fluid batteries, they are bringing solid-state batteries since they can be used in harsh conditions, can give a range of more than 1200 Km and for the same weight, can generate more power. Toyota is working to figure out its complications and make it ‘mass-production worthy. Hopefully, these technologies will grow and integrate into the general consumer’s daily life.

Space Tech:

The Indian Space Research Organization had a really great year in terms of innovation and pushing limits. After learning from the shortcomings of SSLV-D1 ( Small satellite launch vehicle) which was launched on 7th August 2022 and fell short of placing the satellites into their intended orbits, ISRO successfully launched SSLV-D2 in February of 2023 and injected three satellites (EOS-07, Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2) into the lower Earth orbit.

Then in July, ISRO achieved a great feat by successfully carrying out a lunar exploration mission a.k.a. Chandrayaan-3 which was the first spacecraft to land on the south pole of the moon. With this, ISRO was able to detect different chemicals in the lunar surface including Sulphur ( essential for life ), and temperature differences on and within the surface making it a natural insulator and also processing the seismic measurements of the surface with the help of Pragyan rover. ISRO again proved its cost-effectiveness in this mission as well by spending just 600 crore Indian Rupees ( 74 million USD ). After the lunar, ISRO went solar by launching Aditya L-1, the first Indian space mission for observing the chromospheric dynamics of the sun. 2023 was a great space tech year globally as well. NASA achieved the most successful launches ( 108 ) and broke the world record as old as 1982 held by the Soviet Union and SpaceX launched the heaviest rocket to enter space. Missions like PACE ( for studying ocean health ), Europa Clipper ( for studying the Jupiter moon Europa ) and NISAR ( ISRO mission jointly with NASA for studying Earth landforms using RADAR Imaging ) in 2024 help us understand that space technology is achieving new heights year after year and as Peter Ward said

"Satellites are the ultimate environmental watchdogs, peering from the heavens to keep tabs on Earth's vital signs, from deforestation to pollution levels."

Space up above truly helps and protects the land down here.

Inventions:

In a year full of innovations, here are some inventions that stood out :

• Music haptic suit for the deaf

A ‘Not Impossible Labs’ invention is made for the ones who have trouble hearing or can't hear at all. To help them experience live music through vibrations.

• AI Wildfire detection

A ‘California Department of forestry and Forest Fire’ AI trained program with the help of 1050 cameras to detect early indications of wildfire and inform the authorities beforehand in such scenarios.

• 3D Biofabrication Facility (BFF)

Since repairing medical tears and replacing injured knees is very difficult due to its sensitive nature NASA has installed a bioprinter in ISS ( International Space Station ) to do this procedure as the microgravity would help in culturing the human tissues.

• Brimstone Process by Brimstone

Since the carbon released by the concrete-making process has been tough to control and it is very difficult to reduce its carbon footprint, ‘Brimstone’, a startup, is using carbon-free silicate rock to do so.

• EV9 by Kia

EV9 by Kia, despite some ‘surreal’ design choices externally, in the inside it is using recycled materials. Each car produced is heavily using PET products like recycled bottles and fishing nets.

• The Sphere in Las Vegas by Sphere Entertainment Co.

A 366 feet tall sphere with 1.2 million LED lights which was installed on the Las Vegas strip enhances the audience experience and becomes a center of amusement.

• Solid-state technology by Yoshino

A ‘Yoshino’ portable power station that runs on solid-state batteries helps provide more and better power output than electrolyte batteries with less risk of explosion and more rugged use.

• Visible Plus by Visible Health

A ‘ Visible Health’ app would help long COVID patients to track their health and track any symptoms of COVID. With data collection from thousands of patients, it helps generate trends of symptom severity.

• Photoshop Generative Fill by Adobe

An ‘Adobe’ tool of Gen AI helps any image and fill extra elements in an image with the help of a prompt by the user. The tool was added to all Adobe apps.

• Quest 3 by Meta

A mixed reality headset by ‘Meta’ helps mix the digital world and its objects with the real world in its 4K+ infinite display.

Conclusion:

2023, was truly a year of inventive solutions to some really difficult and real problems. It was a year in which the previously found crude solutions were improved and hence, evolution in technology took place. Many would argue that the utilization of technology in almost every field is not healthy for us living beings but I feel it is the intent behind the tech that matters. If the intent behind it is right then surely it would only help. AI was considered to take up all human jobs and do everything by itself, which surely opened new fields as well like prompt engineering, AI engineering, ML engineering, AI cybersecurity specialist, etc. Therefore, as technology evolves and finds its place in different fields, jobs and opportunities will also evolve and we have to keep up with that. Hence, with this right intent, we get into 2024 and hope this tree of technology keeps growing and keeps blessing us with its healthy and nutritious fruits.