The year 2021 has seen significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, with AI becoming increasingly integrated into various aspects of everyday life. The Gathering Strength Gathering Storms report released by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences highlights the pervasive nature of AI, which is now being used in everything from movie recommendations and voice assistants to autonomous driving and medical diagnostics.
The report also identifies five key areas of AI development that are shaping the future, including AI's role in vaccine development, personalized education, climate change, healthcare, and public policy. In addition, the AI100 project at Stanford University has released a new report assessing the progress and risks of AI between 2016 and 2021. The report highlights the increasing adoption of AI across various industries, with 42% of enterprise-scale businesses integrating AI into their operations. Furthermore, the field of AI has made significant progress in various subareas, including vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, and robotics. The average number of AI capabilities used by organizations has also doubled from 19 in 2018 to 38 in 2022. Overall, the advancements in AI technology in 2021 reflect a rapidly evolving field that is increasingly shaping various aspects of society and industry.