Top 10 Hot Artificial Intelligence Technologies十大热门人工智能技术

文/吉尔·普雷斯 译/申军

By Gil Press

人工智能技术市场蓬勃发展。相关宣传不绝于耳，媒体关注度不断提高，创业公司大量涌现，互联网巨头争相收购人工智能领域初创公司，企业对人工智能的投资和应用程度也大幅增长。自动写作科技公司去年进行了一项调查，发现已有38%的企业在使用人工智能技术，到2018年这一数字会增长到62%。弗雷斯特研究公司预计2017年人工智能投资将比2016年增长300%以上。国际数据公司估计人工智能市场将会从2016年的80亿美元增长到2020年的超过470亿美元。

人工智能一词最早出现在1955年，当时用来命名计算机科学一个新的子学科，如今它囊括了多种技术和工具，有些经过了时间考验，有些还相对较新。为了让人们了解该领域的各项热点和冷门技术，弗雷斯特公司新近在科技雷达网站面向应用开发人员发布了一份关于人工智能的报告，详细分析了企业应考虑用以支持人工决策的13种技术。

The market for artificial intelligence(AI) technologies is flourishing.Beyond the hype and the heightened media attention, the numerous startups and the internet giants racing to acquire them, there is a significant increase in investment and adoption by enterprises.A Narrative Science survey found last year that 38% of enterprises are already using AI, growing to 62% by 2018. Forrester Research predicted a greater than 300% increase in investment in artificial intelligence in 2017 compared with 2016. IDC estimated that the AI market will grow from $8 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020.

Coined in 1955 to describe a new computer science sub-discipline, “Artificial Intelligence” today includes a variety of technologies and tools, some time-tested, others relatively new. To help make sense of what’s hot and what’s not, Forrester just published a TechRadar report on Artificial Intelligence (for application development professionals), a detailed analysis of 13 technologies enterprises should consider adopting to support human decisionmaking.

1. Natural Language Generation:Producing text from computer data.Currently used in customer service,report generation, and summarizing business intelligence insights. Sample vendors: Attivio, Automated Insights,Cambridge Semantics, Digital Reasoning, Lucidworks, Narrative Science,SAS, Yseop.

2. Speech Recognition: Transcribe and transform human speech into format useful for computer applications.Currently used in interactive voice response systems and mobile applications.Sample vendors: NICE, Nuance Communications, OpenText, Verint Systems.

3. Virtual Agents: “The currentdarling of the media,” says Forrester(I believe they refer to my evolving relationships with Alexa), from simple chatbots to advanced systems that can network with humans. Currently used in customer service and support and as a smart home manager. Sample vendors:Amazon, Apple, Artificial Solutions,Assist AI, Creative Virtual, Google,IBM, IPsoft, Microsoft, Satisf i.

基于弗雷斯特公司的分析，我认为下列10种技术是人工智能的热点：

1.自然语言生成：从计算机数据生成文本。目前用于客户服务、报告生成和总结商业智能情报。代表供应商有：艾特维奥数据公司、自动思维科技公司、剑桥语义数据公司、数码逻辑研究公司、路希德公司、自动写作科技公司、统计分析软件公司、易奥普公司。

2.语音识别：将人类语言转录，生成可用于计算机应用程序的格式。目前用于交互式语音应答系统和移动终端应用。代表供应商有：奈斯公司、努昂斯通信公司、欧朋文本科技公司、慧锐系统公司。

3.虚拟代理：弗雷斯特公司表示，虚拟代理目前是“媒体的宠儿”，（我觉得他们是指我对亚马逊语音助手亚历克萨的态度变化），从简单的聊天机器人到高级人机交流系统都受到广泛关注。目前用于客户服务和支持以及管理智能家居。代表供应商有：亚马逊、苹果、人工智能服务公司、人工智能助手研究公司、虚拟创见公司、谷歌、国际商业机器公司、爱普软件公司、微软、赛第斯菲科技公司。

我们对月球表面的了解胜过对地球海底的了解，这一点令人震惊，但事实的确如此。我们对海底的了解大多来自科学大洋钻探——从深海海底系统采集岩芯样本。这一革命性技术始于50年前的1968年8月11日，当时在联邦资助的深海钻探项目中，“格洛马尔挑战者（Glomar Challenger）”号钻探船首次远征，驶入墨西哥湾。

4.机器学习平台：提供算法、应用程序接口、开发和培训工具包、数据，及计算能力，用于设计、训练、实施模型，并将这些模型用于应用软件、过程和其他机器上。目前在企业各种应用程序中广泛使用，主要涉及预测或分类。代表供应商有：亚马逊、福莱科特数据分析公司、谷歌、H2O智能平台、微软、统计分析软件公司、天树信息公司。

5.人工智能优化的硬件：专门设计和架构的图形处理单元和设备，可有效运行面向人工智能的计算任务。目前主要在深度学习应用上发挥作用。代表供应商有：阿鲁维艾特公司、克雷研究公司、谷歌、国际商业机器公司、英特尔、英伟达。

6.决策管理：给人工智能系统插入规则和逻辑的引擎，用于初始安装、培训以及后续维护和调优。这已是一种成熟的技术，广泛在各种企业应用程序中使用，协助或执行自动化决策。代表性供应商有：高级系统概念公司、茵弗莫迪卡信息公司、玛纳公司、培格科技公司、创径公司。

4. Machine Learning Platforms:Providing algorithms, APIs, development and training toolkits, data, as well as computing power to design, train,and deploy models into applications,processes, and other machines. Currently used in a wide range of enterprise applications, mostly involving prediction or classification. Sample vendors:Amazon, Fractal Analytics, Google,H2O.ai, Microsoft, SAS, Skytree.

5. AI-optimized Hardware: Graphics processing units (GPU) and appliances specifically designed and architected to efficiently run AI-oriented computational jobs. Currently primarily making a difference in deep learning applications. Sample vendors: Alluviate, Cray, Google, IBM, Intel, Nvidia.

6. Decision Management: Engines that insert rules and logic into AI systems and used for initial setup/training and ongoing maintenance and tuning.A mature technology, it is used in a wide variety of enterprise applications,assisting in or performing automated decision-making. Sample vendors: Advanced Systems Concepts, Informatica,Maana, Pegasystems, UiPath.

7. Deep Learning Platforms: A special type of machine learning consisting of artificial neural networks with multiple abstraction layers. Currently primarily used in pattern recognition and classification applications supported by very large data sets. Sample vendors:Deep Instinct, Ersatz Labs, Fluid AI,MathWorks, Peltarion, Saffron Technology, Sentient Technologies.

8. Biometrics: Enable more natural interactions between humans and machines, including but not limited to image and touch recognition, speech, and body language. Currently used primarily in market research. Sample vendors:3VR, Affectiva, Agnitio, FaceFirst,Sensory, Synqera, Tahzoo.

9. Robotic Process Automation:Using scripts and other methods to automate human action to support efficient business processes. Currently used where it’s too expensive or inefficient for humans to execute a task or a process. Sample vendors: Advanced Systems Concepts, Automation Anywhere,Blue Prism, UiPath, WorkFusion.

10. Text Analytics and NLP: Natural language processing (NLP) uses and supports text analytics by facilitating the understanding of sentence structure and meaning, sentiment, and intent through statistical and machine learning methods. Currently used in fraud detection and security, a wide range of automated assistants, and applications for mining unstructured data. Sample vendors: Basis Technology, Coveo, Expert System, Indico, Knime, Lexalytics,Linguamatics, Mindbreeze, Sinequa,Stratifyd, Synapsify.

7.深度学习平台：一种由具有多个抽象层的人工神经网络组成的特殊类型机器学习。目前主要用于依托大型数据集进行的模式识别和应用分类。代表供应商有：深层本能、厄萨茨实验室、畅德人工智能公司、数学研究公司、培勒塔瑞恩软件公司、红花科技、感知科技公司。

8.生物计量学：实现更自然的人机交际，包括但不限于图像和指纹识别、言语和肢体语言。目前主要用于市场研究。代表供应商有：三维虚拟科技公司、阿凡客科技公司、洹艺科技、菲斯面部识别科技公司、森斯语音识别公司、鑫克拉科技公司、塔祖科技公司。

9.机器人过程自动化：使用脚本和其他方法自动执行人为操作来支持高效的业务流程。目前用于人力成本高或效率低的任务或流程领域。代表供应商有：高级系统概念公司、全能自动化公司、蓝棱镜公司、创径公司、融合科技公司。

10.文本分析和自然语言处理：自然语言处理通过统计和机器学习的方法，促进对句子结构、意义、情感和意图的理解，从而使用和支持文本分析。目前用于欺诈行为检测和安全维护，各种自动化助理，以及挖掘非结构化数据的应用程序。代表供应商有：基础科技公司、柯维傲公司、专业系统科技公司、茵迪克公司、奈姆公司、莱克斯分析公司、语言数字公司、清风思维公司、鑫诺克公司、斯图飞腾公司、鑫奈科技公司。

今天，人工智能技术毫无疑问带来了许多商业利益，但根据弗雷斯特公司去年进行的调查，人工智能在应用方面也面对着一些障碍，以下是对一些在人工智能领域没有投资计划的公司进行的调查统计。

There are certainly many business benefits gained from AI technologies today, but according to a survey Forrester conducted last year, there are also obstacles to AI adoption as expressed by companies with no plans of investing in AI:

There is no def i ned business case 42%Not clear what AI can be used for 39%Don’t have the required skills 33%Need fi rst to invest in modernizing data mgt platform 29%Don’t have the budget 23%Not certain what is needed for implementing an AI system 19%AI systems are not proven 14%

Once enterprises overcome these obstacles, Forrester concludes, they stand to gain from AI driving accelerated transformation in customer-facing applications and developing an interconnected web of enterprise intelligence. ■

缺乏确定的商业案例 42%不了解人工智能的应用领域 39%缺乏相关技能 33%需要在数据管理平台现代化方面先期投资 29%没有相关预算 23%不确定人工智能系统应用所需的条件 19%人工智能系统还不成熟 14%

弗雷斯特公司最后表示，人工智能当前正在推动面向客户应用加速转型以及开发互联的企业智能网络，一旦企业克服了上述种种障碍，就能在该过程中获益。 □