In his latest technology trends report for 2022, Ali Baba gives pride of place to artificial intelligence and a new kind of electronic components, photonic neuromorphic chips. These last use photons instead of electrons to transmit data, and according to Alibaba it will be widely used by large data centers within three years.
Alibaba unveils its top 10 tech trends
The Alibaba Research Academy has therefore identified the major technological trends for 2022. In the top 10 of “Technological predictions”, we discover new applications of artificial intelligence in renewable energies, or even robots to “Increased perceptibility” in terms of pressure, vision and sound. Alibaba also devotes an entire part of its report to extended reality networks (XR), these environments which combine the real and the virtual, like the metaverse. The company just presented AR glasses for virtual meetings a few days ago.
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According to the Chinese giant, “Advances in new technologies and intelligence are redefining a new digital world characterized by mixed reality, technological inclusion and a low carbon footprint”. Jeff Zhang, director of Alibaba’s research academy specifies that this report was drawn up on the basis of a review of 7.7 million scientific articles published over the past three years, from an analysis of 85,000 patents and interviews with around 100 scientists.
New photonic semiconductors coming soon?
Unsurprisingly, the technology trends cited in this report echo the scientific fields in which Beijing is trying to become a world leader. This is particularly the case with artificial intelligence, an area in which China excels. In this regard, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently developed an artificial intelligence capable of replacing a prosecutor in certain tasks. Artificial intelligence is currently being tested by the Shanghai Pudong People’s Procuratorate. Alibaba’s report predicts that AI will be widely used in the research phase of applied sciences.
In the semiconductor area, Alibaba has identified “New generation materials”, with in particular these photonic silicon neuromorphic chips, which should be widely used by large data centers within three years. These chips are faster and consume less power than chips using electrons. A market that will undoubtedly be stimulated by the cloud and artificial intelligence.