5 breakthroughs in technology you should know about in 2018

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

Technological breakthroughs have been like a rollercoaster ride of advancements, and every day, new and exciting things are being created by scientists, researchers, and engineers. Big companies create tech projects and small start-ups crowdsource revolutionary new ideas all the time. To keep you on the cutting edge of technological growth, we’ve put together a list of five recent advancements based on MIT’s list of top recent technological breakthroughs.

Image source: Pixabay.

3D-printed metals
3D printing has been around a few years and has had a huge impact on a variety of industries. There is no doubt that as plastics are replaced by metals, printing metals will become more widespread as a cost-efficient manufacturing process. Typical 3D printers extrude plastic at a high temperature, which hardens into shape and is useful for prototyping, but the plastics are somewhat fragile. Being able to 3D print with metal is a huge boon, and complicated machinery could be designed on a computer and printed in place with all moving parts in order, drastically reducing labor costs.

Cloud-based AI
In the past, computer-assisted engineering was a tool that was reserved for only the largest tech companies such as Google, Amazon, or IBM, but now with the emergence of cloud-based AI systems, these tools could be available to anyone, anywhere, for only a small cost. Companies could buy a subscription to the AI cloud service and then gain the full advantages of the AI without the massive amount of computing power that would otherwise be necessary.

Perfecting online privacy
Thanks to blockchain technology, the internet might just become secure again. Blockchains work by keeping a log internally of all of their interactions, which makes them useful for keeping track of cryptocurrency. More recently, blockchain technology is being repurposed to keep track of freight during shipping. What’s more, this technology doesn’t require any information from the user, and because it stores its log internally, it’s more secure from hackers and users don’t have to reveal any personal information.

Translator earbuds
Translator earbuds made by Google allow anyone to understand almost any language instantly. By translating incoming sound with Google’s translation software, the user can hear conversations translated to them in their native language. It sounds like something out of the realm of science fiction, but it’s real and, sometime soon, you might be seeing them on tourists around the world.

Artificial intelligence
AI is set to play a huge role in the future of technology, and companies like Google Brain, Deep Mind, and Nvidia are working to bring AI to the next level. Recent developments in neural networking have resulted not only in AI programs that can understand new information at an alarming rate but technology that can also “imagine” new scenarios and concepts that it’s never experienced before. This ability to learn and imagine new concepts grew from allowing the networks to “spar” with each other, with different AI systems coming up with different ideas and pitting them against each other to produce a new result, not unlike how evolution uses competition to allow only the fittest to survive. Though this is a slippery slope that could lead to all kinds of unknown dangers, as with most AI, researchers remain optimistic that this technology could lead us to a better future.