Every year marks something new in the world of technology. In 2022, we heard the word metaverse echoing across all industries with a sharp focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The digital world also became increasingly hostile with an increase in cyberattacks and ransomware, shedding light on the need to upgrade protection measures across the globe.
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We also witnessed more and more robots in action – whether to kill or to make our lives easier.
Here are the top 5 tech trends that defined 2022 for us.
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After Facebook officially changed its name to “Meta” to reflect its metaverse ambitions, a lot of people had trouble processing the concept of metaverse. Covid-19 led to the quick adoption of various metaverse solutions that are dependent on augmented reality or virtual reality to provide an immersive experience to users. Think of The Sims, but permanently – with specially built googles of course. But that could change in the coming years as we enter Web 3.0 and (hopefully) leave the days of a slate phone behind. Thanks to blockchain, users can buy and sell goods in the metaverse as they would in the real world.
Also read: Cybercrime, Terrorism: Interpol Warns Of New Threats To Emerge In The Metaverse
Artificial intelligence
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Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been all the rave this year. When ChatGPT, an AI model, was opened to the public for trials in November, the world went nuts… and rightly so! The AI model can impressively write content based on your prompts. In addition, many AI based apps like Lensa AI that create art and portraits of users based on their pics also went viral in the second half of 2022. Meta’s AI software learned from humans while providing solutions at the same time, proving that such tools may be employed to improve the lives of humans. Another research claimed that in the future, AI could help us communicate with our pets. While AI’s peak is still far from being realised, it’s moving faster than any of us could have imagined just a few years ago.
Also read: AI Tool Shows How Earth’s 20 Major Cities Would Look After Climate Changes
Cyberattacks
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The new arena of warfare is in the world of the internet. As data protection capabilities become the key signifier of a country’s soft power, many malicious actors are excited to get their hands on people’s personal data. One of the most significant hacks that jolted India took place in the second half – bringing the operations of New Delhi’s All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) to a halt. The alleged ransomware attack was traced to China and things have returned to normal. But this is a sign of the times and countries with weak infrastructure certainly need to invest more in data protection measures. In just the first half of 2022, ransomware attacks increased by 51%, according to SafeHouse Tech.
Are cryptocurrencies dead?
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Analysts always warned that cryptocurrencies would be volatile and unpredictable. But what took off as a must-have for everyone in the aftermath of Covid-19 quickly lost public interest as the world opened up again. But cryptocurrency isn’t dead, for its entirely possible that people could return to the crypto ecosystem soon. But for now, cryptocurrencies do seem relatively deceased. For instance, Bitcoin prices fell by 75% over the year. In addition, FTX, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has also collapsed. But don’t write off cryptocurrencies just yet – it’s always nice to have alternatives!
Also read: Over 80,000 Bitcoin Investors No Longer Millionaires Due To This Year’s Crypto Crash
Robots
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We all love robots, right? The city of San Francisco recently scrapped its plan to allow robots to kill humans, if needed. While all that sounds scary, robots have an array of uses in various industries. Mundane jobs that pay badly and require strenuous human activity could be replaced by specialised robots that are supported by sophisticated AI models to perform those tasks. From robots that are now making French fries to ones that Tesla is building to replace its workforce, the future looks extremely robotic. We also spoke to the world’s most advanced humanoid robot this year – on the benefits of being a robot, taking over the world, and more.
Also read: New Robotic Technology Detects, Treats Lung Cancer Before It Becomes Deadly
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