How multimodal learning is set to transform AI

The total installed base of devices with Artificial Intelligence (AI) will grow from 2.7 billion in 2019 to 4.5 billion in 2024, forecasts global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. There are billions of petabytes of data flowing through these AI devices every day; the challenge now facing both technology companies and implementers is getting all these devices to learn, think, and work together. According to a recent whitepaper from ABI Research, Artificial Intelligence Meets Business Intelligence, multimodal learning is the key to making this happen, and it's fast becoming one of the most exciting -- and potentially transformative -- fields of artificial intelligence. "Multimodal learning consolidates disconnected, heterogeneous data from various sensors and data inputs into a single model," says ABI Research chief research officer Stuart Carlaw. "Learning-based methods that combine signals from different modalities can generate more robust inference, or even new insights, which would be impossible in a unimodal system."