In his eleventh post in the series, Marshall Kirkpatrick focuses on the intersection between artificial intelligence and nanotechnology. By way of reminder, Marshall launched a 30 day series that explores the intersection between AI and the various innovation components on my emerging futures visual.

As he has in each post, Marshall identifies the key subject matter experts that sit at the intersection of AI and the visual component in question. In the case of nanotechnology, the key influencers are: Cyrus Hodes, Hamid Sarraf, Gisele Waters, and Ken Mason. Here is the foresight and related future scenarios identified at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and nanotechnology (taken straight from Marshall’s post):

Nano-AI: Nanotech powered compute hardware could surpass the GPU and lead to big breakthroughs in Deep Learning, enabling stochastic processes even beyond bleeding edge work like that in the press today. Imagine nano-enabled hardware with capabilities beyond IBM’s creation of the world’s first artificial phase-change neurons or Intel’s acquistion of Nervana, a hardware-accelerated deep-learning-as-a-service, an automated software-generating startup that Android creator Andy Rubin’s Playground incubator said when it was acquired “will replace most of the explicitly designed software we use today.” Whoa.

AI Designs Nanotech: AI could design and optimize nanotechnology development, accelerating nano-level manufacture of all kinds of substances.

AI Makes Meat: AI could use nanotechnology to make meat, including human organs for replacement and repair. This could have dramatic life-extension implications, for all people or for the rich.

The intersection analysis that Marshall pursues via his posts is a great example of deriving the foresight required to navigate in this emerging future. The example of nanotechnology shows us how one innovation component accelerates, steers, and amplifies the impact of the other. This phenomenon is one of the drivers of the exponential progression that we are experiencing. Future thinking therefore becomes much more complex and the rehearsal of our emerging future becomes a critical piece of our journey forward.The other posts in the series on AI and intersections can be found via the links below:

• 3D Printing
• Food
• Fintech
• Mobile and Cloud
• Renewable Energy
• Genomics
• Blockchain
• Internet of Things
• Autonomous Vehicles