The concept of rejuvenating our bodies through the use of stem cells is no longer a foreign idea. It comes with a degree of controversy as clinics offering stem cell treatment are popping up across the world making promises to cure diseases, restore joints, ease arthritis, and cure cancer. That promise remains tantalizing because the idea to be able to regenerate any damaged tissue in you using cells from you seems fantastic.

Why is the promise of stem cells possible?

The human body is unbelievably smart. It can recognize foreign cells and organ rejection can occur even in cases when a donor is considered to be a near-perfect match to the patient. But grow an identical heart derived from the patient’s own cells, and the results may be different. So in a world where technology is evolving to accommodate anything’s possible, why not tissue regeneration.

When did we take the first regenerative medicine steps?

It first started in 1954 with the first kidney transplant. And today, according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, there are 1,060 clinical trials and 900 companies globally focused on this field. Here’s an idea of what financing for the industry currently looks like:

Are Regenerative and Personalized Medicine One in the Same? 

Not quite. Regenerative is a subset of personalized medicine, an approach that attempts to tailor-fit treatment to an individual. It is a departure from the current practice by physicians and biomedical companies of “one-size-fits-all” medicine. It could mean tailoring or developing a unique drug treatment to match a person’s DNA. With regenerative medicine the treatment is designed to allow the body to repair itself through cell, tissue, and organ replacement. The treatments are hyper-customized using a patient’s own stem cells. As you can imagine, getting this type of treatment to scale is proving to be pretty expensive. But its promise has lured close to one thousand companies to work in the field as can be seen in the graphic displayed below.

Treatments Made Possible by Regenerative and Personalized Medicine

The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine has compiled the clinical trials by medical category. The largest number are devoted to oncology followed by heart and circulatory diseases, diseases of the central nervous system, and musculoskeletal diseases. A visual breakdown of trials can be seen in the image below:

Treatments currently on the leading edge include:

1. Reprogramming cells to fight disease. Through cellular immunotherapy, doctors are capable of altering white blood cells to attack and kill a patient’s cancer cells. Done by reprogramming cellular DNA, the treatment is succeeding with patients experiencing 100% recovery. As of 2019, this field of gene and gene-modified therapy is enjoying financing to the tune of $2.1 billion with funds for 374 ongoing clinical trials worldwide.
2. Disease-modeling and treatment personalization. Research at Harvard’s Stem Cell Institute has reached the point where researchers are using stem cells to create tissues or organs identical to those of a patient. The ability to grow complex cultures called organoids is allowing scientists to observe disease onset and test treatments. They are examining the effects on organoids to tailor-fit treatment to the patient. The research and clinical trials are showing promise but to date, only 46 clinical trials are ongoing globally with financing capped at $14 million as of 2019.
3. Regenerative surgery. Tissue engineering using stem cells and artificially made scaffolds is allowing scientists to maintain or restore damaged tissues and even entire organs. A great example of this is being deployed to repair damaged cartilage in knees and in treating degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis. As of 2019, this branch of regenerative medicine has grown into an $823 million industry with 268 clinical trials currently ongoing around the world, the majority of them already in Phase II.

Regenerative is just getting started

As exciting as this burgeoning field is, the high cost involved and the cutting-edge nature of the technology is holding the field back. But the data shows that things are looking up. Research and Markets predicts a staggering 23.35% compound annual growth by 2022 compared to 2016 numbers. And experts forecast growth to $66 billion annually.

Why not? Lowered risks, minimally invasive procedures, and more efficient disease treatment and prevention should eventually guarantee lower costs and higher recovery and cure rates. Just what insurers, hospitals, and doctors want.

AI has reached a point where it can replicate human behaviour more accurately than ever before. There are not only supercomputers capable of playing chess and poker better than humans, but also even more advanced AI bots that drive cars, perform medical operations, and analyze mountains of data to make new discoveries faster and better than any human. Today, AI software has the ability to learn by itself and correct mistakes without additional programming.

The result is the US is investing $10 billion in new AI venture capital. China has grown its AI patents by 190% in the past few years. Russia is exploring AI’s military capability with an estimated 30% of its equipment incorporating some sort of AI by 2025.

The AI software market has grown dramatically in the last three years, and some projections show that this growth will accelerate from a market worth only $1.4 billion in 2016 to one that will hit close to $60 billion annually by 2025.

AI will impact the global job market significantly. AI is ready to replace human labor in a number of industries, and it is estimated that more than 30% of U.S. jobs may be at risk within the next 10 years.

The AI revolution comes with many benefits. It will help us eliminate online cyber attacks, minimize auto fatalities and accidents, provide for better education, healthcare, agriculture, and more. And since there is a lot more about the AI revolution to write about, this infographic depicting many more details about it should whet your appetite to learn more.

Smart homes, smart bots, smartphones.

Everything seems to be getting a mind of its own nowadays. But do you need a Smart Home and a Smart Bot? Don’t they basically fulfill the same function? Hopefully, what follows will help you sort out the differences and assist you in a buying decision.

What is a Smart Bot?

A Smart Bot is a robot fitted with communication abilities. Humans and digital devices with a communication interface interact with it. Smart bots are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI). AI enables them to learn from both their environment and their experiences. Smart bots build knowledge this way and they don’t necessarily look like the humanoid robots of science fiction.

What is a Smart Home?

A Smart Homes contains a collection of smart devices including smart bots. A Smart Home is outfitted with sensors that communicate through the Internet or local wireless interfaces with you and the smart devices contained within and around it. Appliances in a Smart Home use the Wi-Fi network you may have installed for your computers and printers. And the products that make up a Smart Home also are increasingly equipped with AI enhanced features.

So Aren’t the Two Almost the Same?

On the surface, these smart inventions seem very much alike. But in fact their DNA and fingerprints differ. The Smart Home and Smart Bot both use AI but may use it differently. The smart appliances and equipment in a Smart Home are designed to perform within the constraint of their functions. The smart fridge still cools and the smart oven still cooks.

But Smart Bots or more than a basic appliance. They come with an AI on board that allows them to learn from the surrounding environment and through activities shown them. Smart Bots can interact with Smart Home appliances without humans present. That’s because they can talk to each other through the Internet or a local network interface. A Smart Bot can end up operating the smart appliances in your Smart Home.

Are These Technologies Nice to Have or Necessities?

For people with disability, or for an aging population, these technologies provide real value. If you need help with repeatable routine activities then a home outfitted with smart appliances makes sense. But if you need technology to learn from you about more complex tasks that may change over time, then Smart Bots may be a worthwhile investment.

Here are some Pros and Cons to Consider

Smart Home Pros

• currently, the devices and appliances to make a Smart Home are individually cheaper than buying a Smart Bot.
• there are millions of 3rd party apps and other types of support to choose from to enhance your Smart Home.
• service centers and after purchase help for smart appliances are readily available.

Smart Home Cons

• usefulness is dependent on the number of smart appliances and sensors installed in the home.
• owning one smart appliance doesn’t make for a Smart Home experience so you need to invest in many devices to achieve the Smart Home end result.
• getting all your smart components to communicate and interact may require you to hire someone with the expertise to make it all work.

Smart Bot Pros

• can be trained to perform sophisticated multi-step tasks.
• in many cases are generalists capable of being multipurpose.
• often are mobile and therefore can change locality as needed for different tasks within a home.
• can operate and function doing tasks whether smart appliances or other bots are present or not.

Smart Bot Cons

• individually are more expensive than many smart appliances and other Smart Home products.
• help with Smart Bots can be harder to find with fewer dealers, service centers and post-sale experts available when your bot isn’t doing what you need it to do.

This Town Is Big Enough For Both Of Them

You need to decide what your requirements are and then pick one of these technologies or both. They can co-exist and more than likely, in the not-too-distant future, Smart Homes will be run by a Smart Bot.

The topic he has chosen to share with us looks at how applying artificial intelligence (AI) to poker could lead to advances in the fields of security management, banking, and other fields. Now, normally I’m the last guy to look at betting applications and their significance. I don’t gamble. I don’t buy lottery tickets. And I have deep concerns about the government using gambling to raise funds largely from those who can least afford to see their money taken by those promoting a false narrative.

But this infographic is intriguing in so many ways and fits very well as a follow-up to a prior blog post written back on January 9, 2017, describing Carnegie Mellon University’s project aimed at showing how an AI system built to play poker could compete with 4 of the world’s best professional players. You’ll find mention of it in the infographic.