STANFORD EMERGING TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of computers to perform functions associated with the human brain, including perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting, problem solving, and exercising creativity.

Biotechnology partners with biology to create products and services, like engineering skin microbes to fight cancer or brewing medicines from yeast. This industry, already 5 percent of US GDP, is poised for significant growth.

Cryptography refers to the mathematics of protecting data from being surreptitiously altered or accessed inappropriately. It is essential for most internet activity, including messaging, e-commerce, and banking.

The transition to sustainable energy relies on improving every step of the energy supply chain, from generation to transmission to storage. However, the sheer scale of global energy has two major implications.

From semiconductors in computer chips to plastics in everyday objects, materials are everywhere. Knowing how to synthesize and process them, as well as understanding their structure and properties, has helped to shape the world around us.

A brain-machine interface is a device that maps neural impulses from the brain to a computer and vice versa.

Quantum technologies are based on the physics of quantum mechanics, which emerged early in the twentieth century. While there are many potential technologies based on quantum principles, the three most mature are quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing.

In general, robots are human-made physical entities with ways of sensing themselves or the world around them and the ability to create physical effects on that world—beyond this statement, there is no consensus on the defi ning characteristics of a robot.

Semiconductors, often in the form of microchips, are crucial components in everything from smartphones and cars to advanced weapons and navigation systems used by the military.

By definition, space technology is any technology developed for the purpose of conducting or supporting activities beyond the Kármán line (i.e., one hundred kilometers or sixty-two miles above the Earth’s surface).