RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Technology to defeat hackers, counterfeiters and ocean pollution as well as improved artificial intelligence and the advent of quantum computing are coming. So says IBM.

Big Blue scientists say blockchain, a new form of cryptography, two aspects of artificial intelligence and quantum computing will be the next “5 in 5” innovations that will change our lives. The tech giant’s top thinkers make their “5” predictions annually, and the latest unveiled today will be discussed in detail at IBM’s big event Think 2018 in Las Vegas.

These five advances are “a reaffirmation of technology’s role as a force for good in a world that desperately needs it,” head of IBM research Arvind Krishna wrote in a blog post.

“Society’s ability to overcome intractable challenges and unprecedented threats depends on steady advancements in technologies like AI, blockchain, lattice cryptography and quantum computing – all of which IBM Research has invested in heavily. We have our scientists to thank for making this essential progress possible – and for giving us powerful systems we can trust that enable us to look with renewed hope to the future.”

Here are snapshots of the top five picks:

Nobody likes knockoffs. Crypto-anchors and blockchain will unite against counterfeiters.

Within the next five years, cryptographic anchors — such as ink dots or tiny computers smaller than a grain of salt — will be embedded in everyday objects and devices. They’ll be used in tandem with blockchain’s distributed ledger technology to ensure an object’s authenticity from its point of origin to when it reaches the hands of the customer. These technologies pave the way for new solutions that tackle food safety, authenticity of manufactured components, genetically modified products, identification of counterfeit objects and provenance of luxury goods.

Hackers gonna hack. Until they encounter lattice cryptography.

IBM is developing encryption methods to keep pace with emerging technologies such as quantum computers, which will someday be able to break all current encryption protocols. IBM researchers have already developed a post-quantum encryption method, which we’ve submitted to the U.S. government – called lattice cryptography. No computer can crack it, not even future quantum computers. With lattice cryptography we can work on a file, or encrypt it, without ever exposing sensitive data to hackers.

Our oceans are dirty. AI-powered robot microscopes may save them.

In five years, small, autonomous AI microscopes, networked in the cloud and deployed around the world, will continually monitor in real time the health of one of Earth’s most important and threatened resources: water. IBM scientists are working on an approach that uses plankton, which are natural, biological sensors of aquatic health. AI microscopes can be placed in bodies of water to track plankton movement in 3D, in their natural environment, and use this information to predict their behavior and health. This could help in situations like oil spills and runoff from land-based pollution sources, and to predict threats such as red tides.

AI bias will explode. But only the unbiased AI will survive.

Within five years, we will have new solutions to counter a substantial increase in the number of biased AI systems and algorithms. As we work to develop AI systems we can trust, it’s critical to develop and train these systems with data that is fair, interpretable and free of racial, gender, or ideological biases. With this goal in mind, IBM researchers developed a method to reduce the bias that may be present in a training dataset, such that any AI algorithm that later learns from that dataset will perpetuate as little inequity as possible. IBM scientists also devised a way to test AI systems even when the training data is not available.

Today, quantum computing is a researcher’s playground. In five years, it will be mainstream.

In five years, quantum computing will be used extensively by new categories of professionals and developers to solve problems once considered unsolvable. Quantum will be ubiquitous in university classrooms, and will even be available, to some degree, at the high school level. IBM Researchers are already achieving major quantum chemistry milestones. They successfully simulated atomic bonding in beryllium hydride (BeH2), the most complex molecule ever simulated by a quantum computer. In the future, quantum computers will continue to address problems with ever increasing complexity, eventually catching up to and surpassing what we can do with classical machines alone.

How accurate have IBM researchers been in making previous predictions? Take a look online at past 5-in-5 picks.

IBM employs several thousand people across North Carolina.