Innovative applications disrupt unexpected industries
From becoming the centerpiece of a public university system’s curriculum to enhancing the automated bus lanes to improve traffic in Santa Monica to analyzing large-scale biological information to prevent diseases, AI innovations are making surprising inroads across a wide range of industries.
These applications go beyond efficiency. They’re reshaping workflows, decision-making and even the human experience. Here are a few AI-driven solutions designed to enhance work and life in a number of surprising ways.
AI-Driven Micro-Analytics for Drug, Agriculture, Food, Beverage and Cosmetics Development
Los Angeles-based Athos Therapeutics, Inc., an AI software and clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of precision small molecule therapeutics for patients with immune-mediated diseases, announced the launch of a new website that details “Athos Omics AI,” a novel and impactful data platform for analyzing omics data across industries.
Omics analysis refers to processing large-scale biological information derived from genes, RNA, proteins and metabolites. An “ome” is a complete set of such information – for example, the genome for genes and the transcriptome for RNA. With a stated mission of “automating, harmonizing, accelerating and democratizing multi-omics data analysis and solutions across industries,” Athos Omics AI brings multiple no-code, agentic AI software solutions to the growing field of omics analysis. The platform can computationally analyze raw, or pre-processed, omics data to produce clear, actionable outputs.
“This platform has been used in-house at Athos to discover 18 novel drug targets, to date, across various unmet medical needs. Importantly, years before human testing began, Athos Omics AI accurately predicted the exact mechanisms of action for our lead clinical program, which is now entering a Phase 2 clinical trial in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” said Dimitrios Iliopoulos, PhD, MBA, founder, president & CEO of Athos. “This incredibly powerful no-code software platform is now ready to be deployed across any industry that generates omics data.”
Tackling Bus Lane Slowdowns, Preventing Obstructions and Improving Traffic Flow
Two more local cities – Santa Monica and West Hollywood – will deploy Hayden AI’s game-changing automated transit enforcement platform. This innovative technology will tackle the growing issue of illegally parked vehicles obstructing bus lanes and bus stops, making public transit safer, more efficient and more reliable for millions of L.A.-area commuters. The cities join the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and Culver City in using the AI-driven solution to revolutionize how public transportation is delivered.
For Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus, this rollout follows the success of a 2023 pilot program where Hayden AI technology was tested on two buses. The results were eye-opening: 7.7 violations per bus per day, amounting to 606 violations over just 45 days. This highlighted the urgent need for automated enforcement, especially as research has shown that keeping bus lanes clear can speed up bus travel times by 20-28% during peak hours, improving rider satisfaction and even boosting ridership by 2-9%.
Santa Monica’s Director of Transportation, Anuj Gupta, said: “Even a single vehicle blocking a bus lane can lead to significant delays, missed connections and frustration for riders who depend on our service. By ensuring bus lanes remain clear, we enhance the efficiency of our multimodal transportation network and keep Santa Monica’s residents and visitors moving safely, efficiently and comfortably.”
AI-Supported Learning for an Entire University System
The California State University (CSU) system has announced a first-of-its-kind public-private initiative with some of the world’s leading tech companies, including Adobe, Alphabet (Google), AWS, IBM, Instructure, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI and the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, that will leverage the power of artificial intelligence to create an AI-empowered higher education system that could surpass any existing model in both scale and impact.
The CSU’s unprecedented adoption of AI technologies will make training, learning and teaching tools – including ChatGPT – available across all 23 CSU universities, ensuring that the system’s more than 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff have equitable access to cutting-edge AI tools that will prepare them to meet the rapidly changing education and workforce needs of California.
At the heart of this groundbreaking effort is the AI Workforce Acceleration Board, a collaboration with nearly a dozen of the world’s leading tech companies and Governor Newsom’s Office that will identify and advocate for AI skills needed in California’s workforce and its economy. The advisory board will also include CSU representatives who will collectively work to foster innovation and drive interdisciplinary practical applications of AI by organizing a series of AI challenges.
These events will be guided by the advisory board and encourage CSU students and faculty to work together on pressing issues such as climate change and housing affordability, leveraging AI technologies to create impactful solutions. The CSU expects to add more tech companies to the advisory board in the coming months.
-Paul Williams
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