SHANGHAI - The year 2021 will go down in the annals as an annus horribilis, but also as the year Artificial intelligence (AI) came into its own. AI is now poised to go from strength-to-strength next year. Apropos of which, The Yuan will present a series of articles next week that offer predictions from some of our top contributors on the direction of growth in 2022 of this transformative technology for your edification and delectation.

In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic raged unabated into its third year, political and social upheaval erupted on a scale unseen since the convulsions of the 1960s and 1970s, climate change-driven droughts sparked unparalleled wildfires on virtually all continents that pumped ever more carbon into the atmosphere in a greenhouse gas spiral-up effect, followed by devastating floods. Hordes of refugees fled poverty, war, famine, and the fallout of climate change in an endless stream to seek a better life in lands of opportunity and political and climatic stability.

AI stood shoulder-to-shoulder with humanity during this apocalyptic year, deploying on all these fronts, and its application seems set to further expand in the new year to help solve these and other intractable