Assessing Technology Readiness Levels for Artificial Intelligence

The new AI Watch report “Assessing Technology Readiness Levels for Artificial Intelligence” aims to define the maturity of an illustrative set of AI technologies through the use of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) assessment.

Key points

• Novel exemplar-based methodology to categorise and assess the maturity levels for several AI research and development technologies, by mapping them onto Technology Readiness Levels (TRL).
• Interpretation of the nine TRLs (introduced by NASA and adapted by the EU) in the context of AI, and systematic application to different categories in AI, by choosing one or two exemplars in each category.
• Development of new bidimensional plots (readiness-vs-generality charts) as a trade-off between how open-ended a technology is versus its readiness level.
• Discussion about the future of AI as a transformative technology and how the readiness-vs-generality charts are useful for short-term and mid-term forecasting.

Full report