AI and textiles: it’s already here

February 26th, 2024

This image relating to digital design was generated using OpenAI’s text-to-image generative AI tool, DALL-E. Provided by Caitlin Knowles/AFFOA. Editor’s note: Two researchers with expertise in advanced technologies—and smart textiles, in particular—responded to questions about artificial intelligence and its future in the industry. Irmandy Wicaksono (IW) is a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab and […]

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AI’s promise for the textiles industry

February 12th, 2024

Image: Dreamstime. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a kitchen table discussion point these days in many households, and it's gained global prominence since serious discussions on this subject surfaced in the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While AI has been touted as an enabler of growth, concerns are surfacing regarding privacy issues and […]

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Catching up to AI

February 12th, 2024

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential influence on virtually every aspect of our lives is now upon us. Exactly what it can do is understood by relatively few. What it will do in the near future and beyond is understood on a continuum with optimists on one end and those sounding the alarm on […]

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Looking ahead: the big picture

January 29th, 2024

Trends in the textile industry are apparently not easy to pin down; market researchers who study trends as a business agree on some, but not all. The degree of detail researched impacts the outcome, of course, and even market niche investigations generate hefty reports. Given the extensive reach of textile materials and products in the […]

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Educated guesswork

January 15th, 2024

On a semi-regular basis, this publication has run a “year in review” feature in January. That may mean the previous year, or it could include the year that’s just begun. This January, it means both. We are starting, logically, with the previous year, but the upcoming feature (“Looking ahead”) may seem like déjà vu all […]

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