The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released its top ten emerging technologies for 2016. According to it, all these innovations will significantly transform our lives shortly. However, from Open AI Ecosystem, Autonomous vehicles to Nanosensors and the Internet of Nano things, these emerging technologies imply more than tech solutions.
WEF’s top ten emerging technologies list are compiled by the Forum’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies and published in collaboration with Scientific American. Their intention is to raise awareness around likely influential technologies, so companies know where to invest. This is an excellent opportunity to analyses the benefits and risks these new technologies will bring to the world.
Autonomous vehicles will bring a significant change in traffic and the way we will be transported from a place to another. However, the question is whether this new technology will or not withstand sharing the road with careless human drivers.
Open artificial intelligent ecosystems, another transformative platform, is in the game. By listening, understanding, and reproducing human language, this emerging technology will have a lot to say about the interaction between robots and people in the future. Amazon’s Echo, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana are good examples of how far Artificial intelligence’s development has advanced. Nowadays, these devices help users to look for restaurants, get driving directions as well as controlling other devices like washer machines. However, could all of them provide discretion and loyalty about one’s personal information? Right now, users need to make sure the information they share is not available for everyone.
Nanosensors and the Internet of Nano things
The Nanosensors and the Internet of Nano things are on top of the list. Although Nanosensors have been already used in medicine, these tiny pieces are expected to use the Internet to transfer enormous amounts of data in other fields such as architecture, agriculture and drug manufacture.
However, in his article “How risky are the World Economic Forum’s top ten emerging technologies for 2016,” published in the Huffington post, Andrew Maynard says that “internet-connected nan-sensors” revealing people’s most intimate biological details to the world could bring social and psychological risks that cannot only be fixed with technology.
This is also similar to issue with Open AI ecosystems: It is uncertain if the information to be shared with these technologies will remain privet or not.
Even if these emerging technologies positively change people’s lifestyle in the next couple of years, it should not be underestimated the new positive and negative challenges they introduce as well.
“Technology has a critical role to play in addressing each of the major challenges the world faces, yet it also poses significant economic and social risks. As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is vital that we develop shared norms and protocols to ensure that technology serves humanity and contributes to a prosperous and sustainable future,” said Jeremy Jurgens, Chief Information and Interaction Officer, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum.
Source: Huffington Post