8 trends that set the (frenetic) pace at which technology moves today

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Technology , which is evolving at an absolutely frenetic pace, has a major influence on practically every corner of our lives . There is practically no vital crevice that escapes the powerful influence of technology.

Yet technology is also deeply multifaceted, providing shelter to a plethora of trends. At the SXSX conference, the Future Today Institute (FTI) dissected the 16 most exciting technology trends of the moment . And here are the technology trends FTI has compiled that are likely to have the most impact on the marketing and advertising industry.

Web3
Web3 refers to decentralized applications that are primarily anchored in blockchain technology. This is the case, for example, with cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The idea behind Web3 is to give users more responsibility in the digital ecosystem than individual technology companies. In its report, FTI highlights the economic challenges that the crypto market has faced over the past 18 months, but also emphasizes that the technological infrastructure of this market has made substantial progress. And by relying on private blockchain networks, companies can significantly boost their business.

Metaverse
Like many other tech sectors, the metaverse is benefiting greatly from rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). In 2022, the metaverse was the center of a real hype that catapulted it to stardom, a stardom that would later be overshadowed by the arrival of AI on the scene. Even so, Meta still has its sights firmly set on the metaverse, which in recent months has seen multiple advances thanks to AI (through the creation of hyper-realistic avatars, for example). According to FTI, the Apple Vision Pro glasses and Meta Quest 3 are the most recent examples of the blessed intersection of the metaverse and AI. And in the future, much more personalized experiences geared towards the metaverse that will be controlled by AI will emerge on the horizon.

News / Information
The way we search for news and consume information will change forever with the emergence of generative AI, FTI stresses in its study. The value chain in the media will be irrevocably transformed by the use of AI-powered text and video tools, as they will make it easier to produce engaging content. However, with the arrival of AI on the scene, the authentication of data and images that make their way into the media is also more important than ever . In addition, the results lists returned by the Google search engine, whose algorithm has already noticeably reduced the visibility of news websites, are set to be replaced by AI-generated summaries.

Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence ( AI) is widely regarded as the most important technological development of the present and the future, and it is permeating all industries with force . And although large language models (LLM) have been the most in the spotlight in the AI ​​arena to date, in the future it will be large action models (LAM) that will lead the way in this field of activity. LAMs are applications that use AI to anticipate human actions based on large amounts of data. These types of models, however, entail quite a few risks, according to FTI. And to prevent technology companies from continuing to act as “gatekeepers” of the collections of data born from the womb of AI, it is important that open source AI becomes the standard in the coming years in this industry.

Energy / Climate
The issue of climate change remains extremely complex in many areas, including in the technology sector. Thanks to new ESG regulations, companies are already investing much more in initiatives focused on environmental protection and social responsibility and are reporting on these initiatives in a very transparent manner, although regulatory pressure is also fuelling greenwashing . What is beyond doubt is that energy and climate technologies have great transformative potential and provide technology companies with the incentive to break into new markets.

Mobility
Electrification is driving change in all areas of mobility. According to FTI, this area of ​​activity, which also includes robots and drones, is seeing major advances in intelligent mobility-related systems. However, it will sti bosnia and herzegovina whatsapp data l be a long way off before fully autonomous systems are widely available (particularly in the automotive industry). As for robots, the dream of them eventually being able to replace real humans remains a pipe dream, as they can currently only perform a limited range of tasks. Drones are more advanced, however, and autonomous systems have made great strides in their development.

Entertainment
Following a strike last year, actors in the American union SAG-AFTRA are now contractually protected against any spurious use of AI by Hollywood studios. And the deliberately vague language in the agreement that makes this protection of actors from AI possible is probably necessary given the unclear potential of artificial intelligence for the entertainment industry today. According to FTI, AI democratises creativity, but it is also generating an overabundance of video content created from text prompts. With AI at its side, the industry can potentially boost sustainability and also open up new avenues for monetisation.

Computing
According to FTI, the relationship between humans and computers is in some ways at the mercy of a vicious circle. Humans create computers to improve their productivity, which ultimately enables them to develop more advanced machines . FTI sees an increasing fusion of the two entities, which somehow feed off each other. Many researchers are actually experimenting with new computing architectures inspired by the structure of the human brain. And there are already experiments underway with so-called organoid intelligence, which uses human brain cells as computers.