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The Impact of Technology on Our Lives

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Published: Jan 29, 2024

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Impact on communication, effects on education, influence on work and productivity, influence on health and well-being, impact on society.

• Anderson, M., & Perrin, A. (2017, May 19). Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults. Pew Research Center - Internet and Technology. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/05/17/technology-use-among-seniors/
• Brown, A. E., & Tiggemann, M. (2016). Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women’s mood and body image. Body Image, 19, 37-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.09.008
• Chen, Q., Liang, Y., & Deng, C. (2019). The effects of WeChat use on mental health among college students in China. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(12), 724-730. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0216
• Kim, L. E., & Caine, K. E. (2014). Help-seeking behavior in the context of suicidal ideation: A study of Facebook users. Journal of Affective Disorders, 155, 49-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2013.10.043

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How Tech Has Changed Our Lives In The Last 10 Years

Several tech experts weigh in on the technologies of the past decade that had the greatest impact on society.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Ari Shapiro. And...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

MICHELE NORRIS: I'm Michele Norris.

MELISSA BLOCK: I'm Melissa Block, and it's time now for All Tech Considered.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SHAPIRO: That is how the first All Tech Considered of the decade began on January 4, 2010. Sad to say, Michele and Melissa are not here in the studio with me this Christmas Day. A lot has changed since then - hosts of this program and technology.

In a minute, we'll look ahead to the next decade in tech. Before we do, let's revisit this one. We asked three experts to pick what they see as the most significant ways tech has changed our lives since 2009. The most obvious advancement was the smartphone. They were around in 2009, but now 81% of Americans own one. And technology reporter Omar Gallaga says they've almost become an appendage.

OMAR GALLAGA: I was in a restaurant over the weekend, and, you know, just across from me, a woman's phone was going off every five seconds. You know, I heard a chime or an alert - you know, different alerts out of her phone every - and I'm, like, how is she functioning as a human in this world? You know, she didn't even notice that those alerts were going off. I mean, that's how much a part of her life they must be, so...

SHAPIRO: And it's not just the phones. Gallaga's daughters, who are 10 and 12, have tablets. He says kids these days just go through life differently from a decade ago.

GALLAGA: When you see kids at the doctor's office looking at magazines, and they're trying to, like, you know, scroll the page (laughter), the print page - like, yeah. Yep, that's an iPad kid right there.

SHAPIRO: Next, we turn to Erin Hatton. She is an associate professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo. And for her, the most significant change of the decade is something that would not have been possible without the smartphone - it's the gig economy, enabled by apps like Uber, TaskRabbit and Airbnb. Hatton says they've redefined what it is to be a worker.

ERIN HATTON: I think that this work has started new conversations between workers and across sectors in rethinking what it means to be a worker and potentially rethinking what kinds of benefits and protections we attach to work.

SHAPIRO: Beyond our daily lives or our work, tech in the last decade has also shaped what we believe to be true. Sometimes we know we're being faked, like in Martin Scorsese's movie "The Irishman." Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who are both in their 70s, look much younger thanks to technology. In some scenes, they're in their 40s.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE IRISHMAN")

JOE PESCI: (As Russell Bufalino) What's the problem, kid?

ROBERT DE NIRO: (As Frank Sheeran) I don't know. It sounds funny - stops and starts and loses power.

PESCI: (As Russell Bufalino) I can give you a hand.

SHAPIRO: It's believable. Of course, there is a darker side of this technology, too. Michael Fink is a professor of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, and he says it's easier than ever before to manipulate videos and make it seem like something happened when it never did.

MICHAEL FINK: The software has become so powerful that things can be altered, changed, modified so quickly that people would think, oh, my god. That has to be real. It just happened. And that's not true. The reality is fungible. It can be used by dark forces - let's put it that way - people with absolutely nothing but malevolence at the core of their being. And it's scary.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Promises and Pitfalls of Technology

Politics and privacy, private-sector influence and big tech, state competition and conflict, author biography, how is technology changing the world, and how should the world change technology.

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Josephine Wolff; How Is Technology Changing the World, and How Should the World Change Technology?. Global Perspectives 1 February 2021; 2 (1): 27353. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2021.27353

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Technologies are becoming increasingly complicated and increasingly interconnected. Cars, airplanes, medical devices, financial transactions, and electricity systems all rely on more computer software than they ever have before, making them seem both harder to understand and, in some cases, harder to control. Government and corporate surveillance of individuals and information processing relies largely on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, and therefore involves less human-to-human contact than ever before and more opportunities for biases to be embedded and codified in our technological systems in ways we may not even be able to identify or recognize. Bioengineering advances are opening up new terrain for challenging philosophical, political, and economic questions regarding human-natural relations. Additionally, the management of these large and small devices and systems is increasingly done through the cloud, so that control over them is both very remote and removed from direct human or social control. The study of how to make technologies like artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things “explainable” has become its own area of research because it is so difficult to understand how they work or what is at fault when something goes wrong (Gunning and Aha 2019) .

This growing complexity makes it more difficult than ever—and more imperative than ever—for scholars to probe how technological advancements are altering life around the world in both positive and negative ways and what social, political, and legal tools are needed to help shape the development and design of technology in beneficial directions. This can seem like an impossible task in light of the rapid pace of technological change and the sense that its continued advancement is inevitable, but many countries around the world are only just beginning to take significant steps toward regulating computer technologies and are still in the process of radically rethinking the rules governing global data flows and exchange of technology across borders.

These are exciting times not just for technological development but also for technology policy—our technologies may be more advanced and complicated than ever but so, too, are our understandings of how they can best be leveraged, protected, and even constrained. The structures of technological systems as determined largely by government and institutional policies and those structures have tremendous implications for social organization and agency, ranging from open source, open systems that are highly distributed and decentralized, to those that are tightly controlled and closed, structured according to stricter and more hierarchical models. And just as our understanding of the governance of technology is developing in new and interesting ways, so, too, is our understanding of the social, cultural, environmental, and political dimensions of emerging technologies. We are realizing both the challenges and the importance of mapping out the full range of ways that technology is changing our society, what we want those changes to look like, and what tools we have to try to influence and guide those shifts.

Technology can be a source of tremendous optimism. It can help overcome some of the greatest challenges our society faces, including climate change, famine, and disease. For those who believe in the power of innovation and the promise of creative destruction to advance economic development and lead to better quality of life, technology is a vital economic driver (Schumpeter 1942) . But it can also be a tool of tremendous fear and oppression, embedding biases in automated decision-making processes and information-processing algorithms, exacerbating economic and social inequalities within and between countries to a staggering degree, or creating new weapons and avenues for attack unlike any we have had to face in the past. Scholars have even contended that the emergence of the term technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a shift from viewing individual pieces of machinery as a means to achieving political and social progress to the more dangerous, or hazardous, view that larger-scale, more complex technological systems were a semiautonomous form of progress in and of themselves (Marx 2010) . More recently, technologists have sharply criticized what they view as a wave of new Luddites, people intent on slowing the development of technology and turning back the clock on innovation as a means of mitigating the societal impacts of technological change (Marlowe 1970) .

At the heart of fights over new technologies and their resulting global changes are often two conflicting visions of technology: a fundamentally optimistic one that believes humans use it as a tool to achieve greater goals, and a fundamentally pessimistic one that holds that technological systems have reached a point beyond our control. Technology philosophers have argued that neither of these views is wholly accurate and that a purely optimistic or pessimistic view of technology is insufficient to capture the nuances and complexity of our relationship to technology (Oberdiek and Tiles 1995) . Understanding technology and how we can make better decisions about designing, deploying, and refining it requires capturing that nuance and complexity through in-depth analysis of the impacts of different technological advancements and the ways they have played out in all their complicated and controversial messiness across the world.

These impacts are often unpredictable as technologies are adopted in new contexts and come to be used in ways that sometimes diverge significantly from the use cases envisioned by their designers. The internet, designed to help transmit information between computer networks, became a crucial vehicle for commerce, introducing unexpected avenues for crime and financial fraud. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, designed to connect friends and families through sharing photographs and life updates, became focal points of election controversies and political influence. Cryptocurrencies, originally intended as a means of decentralized digital cash, have become a significant environmental hazard as more and more computing resources are devoted to mining these forms of virtual money. One of the crucial challenges in this area is therefore recognizing, documenting, and even anticipating some of these unexpected consequences and providing mechanisms to technologists for how to think through the impacts of their work, as well as possible other paths to different outcomes (Verbeek 2006) . And just as technological innovations can cause unexpected harm, they can also bring about extraordinary benefits—new vaccines and medicines to address global pandemics and save thousands of lives, new sources of energy that can drastically reduce emissions and help combat climate change, new modes of education that can reach people who would otherwise have no access to schooling. Regulating technology therefore requires a careful balance of mitigating risks without overly restricting potentially beneficial innovations.

Nations around the world have taken very different approaches to governing emerging technologies and have adopted a range of different technologies themselves in pursuit of more modern governance structures and processes (Braman 2009) . In Europe, the precautionary principle has guided much more anticipatory regulation aimed at addressing the risks presented by technologies even before they are fully realized. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation focuses on the responsibilities of data controllers and processors to provide individuals with access to their data and information about how that data is being used not just as a means of addressing existing security and privacy threats, such as data breaches, but also to protect against future developments and uses of that data for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making purposes. In Germany, Technische Überwachungsvereine, or TÜVs, perform regular tests and inspections of technological systems to assess and minimize risks over time, as the tech landscape evolves. In the United States, by contrast, there is much greater reliance on litigation and liability regimes to address safety and security failings after-the-fact. These different approaches reflect not just the different legal and regulatory mechanisms and philosophies of different nations but also the different ways those nations prioritize rapid development of the technology industry versus safety, security, and individual control. Typically, governance innovations move much more slowly than technological innovations, and regulations can lag years, or even decades, behind the technologies they aim to govern.

In addition to this varied set of national regulatory approaches, a variety of international and nongovernmental organizations also contribute to the process of developing standards, rules, and norms for new technologies, including the International Organization for Standardization­ and the International Telecommunication Union. These multilateral and NGO actors play an especially important role in trying to define appropriate boundaries for the use of new technologies by governments as instruments of control for the state.

At the same time that policymakers are under scrutiny both for their decisions about how to regulate technology as well as their decisions about how and when to adopt technologies like facial recognition themselves, technology firms and designers have also come under increasing criticism. Growing recognition that the design of technologies can have far-reaching social and political implications means that there is more pressure on technologists to take into consideration the consequences of their decisions early on in the design process (Vincenti 1993; Winner 1980) . The question of how technologists should incorporate these social dimensions into their design and development processes is an old one, and debate on these issues dates back to the 1970s, but it remains an urgent and often overlooked part of the puzzle because so many of the supposedly systematic mechanisms for assessing the impacts of new technologies in both the private and public sectors are primarily bureaucratic, symbolic processes rather than carrying any real weight or influence.

Technologists are often ill-equipped or unwilling to respond to the sorts of social problems that their creations have—often unwittingly—exacerbated, and instead point to governments and lawmakers to address those problems (Zuckerberg 2019) . But governments often have few incentives to engage in this area. This is because setting clear standards and rules for an ever-evolving technological landscape can be extremely challenging, because enforcement of those rules can be a significant undertaking requiring considerable expertise, and because the tech sector is a major source of jobs and revenue for many countries that may fear losing those benefits if they constrain companies too much. This indicates not just a need for clearer incentives and better policies for both private- and public-sector entities but also a need for new mechanisms whereby the technology development and design process can be influenced and assessed by people with a wider range of experiences and expertise. If we want technologies to be designed with an eye to their impacts, who is responsible for predicting, measuring, and mitigating those impacts throughout the design process? Involving policymakers in that process in a more meaningful way will also require training them to have the analytic and technical capacity to more fully engage with technologists and understand more fully the implications of their decisions.

At the same time that tech companies seem unwilling or unable to rein in their creations, many also fear they wield too much power, in some cases all but replacing governments and international organizations in their ability to make decisions that affect millions of people worldwide and control access to information, platforms, and audiences (Kilovaty 2020) . Regulators around the world have begun considering whether some of these companies have become so powerful that they violate the tenets of antitrust laws, but it can be difficult for governments to identify exactly what those violations are, especially in the context of an industry where the largest players often provide their customers with free services. And the platforms and services developed by tech companies are often wielded most powerfully and dangerously not directly by their private-sector creators and operators but instead by states themselves for widespread misinformation campaigns that serve political purposes (Nye 2018) .

Since the largest private entities in the tech sector operate in many countries, they are often better poised to implement global changes to the technological ecosystem than individual states or regulatory bodies, creating new challenges to existing governance structures and hierarchies. Just as it can be challenging to provide oversight for government use of technologies, so, too, oversight of the biggest tech companies, which have more resources, reach, and power than many nations, can prove to be a daunting task. The rise of network forms of organization and the growing gig economy have added to these challenges, making it even harder for regulators to fully address the breadth of these companies’ operations (Powell 1990) . The private-public partnerships that have emerged around energy, transportation, medical, and cyber technologies further complicate this picture, blurring the line between the public and private sectors and raising critical questions about the role of each in providing critical infrastructure, health care, and security. How can and should private tech companies operating in these different sectors be governed, and what types of influence do they exert over regulators? How feasible are different policy proposals aimed at technological innovation, and what potential unintended consequences might they have?

Conflict between countries has also spilled over significantly into the private sector in recent years, most notably in the case of tensions between the United States and China over which technologies developed in each country will be permitted by the other and which will be purchased by other customers, outside those two countries. Countries competing to develop the best technology is not a new phenomenon, but the current conflicts have major international ramifications and will influence the infrastructure that is installed and used around the world for years to come. Untangling the different factors that feed into these tussles as well as whom they benefit and whom they leave at a disadvantage is crucial for understanding how governments can most effectively foster technological innovation and invention domestically as well as the global consequences of those efforts. As much of the world is forced to choose between buying technology from the United States or from China, how should we understand the long-term impacts of those choices and the options available to people in countries without robust domestic tech industries? Does the global spread of technologies help fuel further innovation in countries with smaller tech markets, or does it reinforce the dominance of the states that are already most prominent in this sector? How can research universities maintain global collaborations and research communities in light of these national competitions, and what role does government research and development spending play in fostering innovation within its own borders and worldwide? How should intellectual property protections evolve to meet the demands of the technology industry, and how can those protections be enforced globally?

These conflicts between countries sometimes appear to challenge the feasibility of truly global technologies and networks that operate across all countries through standardized protocols and design features. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and many others have tried to harmonize these policies and protocols across different countries for years, but have met with limited success when it comes to resolving the issues of greatest tension and disagreement among nations. For technology to operate in a global environment, there is a need for a much greater degree of coordination among countries and the development of common standards and norms, but governments continue to struggle to agree not just on those norms themselves but even the appropriate venue and processes for developing them. Without greater global cooperation, is it possible to maintain a global network like the internet or to promote the spread of new technologies around the world to address challenges of sustainability? What might help incentivize that cooperation moving forward, and what could new structures and process for governance of global technologies look like? Why has the tech industry’s self-regulation culture persisted? Do the same traditional drivers for public policy, such as politics of harmonization and path dependency in policy-making, still sufficiently explain policy outcomes in this space? As new technologies and their applications spread across the globe in uneven ways, how and when do they create forces of change from unexpected places?

These are some of the questions that we hope to address in the Technology and Global Change section through articles that tackle new dimensions of the global landscape of designing, developing, deploying, and assessing new technologies to address major challenges the world faces. Understanding these processes requires synthesizing knowledge from a range of different fields, including sociology, political science, economics, and history, as well as technical fields such as engineering, climate science, and computer science. A crucial part of understanding how technology has created global change and, in turn, how global changes have influenced the development of new technologies is understanding the technologies themselves in all their richness and complexity—how they work, the limits of what they can do, what they were designed to do, how they are actually used. Just as technologies themselves are becoming more complicated, so are their embeddings and relationships to the larger social, political, and legal contexts in which they exist. Scholars across all disciplines are encouraged to join us in untangling those complexities.

Josephine Wolff is an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her book You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches was published by MIT Press in 2018.

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The Impact of Digital Technologies

Technologies can help make our world fairer, more peaceful, and more just. Digital advances can support and accelerate achievement of each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – from ending extreme poverty to reducing maternal and infant mortality, promoting sustainable farming and decent work, and achieving universal literacy. But technologies can also threaten privacy, erode security and fuel inequality. They have implications for human rights and human agency. Like generations before, we – governments, businesses and individuals – have a choice to make in how we harness and manage new technologies.

A DIGITAL FUTURE FOR ALL?

Digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in our history – reaching around 50 per cent of the developing world’s population in only two decades and transforming societies. By enhancing connectivity, financial inclusion, access to trade and public services, technology can be a great equaliser.

In the health sector, for instance, AI-enabled frontier technologies are helping to save lives, diagnose diseases and extend life expectancy. In education, virtual learning environments and distance learning have opened up programmes to students who would otherwise be excluded. Public services are also becoming more accessible and accountable through blockchain-powered systems, and less bureaucratically burdensome as a result of AI assistance.Big data can also support more responsive and accurate policies and programmes.

However, those yet to be connected remain cut off from the benefits of this new era and remain further behind. Many of the people left behind are women, the elderly, persons with disabilities or from ethnic or linguistic minorities, indigenous groups and residents of poor or remote areas. The pace of connectivity is slowing, even reversing, among some constituencies. For example, globally, the proportion of women using the internet is 12 per cent lower than that of men. While this gap narrowed in most regions between 2013 and 2017, it widened in the least developed countries from 30 per cent to 33 per cent.

The use of algorithms can replicate and even amplify human and systemic bias where they function on the basis of data which is not adequately diverse. Lack of diversity in the technology sector can mean that this challenge is not adequately addressed.

THE FUTURE OF WORK

Throughout history, technological revolutions have changed the labour force: creating new forms and patterns of work, making others obsolete, and leading to wider societal changes. This current wave of change is likely to have profound impacts. For example, the International Labour Organization estimates that the shift to a greener economy could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030 through the adoption of sustainable practices in the energy sector, the use of electric vehicles and increasing energy efficiency in existing and future buildings.

Meanwhile, reports by groups such as McKinsey suggest that 800 million people could lose their jobs to automation by 2030 , while polls reveal that the majority of all employees worry that they do not have the necessary training or skills to get a well-paid job.

There is broad agreement that managing these trends will require changes in our approach to education, for instance, by placing more emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and maths; by teaching soft skills, and resilience; and by ensuring that people can re-skill and up-skill throughout their lifetimes. Unpaid work, for example childcare and elderly care in the home, will need to be better supported, especially as with the shifting age profile of global populations, the demands on these tasks are likely to increase.

THE FUTURE OF DATA

Today, digital technologies such as data pooling and AI are used to track and diagnose issues in agriculture, health, and the environment, or to perform daily tasks such as navigating traffic or paying a bill. They can be used to defend and exercise human rights – but they can also be used to violate them, for example, by monitoring our movements, purchases, conversations and behaviours. Governments and businesses increasingly have the tools to mine and exploit data for financial and other purposes.

However, personal data would become an asset to a person, if there were a formula for better regulation of personal data ownership. Data-powered technology has the potential to empower individuals, improve human welfare, and promote universal rights, depending on the type of protections put in place.

THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media connects almost half of the entire global population . It enables people to make their voices heard and to talk to people across the world in real time. However, it can also reinforce prejudices and sow discord, by giving hate speech and misinformation a platform, or by amplifying echo chambers.

In this way, social media algorithms can fuel the fragmentation of societies around the world. And yet they also have the potential to do the opposite.

THE FUTURE OF CYBERSPACE

How to manage these developments is the subject of much discussion – nationally and internationally – at a time when geopolitical tensions are on the rise. The UN Secretary-General has warned of a ‘great fracture’ between world powers, each with their own internet and AI strategy, as well as dominant currency, trade and financial rules and contradictory geopolitical and military views. Such a divide could establish a digital Berlin Wall. Increasingly, digital cooperation between states – and a universal cyberspace that reflects global standards for peace and security, human rights and sustainable development – is seen as crucial to ensuring a united world. A ‘global commitment for digital cooperation’ is a key recommendation by the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation .

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Sustainable Development Goals

The Age of Digital Interdependence: Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation

ILO | Global Commission on the Future of Work

Secretary General’s Address to the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly

Secretary General’s Strategy on New Technology

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Essay on Modern Technology

Students are often asked to write an essay on Modern Technology in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Modern Technology

Introduction to modern technology.

Modern technology refers to the recent advancements and innovations that have made our lives easier. It includes computers, smartphones, the internet, and many more.

Benefits of Modern Technology

Modern technology has numerous benefits. It helps us communicate with people worldwide, provides information at our fingertips, and makes learning fun and interactive.

Challenges of Modern Technology

Despite the benefits, modern technology also poses some challenges. It can lead to addiction and loss of privacy. It’s crucial to use technology wisely to avoid these issues.

In conclusion, modern technology has changed our lives significantly. It’s our responsibility to use it responsibly and reap its benefits.

Also check:

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Modern Technology
• Paragraph on Modern Technology
• Speech on Modern Technology

250 Words Essay on Modern Technology

The advent of modern technology.

Modern technology, an offshoot of the ceaseless human quest for innovation, has become an integral part of our lives. It has not only revolutionized communication and information dissemination but also transformed the way we live, work, and play.

Impact on Communication and Information

The advent of the Internet and smartphones has democratized information, making it accessible to everyone, everywhere. Social media platforms have given a voice to the voiceless, enabling a global dialogue that transcends geographical boundaries. Additionally, the emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning has opened up new frontiers in data analysis and decision-making processes.

Transforming Daily Life

Modern technology has also significantly altered our daily routines. Smart homes, equipped with automated devices, have enhanced comfort and convenience. Wearable technology monitors our health, encouraging proactive wellness. Furthermore, e-commerce platforms and digital payment systems have streamlined shopping and financial transactions.

Work and Play in the Digital Age

In the workspace, technology has automated repetitive tasks, freeing up time for creative and strategic thinking. Remote working, made possible by digital tools, has blurred the lines between office and home. Meanwhile, in the realm of entertainment, virtual and augmented reality technologies have redefined our concept of play, immersing us in interactive digital worlds.

The Double-edged Sword

However, this technological revolution is a double-edged sword. While it brings countless benefits, it also presents challenges such as privacy concerns, cybercrime, and digital addiction. It is, therefore, crucial to navigate this digital landscape with caution, leveraging its advantages while mitigating its potential risks.

In conclusion, modern technology, with its profound impact on communication, daily life, work, and play, is an undeniable force shaping the 21st-century human experience.

500 Words Essay on Modern Technology

In the contemporary era, modern technology has emerged as a significant facet of human life. It has revolutionized the way we communicate, learn, work, and entertain ourselves. The rapid evolution of technology, from the advent of the internet to the development of artificial intelligence, has had profound implications on society, economy, and culture.

The Impact of Modern Technology on Communication

Modern technology has drastically transformed the realm of communication. The rise of social media platforms and instant messaging apps has made it possible to connect with people across the globe in real time. Emails and video conferences have replaced traditional letters and face-to-face meetings, making communication faster and more efficient. However, this digital revolution has also raised concerns about privacy and the authenticity of information disseminated online.

Modern Technology in Education

The education sector has also benefited immensely from modern technology. E-learning platforms and virtual classrooms have made education accessible to a wider audience, breaking geographical barriers. Advanced technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality are being used to create immersive learning experiences. Nonetheless, the digital divide and the lack of digital literacy pose challenges in harnessing the full potential of technology in education.

Modern Technology in the Workplace

Modern technology has reshaped the workplace as well. Automation and artificial intelligence have streamlined operations, increased productivity, and reduced human error. Remote working has become a reality, thanks to cloud computing and collaborative tools. However, the fear of job displacement due to automation and the need for constant upskilling to keep up with technological advancements are issues that need to be addressed.

Modern Technology and Entertainment

In the realm of entertainment, modern technology has given rise to new forms of media and has changed the way we consume content. Streaming platforms have challenged traditional television, and online gaming has become a global phenomenon. While these advancements have democratized entertainment, they have also raised questions about digital addiction and mental health.

Conclusion: The Future of Modern Technology

In conclusion, modern technology, despite its potential drawbacks, is an integral part of our lives. It has the power to drive societal change, foster economic growth, and enhance the quality of life. As we navigate the digital age, it is crucial to strike a balance between leveraging technology and mitigating its adverse impacts. The future of modern technology lies in ethical, responsible, and inclusive innovation.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Save Nature Save Life
• Essay on Nature and Its Importance
• Essay on Save Nature

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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55 Ways Technology Has Changed Our Lives for the Better

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on September 18, 2023

Categories Technology

You’re living in an era of unprecedented technological advancement. It’s transformed how you communicate, care for your health, learn, and even do your daily chores. Isn’t it exciting to consider how much easier life has become?

This article delves into the ways technology has bettered our lives and dares to dream about what might be just around the corner.

Key Takeaways

• Digital diplomacy and social media platforms have given ordinary people a global voice, shifting power dynamics and allowing for unprecedented connectivity.
• Advancements in health and medicine, such as genetic engineering, AI diagnostics, and robotic surgery, have led to more precise and personalized treatments, giving patients more control over their health.
• The transformation of education through digital tools, virtual field trips, and gamified learning has made learning more engaging, accessible, and immersive, breaking down traditional boundaries.
• Technology has had a positive impact on daily lives, with smart homes, digital farming, wearable tech, and increased connectivity through social media platforms making life more efficient, convenient, and less stressful.

15 Ways Technology Has Uplifted Our Lives

In an era where technology is an inseparable part of our existence, it’s hard to imagine life without our digital companions. While there are debates on the negative impacts of technology, one can’t deny the substantial positive effects it has on our daily lives.

From healthcare advancements to simplifying mundane tasks, technology has indeed made our lives better in countless ways.

Here are 55 ways technology has unequivocally changed our lives for the better:

Communication

• Instant Messaging – Quick and real-time chats.
• Video Confering – Long-distance face-to-face conversations.
• Social Media – A new level of connectivity and community.
• Telemedicine – Remote medical consultations.
• Wearable Fitness Tech – Real-time health tracking.
• Genetic Testing – Customized healthcare and early diagnosis.

Convenience

• Online Banking – Finances at your fingertips.
• Ride-Sharing Apps – Convenient and cost-effective transportation.
• E-commerce – The world’s marketplace in your pocket.

Information & Education

• Search Engines – Instant information retrieval.
• E-books & E-libraries – Portable and accessible knowledge.
• Online Courses – Learning opportunities for everyone, everywhere.

Entertainment

• Streaming Services – Entertainment on-demand.
• Virtual Reality – Lifelike digital experiences.
• Digital Art Platforms – Creative outlets for modern artists.

Productivity

• Cloud Computing – Access your files from anywhere.
• Project Management Software – Streamline team efforts.
• Automated Customer Service – 24/7 support.

Home & Lifestyle

• Smart Homes – Automated and personalized living spaces.
• Food Delivery Apps – Gourmet meals at your door.
• Online Dating – Meet your match from miles away.

Safety & Security

• GPS Tracking – Never get lost.
• Biometric Verification – Enhanced security measures.
• Blockchain – Secure and transparent transactions.

Business & Economics

• E-commerce Platforms – Small business empowerment.
• Data Analytics – Informed decision-making.
• Digital Marketing – Precise and scalable reach.

Social Good

• Crowdfunding – Direct access to capital for startups and causes.
• Online Petitions – Mass mobilization for change.
• Translation Apps – Break down language barriers.

Environment

• Electric Cars – A step towards sustainability.
• Solar Panels – Clean energy for all.
• Climate Modeling – Better preparedness for environmental challenges.

Scientific Research

• Computer Simulations – Virtual laboratories for safe experimentation.
• DNA Sequencing – Unveiling the blueprints of life.
• Space Exploration – Unlocking the cosmos.

Travel & Exploration

• Travel Aggregators – Customized itineraries.
• Virtual Tours – Travel from the comfort of home.
• Digital Maps – Interactive and up-to-date navigation.
• Remote Work Tools – Work from anywhere.
• Job Search Engines – Tailored career opportunities.
• Freelance Platforms – Skill-based income sources.

Personal Development

• Meditation Apps – Mindfulness at your fingertips.
• Financial Planning Software – Secure your future.
• DIY Platforms – Learn new skills and hobbies.

Specialized Fields

• Agricultural Drones – Precision farming.
• 3D Printing – From digital designs to physical products.
• Augmented Reality – Enhanced interactive experiences.

Kids & Education

• Educational Games – Learning made fun.
• Parental Control Apps – Keep your children safe online.
• Virtual Classrooms – Learning without borders.

Pets & Animal Care

• Pet Tracking Devices – Keep tabs on your furry friends.
• Automated Feeders – Timely nutrition for pets.
• Online Vet Consultations – Professional care from home.

Miscellaneous

• Voice Assistants – Hands-free help and information.

In a world that is continuously evolving, technology serves as a tool for progress, addressing complex problems and making our lives more enjoyable.

The Revolution of Communication Through Technology

You’ve probably noticed how technology has revolutionized the way we communicate, haven’t you? A perfect example is digital diplomacy. It’s an evolved form of international relations where states use social media platforms to connect with their citizens and other nations. You’re no longer confined by traditional media; you’re free to engage in global conversations instantly.

By observing social media influence, it’s clear that power dynamics are shifting; ordinary people now have a voice that can reach far and wide at lightning speed. But remember, this freedom isn’t without responsibility. The rapid dissemination of information demands critical thinking and discernment.

As we explore these technological wonders, let’s not forget about the strides made in health and medicine, another arena transformed by technology.

Technological Advancements in Health and Medicine

In the realm of health and medicine, there are incredible advancements that are prolonging life expectancy and improving patient care. The fusion of Genetic Engineering with Artificial Intelligence is unlocking new doors in healthcare innovation, offering an unprecedented level of freedom. Patients can now take control over their health.

Consider these four revolutionary developments:

• Precision Medicine: Genetic engineering enables tailored treatments based on your unique genetic makeup.
• AI Diagnostics: AI can analyze medical images faster and more accurately than humans.
• Robotic Surgery: Surgeons use AI-powered robots for precise, minimally invasive procedures.
• Genome Editing: Genetic diseases could soon be a thing of the past thanks to CRISPR technology.

How Technology Has Transformed Education

Education has been significantly transformed by the advent of digital tools, making learning more engaging and accessible than ever before. Imagine this: you’re stepping into the pyramids of Egypt or exploring Mars’ surface, all from your classroom through virtual field trips. It’s not science fiction; it’s a reality today. These tech advancements tear down traditional boundaries, empowering you to explore beyond your physical confines.

Similarly, gamified learning turns monotonous lessons into exciting challenges. You’re no longer memorizing facts; instead, you’re on an adventure quest where each level up means mastering a new concept. This immersive approach not only enhances retention but also fuels self-paced learning.

The Impact of Technology on Our Daily Lives

Consider this: you’re now living in an era where digital advancements have seeped into every aspect of your daily routine, transforming the way you interact with the world.

• Smart Homes : Envision controlling your home’s appliances, lighting, and security systems right from your smartphone. It’s not a sci-fi movie; it’s reality.
• Digital Farming : Imagine farmers utilizing data-driven insights to improve crop yields and reduce waste – that’s digital farming for you.
• Healthcare : Wearable tech is helping monitor vital signs in real time, revolutionizing healthcare.
• Communication : Social media platforms provide unprecedented connectivity.

These aren’t just conveniences; they’re radical shifts freeing up time and resources, making life more efficient and less stressful.

Future Prospects: How Technology Will Continue to Improve Our Lives

You’re probably wondering what’s next on the horizon as advancements continue to redefine our daily routines and expectations.

Imagine this: Smart Homes that not only respond to your commands but anticipate your needs, learning from your habits to create a living space that’s uniquely tailored to you.

Think of an autonomous vehicle that understands your schedule, ready to chauffeur you around at a moment’s notice, liberating you from the constraints of public transport or even the need for personal car ownership.

Such advancements are not mere science fiction; they’re becoming our reality and will continue to revolutionize how we live.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the negative impacts of technology on our society.

Certainly, technology is a double-edged sword. On one side, it has revolutionized our world, making life more convenient and efficient. On the flip side, it has introduced a new set of challenges including potential technology addiction. Excessive screen time can impinge on physical health and real-world social interactions. Furthermore, the digital divide exacerbates existing inequalities, as those without access to technology find themselves increasingly marginalized.

How Has Technology Contributed to Environmental Degradation?

The environmental cost of technology is alarming. From resource-intensive manufacturing processes to the challenge of electronic waste disposal, technology contributes to environmental stress. Practices like unsustainable mining for rare earth minerals and the carbon footprint of data centers should be part of any discussion about the environmental impact of technology.

What Are Some Common Privacy Concerns Related to the Use of Technology?

Privacy has become a major concern in the age of technology. Issues range from data breaches to unauthorized data collection by corporations and potential governmental surveillance. Implementing strong cybersecurity measures and being discerning about the personal information you share online are more crucial than ever.

How Can Technology Contribute to Social Isolation?

Ironically, while technology has the power to connect us globally, it can also isolate us from our immediate surroundings. The convenience of online interactions can sometimes make them replace in-person socialization, contributing to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Striking a balance by consciously allocating time for offline interactions can help mitigate this effect.

What Are the Potential Risks and Challenges Associated With Relying Heavily on Technology?

Over-dependence on technology brings its own set of risks. Not only does it make us vulnerable to digital addiction, but it also increases our exposure to cybersecurity threats such as hacking and identity theft. It’s essential to exercise digital prudence by maintaining updated security software and employing best practices in data protection to ensure that our reliance on technology doesn’t compromise our freedom or well-being.

Artificial intelligence is transforming our world — it is on all of us to make sure that it goes well

How ai gets built is currently decided by a small group of technologists. as this technology is transforming our lives, it should be in all of our interest to become informed and engaged..

Why should you care about the development of artificial intelligence?

Think about what the alternative would look like. If you and the wider public do not get informed and engaged, then we leave it to a few entrepreneurs and engineers to decide how this technology will transform our world.

That is the status quo. This small number of people at a few tech firms directly working on artificial intelligence (AI) do understand how extraordinarily powerful this technology is becoming . If the rest of society does not become engaged, then it will be this small elite who decides how this technology will change our lives.

To change this status quo, I want to answer three questions in this article: Why is it hard to take the prospect of a world transformed by AI seriously? How can we imagine such a world? And what is at stake as this technology becomes more powerful?

Why is it hard to take the prospect of a world transformed by artificial intelligence seriously?

In some way, it should be obvious how technology can fundamentally transform the world. We just have to look at how much the world has already changed. If you could invite a family of hunter-gatherers from 20,000 years ago on your next flight, they would be pretty surprised. Technology has changed our world already, so we should expect that it can happen again.

But while we have seen the world transform before, we have seen these transformations play out over the course of generations. What is different now is how very rapid these technological changes have become. In the past, the technologies that our ancestors used in their childhood were still central to their lives in their old age. This has not been the case anymore for recent generations. Instead, it has become common that technologies unimaginable in one's youth become ordinary in later life.

This is the first reason we might not take the prospect seriously: it is easy to underestimate the speed at which technology can change the world.

The second reason why it is difficult to take the possibility of transformative AI – potentially even AI as intelligent as humans – seriously is that it is an idea that we first heard in the cinema. It is not surprising that for many of us, the first reaction to a scenario in which machines have human-like capabilities is the same as if you had asked us to take seriously a future in which vampires, werewolves, or zombies roam the planet. 1

But, it is plausible that it is both the stuff of sci-fi fantasy and the central invention that could arrive in our, or our children’s, lifetimes.

The third reason why it is difficult to take this prospect seriously is by failing to see that powerful AI could lead to very large changes. This is also understandable. It is difficult to form an idea of a future that is very different from our own time. There are two concepts that I find helpful in imagining a very different future with artificial intelligence. Let’s look at both of them.

How to develop an idea of what the future of artificial intelligence might look like?

When thinking about the future of artificial intelligence, I find it helpful to consider two different concepts in particular: human-level AI, and transformative AI. 2 The first concept highlights the AI’s capabilities and anchors them to a familiar benchmark, while transformative AI emphasizes the impact that this technology would have on the world.

From where we are today, much of this may sound like science fiction. It is therefore worth keeping in mind that the majority of surveyed AI experts believe there is a real chance that human-level artificial intelligence will be developed within the next decades, and some believe that it will exist much sooner.

The advantages and disadvantages of comparing machine and human intelligence

One way to think about human-level artificial intelligence is to contrast it with the current state of AI technology. While today’s AI systems often have capabilities similar to a particular, limited part of the human mind, a human-level AI would be a machine that is capable of carrying out the same range of intellectual tasks that we humans are capable of. 3 It is a machine that would be “able to learn to do anything that a human can do,” as Norvig and Russell put it in their textbook on AI. 4

Taken together, the range of abilities that characterize intelligence gives humans the ability to solve problems and achieve a wide variety of goals. A human-level AI would therefore be a system that could solve all those problems that we humans can solve, and do the tasks that humans do today. Such a machine, or collective of machines, would be able to do the work of a translator, an accountant, an illustrator, a teacher, a therapist, a truck driver, or the work of a trader on the world’s financial markets. Like us, it would also be able to do research and science, and to develop new technologies based on that.

The concept of human-level AI has some clear advantages. Using the familiarity of our own intelligence as a reference provides us with some clear guidance on how to imagine the capabilities of this technology.

However, it also has clear disadvantages. Anchoring the imagination of future AI systems to the familiar reality of human intelligence carries the risk that it obscures the very real differences between them.

Some of these differences are obvious. For example, AI systems will have the immense memory of computer systems, against which our own capacity to store information pales. Another obvious difference is the speed at which a machine can absorb and process information. But information storage and processing speed are not the only differences. The domains in which machines already outperform humans is steadily increasing: in chess, after matching the level of the best human players in the late 90s, AI systems reached superhuman levels more than a decade ago. In other games like Go or complex strategy games, this has happened more recently. 5

These differences mean that an AI that is at least as good as humans in every domain would overall be much more powerful than the human mind. Even the first “human-level AI” would therefore be quite superhuman in many ways. 6

Human intelligence is also a bad metaphor for machine intelligence in other ways. The way we think is often very different from machines, and as a consequence the output of thinking machines can be very alien to us.

Most perplexing and most concerning are the strange and unexpected ways in which machine intelligence can fail. The AI-generated image of the horse below provides an example: on the one hand, AIs can do what no human can do – produce an image of anything, in any style (here photorealistic), in mere seconds – but on the other hand it can fail in ways that no human would fail. 7 No human would make the mistake of drawing a horse with five legs. 8

Imagining a powerful future AI as just another human would therefore likely be a mistake. The differences might be so large that it will be a misnomer to call such systems “human-level.”

AI-generated image of a horse 9

Transformative artificial intelligence is defined by the impact this technology would have on the world

In contrast, the concept of transformative AI is not based on a comparison with human intelligence. This has the advantage of sidestepping the problems that the comparisons with our own mind bring. But it has the disadvantage that it is harder to imagine what such a system would look like and be capable of. It requires more from us. It requires us to imagine a world with intelligent actors that are potentially very different from ourselves.

Transformative AI is not defined by any specific capabilities, but by the real-world impact that the AI would have. To qualify as transformative, researchers think of it as AI that is “powerful enough to bring us into a new, qualitatively different future.” 10

In humanity’s history, there have been two cases of such major transformations, the agricultural and the industrial revolutions.

Transformative AI becoming a reality would be an event on that scale. Like the arrival of agriculture 10,000 years ago, or the transition from hand- to machine-manufacturing, it would be an event that would change the world for billions of people around the globe and for the entire trajectory of humanity’s future .

Technologies that fundamentally change how a wide range of goods or services are produced are called ‘general-purpose technologies’. The two previous transformative events were caused by the discovery of two particularly significant general-purpose technologies: the change in food production as humanity transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming, and the rise of machine manufacturing in the industrial revolution. Based on the evidence and arguments presented in this series on AI development, I believe it is plausible that powerful AI could represent the introduction of a similarly significant general-purpose technology.

Timeline of the three transformative events in world history

A future of human-level or transformative AI?

The two concepts are closely related, but they are not the same. The creation of a human-level AI would certainly have a transformative impact on our world. If the work of most humans could be carried out by an AI, the lives of millions of people would change. 11

The opposite, however, is not true: we might see transformative AI without developing human-level AI. Since the human mind is in many ways a poor metaphor for the intelligence of machines, we might plausibly develop transformative AI before we develop human-level AI. Depending on how this goes, this might mean that we will never see any machine intelligence for which human intelligence is a helpful comparison.

When and if AI systems might reach either of these levels is of course difficult to predict. In my companion article on this question, I give an overview of what researchers in this field currently believe. Many AI experts believe there is a real chance that such systems will be developed within the next decades, and some believe that they will exist much sooner.

What is at stake as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful?

All major technological innovations lead to a range of positive and negative consequences. For AI, the spectrum of possible outcomes – from the most negative to the most positive – is extraordinarily wide.

That the use of AI technology can cause harm is clear, because it is already happening.

AI systems can cause harm when people use them maliciously. For example, when they are used in politically-motivated disinformation campaigns or to enable mass surveillance. 12

But AI systems can also cause unintended harm, when they act differently than intended or fail. For example, in the Netherlands the authorities used an AI system which falsely claimed that an estimated 26,000 parents made fraudulent claims for child care benefits. The false allegations led to hardship for many poor families, and also resulted in the resignation of the Dutch government in 2021. 13

As AI becomes more powerful, the possible negative impacts could become much larger. Many of these risks have rightfully received public attention: more powerful AI could lead to mass labor displacement, or extreme concentrations of power and wealth. In the hands of autocrats, it could empower totalitarianism through its suitability for mass surveillance and control.

The so-called alignment problem of AI is another extreme risk. This is the concern that nobody would be able to control a powerful AI system, even if the AI takes actions that harm us humans, or humanity as a whole. This risk is unfortunately receiving little attention from the wider public, but it is seen as an extremely large risk by many leading AI researchers. 14

How could an AI possibly escape human control and end up harming humans?

The risk is not that an AI becomes self-aware, develops bad intentions, and “chooses” to do this. The risk is that we try to instruct the AI to pursue some specific goal – even a very worthwhile one – and in the pursuit of that goal it ends up harming humans. It is about unintended consequences. The AI does what we told it to do, but not what we wanted it to do.

Can’t we just tell the AI to not do those things? It is definitely possible to build an AI that avoids any particular problem we foresee, but it is hard to foresee all the possible harmful unintended consequences. The alignment problem arises because of “the impossibility of defining true human purposes correctly and completely,” as AI researcher Stuart Russell puts it. 15

Can’t we then just switch off the AI? This might also not be possible. That is because a powerful AI would know two things: it faces a risk that humans could turn it off, and it can’t achieve its goals once it has been turned off. As a consequence, the AI will pursue a very fundamental goal of ensuring that it won’t be switched off. This is why, once we realize that an extremely intelligent AI is causing unintended harm in the pursuit of some specific goal, it might not be possible to turn it off or change what the system does. 16

This risk – that humanity might not be able to stay in control once AI becomes very powerful, and that this might lead to an extreme catastrophe – has been recognized right from the early days of AI research more than 70 years ago. 17 The very rapid development of AI in recent years has made a solution to this problem much more urgent.

I have tried to summarize some of the risks of AI, but a short article is not enough space to address all possible questions. Especially on the very worst risks of AI systems, and what we can do now to reduce them, I recommend reading the book The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian and Benjamin Hilton’s article ‘Preventing an AI-related catastrophe’ .

If we manage to avoid these risks, transformative AI could also lead to very positive consequences. Advances in science and technology were crucial to the many positive developments in humanity’s history. If artificial ingenuity can augment our own, it could help us make progress on the many large problems we face: from cleaner energy, to the replacement of unpleasant work, to much better healthcare.

This extremely large contrast between the possible positives and negatives makes clear that the stakes are unusually high with this technology. Reducing the negative risks and solving the alignment problem could mean the difference between a healthy, flourishing, and wealthy future for humanity – and the destruction of the same.

How can we make sure that the development of AI goes well?

Making sure that the development of artificial intelligence goes well is not just one of the most crucial questions of our time, but likely one of the most crucial questions in human history. This needs public resources – public funding, public attention, and public engagement.

Currently, almost all resources that are dedicated to AI aim to speed up the development of this technology. Efforts that aim to increase the safety of AI systems, on the other hand, do not receive the resources they need. Researcher Toby Ord estimated that in 2020 between $10 to $50 million was spent on work to address the alignment problem. 18 Corporate AI investment in the same year was more than 2000-times larger, it summed up to $153 billion.

This is not only the case for the AI alignment problem. The work on the entire range of negative social consequences from AI is under-resourced compared to the large investments to increase the power and use of AI systems.

It is frustrating and concerning for society as a whole that AI safety work is extremely neglected and that little public funding is dedicated to this crucial field of research. On the other hand, for each individual person this neglect means that they have a good chance to actually make a positive difference, if they dedicate themselves to this problem now. And while the field of AI safety is small, it does provide good resources on what you can do concretely if you want to work on this problem.

I hope that more people dedicate their individual careers to this cause, but it needs more than individual efforts. A technology that is transforming our society needs to be a central interest of all of us. As a society we have to think more about the societal impact of AI, become knowledgeable about the technology, and understand what is at stake.

When our children look back at today, I imagine that they will find it difficult to understand how little attention and resources we dedicated to the development of safe AI. I hope that this changes in the coming years, and that we begin to dedicate more resources to making sure that powerful AI gets developed in a way that benefits us and the next generations.

If we fail to develop this broad-based understanding, then it will remain the small elite that finances and builds this technology that will determine how one of the – or plausibly the – most powerful technology in human history will transform our world.

If we leave the development of artificial intelligence entirely to private companies, then we are also leaving it up these private companies what our future — the future of humanity — will be.

With our work at Our World in Data we want to do our small part to enable a better informed public conversation on AI and the future we want to live in. You can find these resources on OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my colleagues Daniel Bachler, Charlie Giattino, and Edouard Mathieu for their helpful comments to drafts of this essay.

This problem becomes even larger when we try to imagine how a future with a human-level AI might play out. Any particular scenario will not only involve the idea that this powerful AI exists, but a whole range of additional assumptions about the future context in which this happens. It is therefore hard to communicate a scenario of a world with human-level AI that does not sound contrived, bizarre or even silly.

Both of these concepts are widely used in the scientific literature on artificial intelligence. For example, questions about the timelines for the development of future AI are often framed using these terms. See my article on this topic .

The fact that humans are capable of a range of intellectual tasks means that you arrive at different definitions of intelligence depending on which aspect within that range you focus on (the Wikipedia entry on intelligence , for example, lists a number of definitions from various researchers and different disciplines). As a consequence there are also various definitions of ‘human-level AI’.

There are also several closely related terms: Artificial General Intelligence, High-Level Machine Intelligence, Strong AI, or Full AI are sometimes synonymously used, and sometimes defined in similar, yet different ways. In specific discussions, it is necessary to define this concept more narrowly; for example, in studies on AI timelines researchers offer more precise definitions of what human-level AI refers to in their particular study.

Peter Norvig and Stuart Russell (2021) — Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Fourth edition. Published by Pearson.

The AI system AlphaGo , and its various successors, won against Go masters. The AI system Pluribus beat humans at no-limit Texas hold 'em poker. The AI system Cicero can strategize and use human language to win the strategy game Diplomacy. See: Meta Fundamental AI Research Diplomacy Team (FAIR), Anton Bakhtin, Noam Brown, Emily Dinan, Gabriele Farina, Colin Flaherty, Daniel Fried, et al. (2022) – ‘Human-Level Play in the Game of Diplomacy by Combining Language Models with Strategic Reasoning’. In Science 0, no. 0 (22 November 2022): eade9097. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade9097 .

This also poses a problem when we evaluate how the intelligence of a machine compares with the intelligence of humans. If intelligence was a general ability, a single capacity, then we could easily compare and evaluate it, but the fact that it is a range of skills makes it much more difficult to compare across machine and human intelligence. Tests for AI systems are therefore comprising a wide range of tasks. See for example Dan Hendrycks, Collin Burns, Steven Basart, Andy Zou, Mantas Mazeika, Dawn Song, Jacob Steinhardt (2020) –  Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understanding or the definition of what would qualify as artificial general intelligence in this Metaculus prediction .

An overview of how AI systems can fail can be found in Charles Choi – 7 Revealing Ways AIs Fail . It is also worth reading through the AIAAIC Repository which “details recent incidents and controversies driven by or relating to AI, algorithms, and automation."

I have taken this example from AI researcher François Chollet , who published it here .

Via François Chollet , who published it here . Based on Chollet’s comments it seems that this image was created by the AI system ‘Stable Diffusion’.

This quote is from Holden Karnofsky (2021) – AI Timelines: Where the Arguments, and the "Experts," Stand . For Holden Karnofsky’s earlier thinking on this conceptualization of AI see his 2016 article ‘Some Background on Our Views Regarding Advanced Artificial Intelligence’ .

Ajeya Cotra, whose research on AI timelines I discuss in other articles of this series, attempts to give a quantitative definition of what would qualify as transformative AI. in her widely cited report on AI timelines she defines it as a change in software technology that brings the growth rate of gross world product "to 20%-30% per year". Several other researchers define TAI in similar terms.

Human-level AI is typically defined as a software system that can carry out at least 90% or 99% of all economically relevant tasks that humans carry out. A lower-bar definition would be an AI system that can carry out all those tasks that can currently be done by another human who is working remotely on a computer.

On the use of AI in politically-motivated disinformation campaigns see for example John Villasenor (November 2020) – How to deal with AI-enabled disinformation . More generally on this topic see Brundage and Avin et al. (2018) – The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation, published at maliciousaireport.com . A starting point for literature and reporting on mass surveillance by governments is the relevant Wikipedia entry .

See for example the Wikipedia entry on the ‘Dutch childcare benefits scandal’ and Melissa Heikkilä (2022) – ‘Dutch scandal serves as a warning for Europe over risks of using algorithms’ , in Politico. The technology can also reinforce discrimination in terms of race and gender. See Brian Christian’s book The Alignment Problem and the reports of the AI Now Institute .

Overviews are provided in Stuart Russell (2019) – Human Compatible (especially chapter 5) and Brian Christian’s 2020 book The Alignment Problem . Christian presents the thinking of many leading AI researchers from the earliest days up to now and presents an excellent overview of this problem. It is also seen as a large risk by some of the leading private firms who work towards powerful AI – see OpenAI's article " Our approach to alignment research " from August 2022.

Stuart Russell (2019) – Human Compatible

A question that follows from this is, why build such a powerful AI in the first place?

The incentives are very high. As I emphasize below, this innovation has the potential to lead to very positive developments. In addition to the large social benefits there are also large incentives for those who develop it – the governments that can use it for their goals, the individuals who can use it to become more powerful and wealthy. Additionally, it is of scientific interest and might help us to understand our own mind and intelligence better. And lastly, even if we wanted to stop building powerful AIs, it is likely very hard to actually achieve it. It is very hard to coordinate across the whole world and agree to stop building more advanced AI – countries around the world would have to agree and then find ways to actually implement it.

In 1950 the computer science pioneer Alan Turing put it like this: “If a machine can think, it might think more intelligently than we do, and then where should we be? … [T]his new danger is much closer. If it comes at all it will almost certainly be within the next millennium. It is remote but not astronomically remote, and is certainly something which can give us anxiety. It is customary, in a talk or article on this subject, to offer a grain of comfort, in the form of a statement that some particularly human characteristic could never be imitated by a machine. … I cannot offer any such comfort, for I believe that no such bounds can be set.” Alan. M. Turing (1950) – Computing Machinery and Intelligence , In Mind, Volume LIX, Issue 236, October 1950, Pages 433–460.

Norbert Wiener is another pioneer who saw the alignment problem very early. One way he put it was “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot interfere effectively … we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire.” quoted from Norbert Wiener (1960) – Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation: As machines learn they may develop unforeseen strategies at rates that baffle their programmers. In Science.

In 1950 – the same year in which Turing published the cited article – Wiener published his book The Human Use of Human Beings, whose front-cover blurb reads: “The ‘mechanical brain’ and similar machines can destroy human values or enable us to realize them as never before.”

Toby Ord – The Precipice . He makes this projection in footnote 55 of chapter 2. It is based on the 2017 estimate by Farquhar.

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The dictatorship of free choice: identities among algorithms, openmind books, scientific anniversaries, why do we tan, featured author, latest book, how the internet has changed everyday life, what happened.

The Internet has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. Ordering a pizza, buying a television, sharing a moment with a friend, sending a picture over instant messaging. Before the Internet, if you wanted to keep up with the news, you had to walk down to the newsstand when it opened in the morning and buy a local edition reporting what had happened the previous day. But today a click or two is enough to read your local paper and any news source from anywhere in the world, updated up to the minute.

The Internet itself has been transformed. In its early days—which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent—it was a static network designed to shuttle a small freight of bytes or a short message between two terminals; it was a repository of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Today, however, immense quantities of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic leviathan, and the content is very much our own, for now we are all commentators, publishers, and creators.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet widened in scope to encompass the IT capabilities of universities and research centers, and, later on, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises from around the world. The Internet underwent immense growth; it was no longer a state-controlled project, but the largest computer network in the world, comprising over 50,000 sub-networks, 4 million systems, and 70 million users.

The emergence of  web 2.0  in the first decade of the twenty-first century was itself a revolution in the short history of the Internet, fostering the rise of social media and other interactive, crowd-based communication tools.

The Internet was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality. Today, we can send data from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds, make online presentations, live in parallel “game worlds,” and use pictures, video, sound, and text to share our real lives, our genuine identity. Personal stories go public; local issues become global.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The Internet frees us from geographic fetters and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not tied down to any specific place. Ours is a networked, globalized society connected by new technologies. The Internet is the tool we use to interact with one another, and accordingly poses new challenges to privacy and security.

Information technologies have wrought fundamental change throughout society, driving it forward from the industrial age to the networked era. In our world, global information networks are vital infrastructure—but in what ways has this changed human relations? The Internet has changed business, education, government, healthcare, and even the ways in which we interact with our loved ones—it has become one of the key drivers of social evolution.

The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming our communication practices and possibilities—particularly among younger people. The Internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a dizzyingly wide range of communicative possibilities. The impact of social media applications has triggered discussion of the “new communication democracy.”

The development of the Internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. The mobile Internet is a fresh revolution. Comprehensive Internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: we are not tied to any single specific device, and everything is in the cloud.

People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time.

Anyone failing to keep abreast of this radical change is losing out on an opportunity.

Communication Opportunities Created by the Internet

The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we interact with others. This insight struck me when I started out in the world of social media. I created my first social network in 2005, when I was finishing college in the United States—it had a political theme. I could already see that social media were on the verge of changing our way of communicating, helping us to share information by opening up a new channel that cuts across conventional ones.

That first attempt did not work out, but I learned from the experience.I get the feeling that in many countries failure is punished too harshly—but the fact is, the only surefire way of avoiding failure is to do nothing at all. I firmly believe that mistakes help you improve; getting it wrong teaches you how to get it right. Creativity, hard work, and a positive attitude will let you achieve any goal.

In 2006, after I moved to Spain, I created Tuenti. Tuenti (which, contrary to widespread belief, has nothing to do with the number 20; it is short for “tu entidad,” the Spanish for “your entity”) is a social communication platform for genuine friends. From the outset, the idea was to keep it simple, relevant, and private. That’s the key to its success.

I think the real value of social media is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matter to you. Social media let you share experiences and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly, without frontiers. Camaraderie, friendship, and solidarity—social phenomena that have been around for as long as humanity itself—have been freed from the conventional restrictions of space and time and can now thrive in a rich variety of ways.

Out of all the plethora of communication opportunities that the Internet has opened up, I would highlight the emergence of social media and the way they have intricately melded into our daily lives. Social media have changed our personal space, altering the way we interact with our loved ones, our friends, and our sexual partners; they have forced us to rethink even basic daily processes like studying and shopping; they have affected the economy by nurturing the business startup culture and electronic commerce; they have even given us new ways to form broad-based political movements.

The Internet and Education

The Internet has clearly impacted all levels of education by providing unbounded possibilities for learning. I believe the future of education is a networked future. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning that captivate and stimulate students’ imagination at any time, anywhere, using any device. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network, to build the global learning society.

The network of networks is an inexhaustible source of information. What’s more, the Internet has enabled users to move away from their former passive role as mere recipients of messages conveyed by conventional media to an active role, choosing what information to receive, how, and when. The information recipient even decides whether or not they want to stay informed.

We have moved on from scattergun mass communication to a pattern where the user proactively selects the information they need.

Students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints. Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, encyclopedias, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field. The web is a formidable resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge.

I also believe the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages—this continues to be a critical issue in many countries, including Spain, and, in a globalized world, calls for special efforts to improve.

The Internet, in addition to its communicative purposes, has become a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education; it is not just an information source, or a locus where results can be published, it is also a channel for cooperating with other people and groups who are working on related research topics.

The Internet and Privacy and Security

Another key issue surrounding Internet use is privacy. Internet users are becoming more sensitive to the insight that privacy is a must-have in our lives.

Privacy has risen near the top of the agenda in step with an increasing awareness of the implications of using social media. Much of the time, people started to use social media with no real idea of the dangers, and have wised up only through trial and error—sheer accident, snafus, and mistakes. Lately, inappropriate use of social media seems to hit the headlines every day. Celebrities posting inappropriate comments to their profiles, private pictures and tapes leaked to the Internet at large, companies displaying arrogance toward users, and even criminal activities involving private-data trafficking or social media exploitation.

All this shows that—contrary to what many people seem to have assumed—online security and privacy are critical, and, I believe, will become even more important going forward. And, although every user needs privacy, the issue is particularly sensitive for minors—despite attempts to raise their awareness, children still behave recklessly online.

I have always been highly concerned about privacy. On Tuenti, the default privacy setting on every user account is the highest available level of data protection. Only people the user has accepted as a “friend” can access their personal details, see their telephone number, or download their pictures. This means that, by default, user information is not accessible to third parties. In addition, users are supported by procedures for reporting abuse. Any user can report a profile or photograph that is abusive, inappropriate, or violates the terms of use: action is taken immediately. Security and privacy queries are resolved within 24 hours.

We need to be aware that different Internet platforms provide widely different privacy experiences. Some of them are entirely open and public; no steps whatsoever are taken to protect personal information, and all profiles are indexable by Internet search engines.

On the other hand, I think the debate about whether social media use should be subject to an age requirement is somewhat pointless, given that most globally active platforms operate without age restrictions. The European regulatory framework is quite different from the United States and Asian codes. Companies based in Europe are bound by rigorous policies on privacy and underage use of social media. This can become a competitive drawback when the ground rules do not apply equally to all players—our American and Japanese competitors, for instance, are not required to place any kind of age constraint on access.

Outside the scope of what the industry or regulators can do, it is vital that users themselves look after the privacy of their data. I believe the information is the user’s property, so the user is the only party entitled to control the collection, use, and disclosure of any information about him or herself. Some social networks seem to have forgotten this fact—they sell data, make it impossible to delete an account, or make it complex and difficult to manage one’s privacy settings. Everything should be a lot simpler and more transparent.

Social networks should continue to devote intense efforts to developing self-regulation mechanisms and guidelines for this new environment of online coexistence to ensure that user information is safe: the Internet should be a space for freedom, but also for trust. The main way of ensuring that social media are used appropriately is awareness. But awareness and user education will be of little use unless it becomes an absolute requirement that the privacy of the individual is treated as a universal value.

The Internet and Culture

As in the sphere of education, the development of information and communication technologies and the wide-ranging effects of globalization are changing what we are, and the meaning of cultural identity. Ours is a complex world in which cultural flows across borders are always on the rise. The concepts of space, time, and distance are losing their conventional meanings. Cultural globalization is here, and a global movement of cultural processes and initiatives is underway.

Again, in the cultural arena, vast fields of opportunity open up thanks to online tools. The possibilities are multiplied for disseminating a proposal, an item of knowledge, or a work of art. Against those doomsayers who warn that the Internet is harming culture, I am radically optimistic. The Internet is bringing culture closer to more people, making it more easily and quickly accessible; it is also nurturing the rise of new forms of expression for art and the spread of knowledge. Some would say, in fact, that the Internet is not just a technology, but a cultural artifact in its own right.

In addition to its impact on culture itself, the Internet is enormously beneficial for innovation, which brings progress in all fields of endeavor—the creation of new goods, services, and ideas, the advance of knowledge and society, and increasing well-being.

The Internet and Personal Relationships

The Internet has also changed the way we interact with our family, friends, and life partners. Now everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way; we can conduct part of our personal relationships using our laptops, smart phones, and tablets.

The benefits of always-online immediate availability are highly significant. I would find a long-distance relationship with my life partner or my family unthinkable without the communication tools that the network of networks provides me with. I’m living in Madrid, but I can stay close to my brother in California. For me, that is the key plus of the Internet: keeping in touch with the people who really matter to me.

As we have seen, the Internet revolution is not just technological; it also operates at a personal level, and throughout the structure of society. The Internet makes it possible for an unlimited number of people to communicate with one another freely and easily, in an unrestricted way.

Just a century ago, this was unimaginable. An increasing number of couples come together, stay together, or break up with the aid—or even as a consequence—of social communication tools. There are even apps and social networks out there that are purposely designed to help people get together for sex.

Of course, when compared to face-to-face communication, online communication is severely limited in the sense impressions it can convey (an estimated 60 to 70 percent of human communication takes place nonverbally), which can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassing situations—no doubt quite a few relationships have floundered as a result. I think the key is to be genuine, honest, and real at all times, using all the social media tools and their many advantages. Let’s just remember that a liar and a cheat online is a liar and a cheat offline too.

The Internet and Social and Political Activism

Even before the emergence of social media, pioneering experiments took place in the political sphere—like  Essembly , a project I was involved in. We started to create a politically themed platform to encourage debate and provide a home for social and political causes; but the social networks that have later nurtured activism in a new way were not as yet in existence.

Research has shown that young people who voice their political opinions on the Internet are more inclined to take part in public affairs. The better informed a citizen is, the more likely they will step into the polling booth, and the better they will express their political liberties. The Internet has proved to be a decisive communication tool in the latest election campaigns. It is thanks to the Internet that causes in the social, welfare, ideological, and political arenas have been spoken up for and have won the support of other citizens sharing those values—in many cases, with a real impact on government decision making.

The Internet and Consumer Trends

New technologies increase the speed of information transfer, and this opens up the possibility of “bespoke” shopping. The Internet offers an immense wealth of possibilities for buying content, news, and leisure products, and all sorts of advantages arise from e-commerce, which has become a major distribution channel for goods and services. You can book airline tickets, get a T-shirt from Australia, or buy food at an online grocery store. New applications support secure business transactions and create new commercial opportunities.

In this setting, it is the consumer who gains the upper hand, and the conventional rules and methods of distribution and marketing break down. Consumers’ access to information multiplies, and their reviews of their experience with various products and services take center stage. Access to product comparisons and rankings, user reviews and comments, and recommendations from bloggers with large followings have shaped a new scenario for consumer behavior, retail trade, and the economy in general.

The Internet and the Economy

The Internet is one of the key factors driving today’s economy. No one can afford to be left behind. Even in a tough macroeconomic framework, the Internet can foster growth, coupled with enhanced productivity and competitiveness.

The Internet provides opportunities for strengthening the economy: How should we tackle them? While Europe—and Spain specifically—are making efforts to make the best possible use of the Internet, there are areas in which their approach needs to improve. Europe faces a major challenge, and risks serious failure if it lets the United States run ahead on its own. The European Commission, in its “Startup Manifesto,” suggests that the Old World be more entrepreneur-friendly—the proposal is backed by companies like Spotify and Tuenti. Europe lacks some of the necessary know-how. We need to improve in financial services and in data privacy, moving past the obsolete regulatory framework we now have and making a bid to achieve a well-connected continent with a single market for 4G mobile connections. We need to make it easier to hire talent outside each given country.

The use of e-commerce should be encouraged among small and medium-sized enterprises so that growth opportunities can be exploited more intensely. Following the global trend of the Internet, companies should internalize their online business. And much more emphasis should be placed on new technologies training in the academic and business spheres.

Modern life is global, and Spain is competing against every other country in the world. I do not believe in defeatism or victim culture. Optimism should not translate into callousness, but I sincerely believe that if you think creatively, if you find a different angle, if you innovate with a positive attitude and without fear of failure, then you can change things for the better. Spain needs to seize the moment to reinvent itself, grasping the opportunities offered up by the online world. We need to act, take decisions, avoid “paralysis through analysis.” I sometimes feel we are too inclined to navel-gazing: Spain shuts itself off, fascinated with its own contradictions and local issues, and loses its sense of perspective. Spain should open up to the outside, use the crisis as an opportunity to do things differently, in a new way—creating value, underlining its strengths, aspiring to be something more.

In the United States, for instance, diving headfirst into a personal Internet-related startup is regarded as perfectly normal. I’m glad to see that this entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold here as well. I believe in working hard, showing perseverance, keeping your goals in view, surrounding yourself with talent, and taking risks. No risk, no success. We live in an increasingly globalized world: of course you can have a Spain-based Internet startup, there are no frontiers.

We need to take risks and keep one step ahead of the future. It is precisely the most disruptive innovations that require radical changes in approach and product, which might not even find a market yet ready for them—these are the areas providing real opportunities to continue being relevant, to move forward and “earn” the future, creating value and maintaining leadership. It is the disruptive changes that enable a business, product, or service to revolutionize the market—and, particularly in the technology sector, such changes are a necessity.

The Future of Social Communications, Innovation, Mobile Technologies, and Total Connectivity in Our Lives

The future of social communications will be shaped by an  always-online  culture.  Always online  is already here and will set the trend going forward. Total connectivity, the Internet you can take with you wherever you go, is growing unstoppably. There is no turning back for global digitalization.

Innovation is the driving force of growth and progress, so we need to shake up entrenched processes, products, services, and industries, so that all of us together—including established businesses, reacting to their emerging competitors—can move forward together.

Innovation is shaping and will continue to shape the future of social communications. It is already a reality that Internet connections are increasingly mobile. A survey we conducted in early 2013 in partnership with Ipsos found that 94 percent of Tuenti users aged 16 to 35 owned cell phones, 84 percent of users connected to the Internet using their phones, and 47 percent had mobile data subscriptions for connecting to the Internet. A total of 74 percent of users reported connecting to the Internet from their phone on a daily basis, while 84 percent did so at least weekly. Only 13 percent did not use their phones to connect to the Internet, and that percentage is decreasing every day.

Mobile Internet use alters the pattern of device usage; the hitherto familiar ways of accessing the Internet are changing too. The smartphone activities taking up the most time (over three hours a day) include instant messaging (38%), social media use (35%), listening to music (24%), and web browsing (20%). The activities taking up the least time (under five minutes a day) are: SMS texting (51%), watching movies (43%), reading and writing e-mail (38%), and talking on the phone (32%). Things are still changing.

Smartphones are gaining ground in everyday life. Many of the purposes formerly served by other items now involve using our smartphones. Some 75 percent of young people reported having replaced their MP3 player with their phone, 74 percent use their phone as an alarm clock, 70 percent use it as their camera, and 67 percent use it as their watch.

We have been observing these shifts for a while, which is why we decided to reinvent ourselves by placing smartphones at the heart of our strategy. I want to use this example as a showcase of what is happening in the world of social communication and the Internet in general: mobile connectivity is bringing about a new revolution. Tuenti is no longer just a social network, and social media as a whole are becoming more than just websites. The new Tuenti provides native mobile apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone, as well as the Firefox OS app and the mobile version of the website, m.tuenti.com. Tuenti is now a cross-platform service that lets users connect with their friends and contacts from wherever they may be, using their device of choice. A user with a laptop can IM in real time with a user with a smartphone, and switch from one device to another without losing the thread of the conversation. The conversations are in the cloud, so data and contacts are preserved independently of the devices being used. This means the experience has to be made uniform across platforms, which sometimes involves paring down functionalities, given the processing and screen size limitations of mobile devices. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on are all evolving to become increasingly cross-platform experiences. But Tuenti is the first social network that has also developed its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)—the company is an Internet service provider over the mobile network. Tuenti is an MVNO with a social media angle, and this may be the future path of telecommunications.

Social media are evolving to become something more, and innovation must be their hallmark if they are to continue being relevant. Tuenti now embraces both social communications and telecom services provision, offering value added by letting you use the mobile app free of charge and without using up your data traffic allowance, even if you have no credit on your prepaid card—this is wholly revolutionary in the telecom sector. The convergence of social media with more traditional sectors is already bringing about a new context for innovation, a new arena for the development and growth of the Internet.

Just about everything in the world of the Internet still lies ahead of us, and mobile communications as we know them must be reinvented by making them more digital. The future will be shaped by innovation converging with the impact of mobility. This applies not just to social media but to the Internet in general, particularly in the social communications field. I feel that many people do not understand what we are doing and have no idea of the potential development of companies like ours at the global level. Right now, there may be somebody out there, in some corner of the world, developing the tool that will turn the Internet upside down all over again. The tool that will alter our day-to-day life once more. Creating more opportunities, providing new benefits to individuals, bringing more individual and collective well-being. Just ten years ago, social media did not exist; in the next ten years, something else radically new will emerge. There are many areas in which products, processes, and services can be improved or created afresh. The future is brimming with opportunities, and the future of the Internet has only just begun.

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How Virtual Reality Technology Has Changed Our Lives: An Overview of the Current and Potential Applications and Limitations

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No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

Despite virtual reality (VR) being initially marketed toward gaming, there are many potential and existing VR applications in various sectors and fields, including education, training, simulations, and even in exercise and healthcare. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of general understanding of the strengths and limitations of VR as a technology in various application domains. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to contribute to the library of literature concerning VR technology, its applications in everyday use, and some of its existing drawbacks. Key VR applications were discussed in terms of how they are currently utilized or can be utilized in the future, spanning fields such as medicine, engineering, education, and entertainment. The main benefits of VR are expressed through the text, followed by a discussion of some of the main limitations of current VR technologies and how they can be mitigated or improved. Overall, this literature review shows how virtual reality technology has the potential to be a greatly beneficial tool in a multitude of applications and a wide variety of fields. VR as a technology is still in its early stages, but more people are becoming interested in it and are optimistic about seeing what kind of changes VR can make in their everyday lives. With how rapidly modern society has adapted to personal computers and smartphones, VR has the opportunity to become the next big technological turning point that will eventually become commonplace in most households.

1. Introduction

This literature review aims to contribute to the library of literature on the applications of virtual reality (VR), how they are currently used and can be used in the future, and some of the strengths and difficulties that come with using VR.

Virtual reality (VR) refers to a computer-generated, three-dimensional virtual environment that users can interact with, typically accessed via a computer that is capable of projecting 3D information via a display, which can be isolated screens or a wearable display, e.g., a head-mounted display (HMD), along with user identification sensors [ 1 ]. VR can mainly be divided into two categories: non-immersive, and immersive [ 2 ]. Non-immersive VR utilizes a combination of screens surrounding the user to present virtual information [ 3 ]. A typical example of this is driving or flight simulations in which the user sits in a chair with multiple screens around them, giving them the feeling of being in the cockpit or driver’s seat without being fully immersed. Immersive VR refers to using a wearable display, e.g., HMD, to track a user’s movement and present the VR information based on the position of users [ 4 ], which allows them to experience 360 degrees of the virtual environment. This immersive experience is what most people think of when it comes to VR and is one of the most marketable aspects of VR technology. In between immersive and non-immersive VR, there is also augmented reality (AR). AR makes use of computer-generated imagery that is overlayed on physical elements in the real world, which can be found in many applications, such as stores providing a virtual fitting application for people to “try on” clothes. Mixed reality (XR) represents the spectrum between the physical and digital worlds, combining AR and VR to allow users to both immerse themselves in a virtual world while also being somewhat grounded in reality.

The concept of VR was first introduced in the 1960s, with Morton’s creation of the Telesphere Mask and the Sensorama [ 5 ]. The original technologies served the purpose of immersing the user in the video display around them, making them feel like they are a part of the video. The Ultimate display was an idea developed by Ivan Sutherland [ 6 ], operating on a similar concept of allowing the user to feel immersed in a computer-generated environment using multiple input and output devices [ 7 , 8 ]. Following the creation of the Sensorama and the idea of the Ultimate display in the 1960s, the next large boom in VR technology development occurred in the early 2010s. During this period of time, VR was still considered a gimmick—it was expensive and was not considered a technology that would ever become popular with the general public. This, however, started to shift in 2012, when Palmer Luckey debuted his prototype for the first Oculus [ 9 ]. In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus after seeing the interest it garnered, leading to a significant increase in the popularity of VR devices for home use. Since then, VR has grown to become more popular and accessible to the everyday consumer, with more VR headsets available on the market, such as the HTC Vive, Samsung VR, Oculus, Google Cardboard, and more.

Despite VR being initially marketed toward gaming, there are many potential and existing VR applications in various sectors and fields, including education, training, simulations, and even in exercise and healthcare. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of general understanding of the strengths and limitations of VR as a technology in various application domains. Some of the largest issues with current VR technology are hard to overcome and can span from technical to financial and health issues. Technological limitations regarding users feeling uncomfortable or ill while using a VR headset, the inaccessibility of this technology to most people due to the high price of the associated hardware, and the lack of technical standardization are all current issues that the tech industry is hoping to overcome with research and future improvements.

Overall, this literature review serves the purpose of covering how different types of VR applications can be utilized, as well as providing information on the advantages and drawbacks of using VR technology in various application domains.

In order to present a reliable literature review, an extensive search was performed using common journal search engines/websites, e.g., Google Scholar, JSTOR, MDPI, ResearchGate, PubMed, and Science Direct, which includes peer-reviewed studies and articles. Keywords and phrases used in searching for sources include a combination of “VR” or “virtual reality” with “Education”, “Simulation,” “Games”, “Virtual”, “Immersive”, “Non-immersive”, “Training”, “Application”, “Manufacturing”, “Industrial”, “Medical”, “Healthcare”, and “Entertainment”. The variety in keywords helped yield different results for VR not only as a technology but also in major use cases where it has already been utilized for different industries and fields. The gathered papers and articles were then reviewed to further select representative and up-to-date evidence.

Papers were selected with the goal of providing sufficient coverage of the topic by presenting an overarching summary rather than an exhaustive review of every type of application within VR. Having a large variety of papers does not guarantee that every particular use case of VR is covered, but it does provide a wide breadth of use cases of VR that are currently applied, as well as opportunity spaces for VR applications in the future. As shown in Figure 1 , 145 papers were initially collected, but only 77 were thoroughly reviewed to provide enough coverage without unnecessary advanced technical details. Five additional papers and articles were added after review to accommodate additional information, resulting in a total of 82 sources used for the final literature review.

General structure of the paper selection and literature review.

Included papers were those that clearly presented a specific VR application, those that showed clear negative or positive outcomes of VR usage, or papers that provided relevant background information on a specific VR technology. Exclusion criteria included disregarding papers that had an overt focus on VR hardware components, excluding studies that may have mentioned VR without it being the focus, and rejecting papers that became repetitive after utilizing other papers on similar topics. The following sections provide detailed reviews based on various VR applications and domains.

3. Reviews of VR Technology Applications

The technological applications of VR have advanced to a point where they can be applied to an extensive range of fields and industries outside of just gaming or entertainment. Many have started to take advantage of VR in performing tasks that are hard to practice due to limited resources or the inherent risks and dangers associated with said tasks that can sometimes lead to catastrophic consequences. The greatest strength of VR is that it opens up opportunities for people to practice these tasks in a safe capacity while also being immersed enough for it to feel realistic and transferable to the real world and depict almost any situation accurately [ 10 ]. This section covers some of the main categories of VR applications and provides examples of how these applications are applied or can be applied to different use cases across various fields.

One of the most widely used and largely applicable applications of VR is the simulation aspect, which can be uniquely created and customized to suit users’ needs. There are two main types of simulations: immersive and non-immersive. As mentioned above, non-immersive VR simulations usually include multiple screens and some type of platform or apparatus that mimics the activities or tasks in reality [ 3 ]. Immersive VR simulations differ in terms of using HMDs in place of screens and can either utilize a control platform or apparatus such as the ones used in non-immersive simulations [ 11 ] or can instead be fully contained within a virtual setup and require no external setups or platforms. Whether users opt for immersive or non-immersive VR simulations, there is no significant difference in the performance, and the results appear to be very similar in fulfilling the simulation’s purpose [ 12 ]. There is, however, a slight advantage to using immersive VR simulations with HMDs, as they are capable of fully immersing the user in the simulated environment and giving them a more thorough experience [ 13 ].

3.1. Industrial Simulation Applications

VR simulations have many applications that can span from training simulation to prototyping, designing, and testing tools and objects. Some commonly used VR simulations in the industrial domain include driving simulators, flight simulators for pilots, and combat simulators for military personnel, all of which provide training to users in highly dangerous circumstances without putting them at risk during the training process [ 14 ]. Among the many use cases, two typical simulation applications are further discussed in the following sections.

3.1.1. Driving Simulations

One major use of VR simulations is driving simulations for both driving training and within the automotive industry; VR provides the ability to create driving simulations in which users can be placed in risky driving scenarios without real danger [ 15 ]. Driving simulators can be useful in multiple capacities, such as observing driving behavior to collect data or training inexperienced drivers in a low-stress environment.

VR driving simulations can be used to train young or novice drivers and help them understand their mistakes or point out some bad driving habits they need to adjust. Within a simulation, drivers can be placed in a virtual vehicle within an environment resembling a cityscape, with their behaviors and actions observed and recorded to later analyze for any issues or mistakes or to see if the drivers made the correct decisions in a given scenario [ 16 ]. After conducting the simulation, drivers can be informed of their mistakes and receive feedback about how to improve their behaviors in an actual driving situation. These driving simulations can also be beneficial in training young drivers with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [ 17 ], who may otherwise have difficulties learning in an uncontrolled environment.

Another application of VR driving simulations is the ability to collect real-time data on how users react to different scenarios as drivers on the road in a simulated environment. This data can be used in multiple capacities, such as designing better safety features in a vehicle, providing a better user experience for drivers, developing training modules for drivers, and for use in autonomous vehicle (AV) research and development. AVs have been an emerging field of technology that will continue to develop and advance, with VR simulations continuously providing opportunities for safe and efficient data collection and user testing [ 18 ]. One common issue in the field is developing trust between users and autonomous vehicles and understanding how to mitigate the distrust most people have in this technology [ 19 ]. It is important to ensure users have a certain level of trust in an AV so as to ensure drivers take over when appropriate. Accordingly, putting users in a VR driving simulation in which they interact with an autonomous vehicle virtually can yield substantial amounts of data on how users behave within that environment while also ensuring that users feel safe in the process and can become accustomed to being in an AV [ 20 ].

3.1.2. Product Design and Prototyping

One application of VR that can be useful is the ability to look at 3D models in a virtual space in a way that is difficult to visualize via a screen. Prototypes or preliminary designs for products can be modeled and shown in a virtual environment for test and evaluation purposes [ 21 ]. One significant advantage of showing these models in VR is presenting a virtual prototype or part without spending a lot of time, money, effort, or material on building the prototype in real life. Through simulations, VR can also show how the product would react under different conditions. Simulations can be run in VR to show the effect of different interactions between the prototype and surrounding subjects [ 22 ]. This can help the prototype designers determine if any areas of the prototype need to be improved based on the simulated interaction results. The ability to see the product in a virtual environment can also provide the ability to make changes to VR design for a quick turnaround and faster results, which could increase the speed of prototyping, reduce prototype production waste, and increase the understanding of the functions of the prototype.

3.2. Education

Educational applications of VR have not been utilized much yet, but there are many promising examples and studies of how beneficial VR can be in an educational environment. Using VR can help increase student attention by keeping them engaged with what is happening inside the VR environment [ 23 , 24 ]. Most teenage students find it challenging to pay attention in class, especially when they feel that the discussed topics are not relevant to them. When students use exciting technologies such as VR, they are more interested and engaged with what they are learning while immersed in a virtual environment [ 25 , 26 ]. VR headsets are also useful in blocking out visual and auditory distractions, creating an opportunity for the student to focus on teaching materials better. Such VR approaches open up more opportunities for teachers to interact one-on-one with students and have more useful and beneficial teacher–student interactions [ 27 ].

VR also provides the opportunity for students to construct and practice their own knowledge by being able to engage in meaningful experiences. Students are able to immersively engage in educational activities and gain a better understanding of the topic at hand [ 28 ]. VR also has the capability of transporting students to different environments, allowing them to learn and explore various concepts safely and efficiently. This can be especially useful to demonstrate environments that are impossible to visit in reality, such as underwater or space [ 29 , 30 ].

Mixed reality can be considered an extended VR application, which can be applied to real learning environments, such as exploring laboratory experiments [ 31 ]. Students can wear an HMD that shows information and instructions about the laboratory they will experience and can interact with items in reality to recreate what is simulated to them in VR. Essentially, students are still fully aware of their surroundings while also having a better visual understanding and representation of their task, which can help reduce mistakes, allow students to be more independent, and keep students interested and engaged.

With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a sudden increase in virtual learning, with many classes being held via online meeting platforms and others being fully asynchronous. VR offers a new, unique approach to asynchronous learning; VR can create a learning environment in which a student can participate in lectures and ask questions to virtual instructors with pre-generated answers [ 32 ]. It is particularly important for students to feel immersed in the virtual environment in order to keep them engaged [ 33 ]. Virtual environments can be created to look just like real-life classrooms where students can walk around and work with other students on assignments [ 34 ]. The issue with asynchronous classroom experiences is that not all of a student’s questions will necessarily be answered; information will be limited to what is currently updated within the virtual experience. Thus, VR-based virtual education does provide a better experience to students than watching videos online, but it cannot replace the experience of being in a classroom with teachers who can directly engage with students.

With VR technology further advancing, VR could also be used for live, synchronous classes where students can engage with classmates and teachers from the comfort of their homes in real time. This would have been especially beneficial when schools were closed due to the pandemic, but it can also provide a way for students to attend classes while experiencing health difficulties, traveling, or living in other countries, etc. Even though live classes have not yet really been held using VR, such applications can be developed in the future, especially with some of the current development being made in both asynchronous learning and social interaction.

3.3. Public Health

Another domain in which VR has been utilized is within public health and wellness. Due to the immersive nature of VR, it can be used to simulate experiences that can directly impact people’s health. Some examples include providing immersive training simulations to medical personnel, offering a new method of exercise or meditation, and presenting therapists with opportunities to better help and understand their patients.

3.3.1. Medical Training

VR simulations provide the opportunity for medical professionals to practice procedures before operating on a patient, which has proven to help provide patients with better outcomes more consistently and reduce the incidence of mistakes. Preparation and practice in VR help improve patient outcomes because medical personnel are better prepared for each patient’s unique circumstances before operating [ 35 , 36 ].

In terms of learning how to perform procedures, medical students can train in an interactive virtual environment that can be programmed with different scenarios, which allows a student to experience real-life scenarios with virtual patients [ 37 ]. The virtual environment can be programmed in a multitude of diverse ways so the student can be prepared and better accustomed to different types of scenarios they may face with future patients. The simulation can be programmed so that a video can be played, showing how to effectively use a tool or object when the user looks at it [ 38 ]. The simulation can also provide hints or step-by-step instructions to students so they know how to perform the surgery properly. All these practices are much more hands-on than reading a textbook and more realistic than practicing on mannequins with minimal risks to a real patient, which makes VR a perfect tool to assist student learning.

Medical students are not the only ones who can benefit from VR simulations; seasoned medical professionals and surgeons can also benefit from this technology. Patient-specific virtual reality simulations (PSVR) are a technology that allows doctors to practice actual upcoming operations in VR [ 39 ]. This technology allows surgeons to practice customized procedures to match their patients’ specific needs and circumstances. A patient’s medical history and physical attributes can be created in the simulation and programmed with the most likely outcomes. When a surgeon performs a task or action in the simulation, the appropriate or most likely reaction can be programmed to simulate what would occur in real life under the same circumstance. This provides an opportunity for surgeons to plan out their surgery beforehand in a virtual environment, allowing them to be better prepared and more confident in their plan for the surgery ahead [ 40 ].

3.3.2. Exergaming, Fitness and Sports

With the initial focus of VR being on gaming, developers saw an opportunity for the emergence of a genre of games called exergames, in which users participate in physical activities to achieve the goals of the game. “The core concept of exergaming rests on the idea of using vigorous body activity as the input for interacting with engaging digital game content with the hope of supplanting the sedentary activity that typifies traditional game interaction that relies on keyboards, gamepads, and joysticks” [ 41 ]. VR games tend to fall under the category of exergames by requiring the user to stand up and move around in order to interact with the environment. Games such as Beat Saber (Beat Games, Prague, Czech Republic) make the user move around frequently to fulfill the game’s requirements.

Using VR as a workout tool helps gamify exercise, which can greatly assist users in staying motivated and engaged by providing them with goals to achieve during their workout. A study performed by Segura-Orti on dialysis patients shows that patients that used VR exercises instead of conventional physical activities had an increased level of physical activity compared to those who worked out using conventional methods [ 42 , 43 ]. This is probably due to the more enjoyable experience of getting exercise in game form that real life has failed to achieve with exercise apps and challenges. Some current examples include the implementation of treadmills and stationary bicycles with VR applications that allow users to physically run/cycle in place while virtually traveling through a virtual environment. These types of immersive experiences can make users’ workouts more enjoyable and can help encourage those new to fitness to start exercising from home in a new and exciting fashion.

VR technology is also being utilized in sports, where it is used to train athletes to improve their skills and can help provide them with physical therapy and rehabilitation. In terms of athletic training, VR presents a great method of perceptual-cognitive skills training [ 44 ], where users are able to experience and learn from video-based playback in an immersive environment rather than on a screen. This can be especially useful in customizing training for players in large team sports, such as football, basketball, or soccer [ 45 ]. VR allows individuals to repeatedly practice skills with lower risks of harm, which helps reduce injury. When injuries do occur in the real world, VR can be used in the rehabilitation process by allowing athletes to train from anywhere and at any time, even in the absence of a trainer or facility.

3.3.3. Therapy and Meditation

Another use of VR is in mental health therapy and meditation. The immersive nature of VR provides the flexibility to create various types of environments or experiences. Accordingly, VR can be used to experience situations that are hard to come by in real life, or that can be dangerous to go through in real life. For example, for those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), VR can be a way to experience situations that can trigger traumatic events within a safe, controlled capacity. Specific scenarios can be recreated in a virtual environment, and the patient can experience them in the presence of a therapist in order to receive help dealing with their trauma [ 46 ]. This type of therapy is similar to exposure therapy, in which patients confront what triggers them in order to slowly heal from their trauma [ 47 ].

For people who have certain disorders that may be hard to explain with words, VR can be a safe way to put people in scenarios that may trigger their disorders and observe their behaviors. Allowing a therapist to observe the situation can give them a better insight into why their patient is reacting in a certain way, which will allow them to better treat their patient [ 48 ].

Another application of VR is to use the immersive nature of the technology for meditation purposes. With the ability to experience a calm virtual environment that fully blocks distractions, VR presents a unique form of meditation that may be otherwise difficult to achieve at home. Studies on the use of VR in meditation have shown a slight increase in positive effects and a state of mindfulness in users after the meditation experience [ 49 ]. One study showed that VR meditation was more successful in reducing pre-exam anxiety in college students than watching a meditation video, where 71% of those using VR reported lower anxiety levels compared to 47% of the control group [ 50 ]. VR mediation has been shown to be useful in calming healthcare workers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual reality plus neurofeedback (VR + NF) meditation was shown to decrease the user’s anger, tension, depression, vigor, fatigue, and confusion [ 51 ]. Navarro-Haro et al. experienced an immersive VR mediation simulation and reported an increase in mindfulness and a reduction in negative emotional stress [ 52 ]. They were also less sad and less angry after the simulation. Mediation experts acknowledge that meditation with VR can be an immensely helpful and unique experience that is not yet fully utilized, and studies such as the one discussed here show promising results for this use of VR.

3.4. Social Interaction

VR provides the ability to transport users to a virtual environment in which they can interact with other users. This provides an opportunity to create social connections that may otherwise be hard to create or maintain. Social interaction via VR can be especially helpful for those with autism, as it provides a way for them to practice their communication skills. Users are able to participate in virtual cognition training to better improve their social skills, such as emotion recognition, social attribution, and analogical reasoning [ 53 ]. There are even programs in which young adults with high-functioning autism can participate that are designed with the purpose of increasing their social skills. These programs train users to better recognize facial expressions, body language, and emotions from a person’s voice [ 54 ]. These programs have lasting effects on the users, as they gain the ability to recognize other people’s emotions within the training that they can carry forward in their lives.

Social virtual reality also provides a new way for people to connect over long distances. Virtual spaces can be created in a VR environment and allow users to interact with each other in a realistic setting; users can have realistic avatars and talk to each other as if they were face-to-face [ 55 ]. This method of communication can be as effective as talking to another person in real life as long as the users feel immersed in the environment. When the users are immersed in the virtual environment, they have a better sense of presence, and their responses are more genuine [ 56 ]. This was especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing and travel restrictions made it much harder for people to see and speak with their loved ones [ 57 ]. Being able to attend events and experience activities with others via VR has provided a substitute for real-life interactions that is more realistic than merely speaking over the phone or via video chat [ 58 ].

3.5. Entertainment

The most prominent application of VR among the general public is within the sphere of entertainment, with VR offering new ways for users to experience several types of media in an immersive capacity.

One such form of media consumption within VR is watching movies, shows, or videos. VR offers new ways for users to experience visual media due to its ability to immerse users in a virtual world. VR displays are able to play 360° videos and allow the users to move around in the virtual environment, which provides the user with a more immersive experience and allows them to interact with the world as they see fit [ 59 ]. Users now have more control over what they want to pay attention to in a video and can experience videos in a whole new way.

Another application is virtual travel and tourism. Virtual tourism allows users to experience immersive tourism in simulated environments based on real landscapes or locations. This can make travel attainable to many people that would otherwise not be able to afford the time or money needed to physically visit faraway destinations. Examples of VR tourism include virtual museum visits, navigating areas using applications such as Google Street View, and virtual tours of popular destinations such as the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China. The concept of virtually visiting other countries or worlds has existed since the 90s [ 60 ], but there was a boost in interest recently due to travel constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 61 ], with more people seeking travel experiences from the confines of their homes.

Live music is another form of entertainment that seems to be gaining traction as another large application of VR. Virtual reality has the ability to change the way people experience concerts, offering users the ability to attend and enjoy concerts from anywhere in the world. Prerecorded concerts are already available as a VR experience, with videos of the concerts filmed in 360 using omnidirectional cameras, allowing users to move their heads around and feel like they are physically present at the concert [ 62 ]. This can be an opportunity for users who do not have the ability to travel or could not get tickets to still enjoy the show. This will also allow users to see parts of the concert they could not see even if they were there due to cameras either being positioned on stage or close to the stage. The livestreaming of concerts in VR is still not technologically applicable, but it seems like the music industry is aiming to make it a reality at some point in the future with further VR development. As part of the most significant applications of VR, gaming has gained huge popularity recently, with headsets becoming more accessible and game developers investing more in the VR landscape. Many users have purchased VR headsets to play popular games such as Beat Saber , Super-Hot , and Job Simulator (Menlo Park, Prague, Czech Republic), some of the top-selling VR games. Besides designated VR games, many other games that were not initially made for VR are also being developed to include this capability and expand the options gamers have concerning their in-game experience. The rise of VR gaming popularity in recent years owes to the immersive capabilities of HMDs to immerse the users in the game environment, blocking out all external distractions [ 63 ] and giving the users a better sense of presence [ 64 ]. Players can experience the game from their point of view, which allows users to experience games in a whole new way [ 65 ].

4. Limitations and Side Effects of VR

Despite VR being a powerful and versatile tool, current VR technology has some evident limitations and drawbacks. These limitations include technological limits on what VR can do, how accessible VR is to the general public, and some of the side effects of using VR devices.

4.1. Technological Limitations

As a technology still in the earlier stages of development on a grand scale, VR has made significant leaps in evolution. Still, more substantial progress must occur before VR can be fully utilized in all possible applications and purposes.

Right now, the standardization of VR technology and presentation is still limited [ 66 ]; every developer may have their own interface specifications and functionality associated with their technology, and applications are not easily transferable between devices. The only standardization that can be observed as of now tends to be with popular games that are developed to be used across different VR platforms. It is also hard to troubleshoot bugs and receive proper support for any issues due to the lack of standardization. Hopefully, with time and progress in VR development, the technology can become more streamlined and provide better usability for users and transferability between devices. There are currently efforts to standardize VR, but these efforts are new, and the process is still in its infancy [ 67 ].

Other issues include hardware and software requirements for professional VR development, as most VR development software tends to take up a lot of data space on computers and have high-power consumption [ 68 ]. VR headsets also tend to be very heavy and can cause physical strain on users, causing headaches and pain, especially around the neck and shoulders [ 69 ]. As of now, it is not yet known what kind of detrimental effects VR use will have on users’ eyesight, but it is known that it can cause strain, especially with prolonged usage [ 70 ].

Another common issue is the lag between the user’s movements and the visual display within a VR headset [ 71 ]. A lot of the time, the headset’s tracking does not keep up properly with the user’s movements, which not only decreases their immersion but can also cause dizziness or “cybersickness,” which is explained in more detail below [ 71 , 72 ].

Cybersickness

One of the crucial issues with VR usage is VR-induced motion sickness, or “cybersickness” [ 73 , 74 ]. Cybersickness is a phenomenon where users will feel symptoms similar to motion sickness (i.e., nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness) as a result of using a VR device [ 71 ]. It is not yet known exactly why this occurs, but there are a few theories to explain this phenomenon. The most likely theory is known as the “sensory conflict theory,” which states that the excessive mismatch between the motion a user perceives visually and the lack of the corresponding movement in their body causes a conflict [ 71 , 72 , 75 ]. This happens when there is a disparity between the user’s visual system and vestibular system, which is the sensory system responsible for providing the brain with information about motion, head position, and spatial orientation [ 76 ]. Another explanation for cybersickness is the “ecological hypothesis”, which states that when people are not able to perceive or react to new dynamic situations, postural instability occurs [ 77 ].

Cybersickness does not always come with virtual experiences, but the issue can be exacerbated by several factors. Some individual factors include prolonged VR exposure; the user’s predisposition to motion sickness, fatigue, or nausea; and how adapted a user is to VR applications [ 71 , 78 ]. Cybersickness symptoms also seem to be less frequent when users are sitting instead of standing. Symptoms tend to worsen when a user is experiencing a high-speed simulation or game. Being a passive participant makes users more susceptible to symptoms than when they are in control of the simulation [ 71 , 79 , 80 ].

There are also some technical factors that can increase the likelihood of cybersickness occurring. These issues include noticeable lags (delays in the visual display can cause symptoms), position tracking errors (better head tracking reduces symptoms), and flicker in the visual display [ 71 , 72 ].

Cybersickness is one of the most uncomfortable issues that comes with VR usage, and if users continue to experience these uncomfortable symptoms, this can present a huge hindrance to the widespread development and utilization of VR applications [ 72 , 77 ].

4.2. Accessibility

As VR technology evolves, it is becoming more accessible, especially compared to its earlier stages. The cost of VR headsets on the market is still higher than most people can afford, but their current pricing is on par with most gaming consoles. Headsets such as Oculus Quest 2 cost about $300 for the base model and can be fully operated without the need for a computer, making it one of the more accessible headsets on the market. Most other headsets require using a computer that is “VR-ready”, meaning a high-end computer with a powerful graphics card that can manage VR applications. VR-ready computers tend to be more expensive than most computers, making this type of VR headset more expensive overall and out of reach for most people. This makes cost one of the larger barriers for people to get into VR as regular consumers, which is a hindrance to the growth of VR as a household technology.

VR as a field also includes augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR), which are less immersive forms of virtual experiences where users still operate in the real world with a virtual overlay. AR and XR applications are more accessible to people due to their development for use on mobile devices, which are much more common with most people owning or having access to one. A common example of this type of application is AR games such as the popular Pokémon Go , which combines using a smartphone with a physical exploration of the real world [ 81 ] in search of “Pokémon” around them that can only be observed via their phones. Distances are tracked based on a user’s steps, and users can connect fitness apps to the game in order to increase rewards gained from crossing long distances. These types of games and applications can encourage people to be more physically active by gamifying the walking experience [ 82 ]. Similar smartphone games and applications can be a more accessible entry point for people interested in VR but who lack the funds to invest in an immersive headset and computer setup.

5. Conclusions

This literature review has shown how virtual reality technology has the potential to be a greatly beneficial tool in a multitude of applications and a wide variety of fields. Current applications span different domains such as engineering, education, medicine, and entertainment. With VR technology gaining popularity and traction, more VR applications can be further utilized in the future, both in improving current use cases as well as expanding to more domains. The hope is that with more VR technological breakthroughs and development, the current limitations and issues can be overcome, making long-term VR usage more realistic and accessible to more people.

Overall, VR as a technology is still in its early stages, but more people are becoming interested in it and are optimistic about seeing what kind of changes VR can make in their everyday lives. However, more and more application scenarios are under development by experts from different fields, which allows for more specific applications and development. With how rapidly modern society has adapted to personal computers and smartphones, VR has the opportunity to become the next big technological turning point that will eventually become commonplace in most households.

Funding Statement

This research received no external funding.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, A.H. and B.J. methodology, A.H. and B.J. validation, B.J.; formal analysis, A.H.; investigation, A.H.; resources, A.H.; data curation, A.H.; writing—original draft preparation, A.H.; writing—review and editing, B.J.; visualization, A.H.; supervision, B.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Table of Contents

Ways technology improves our daily life, influence of technology, improved quality of life , downsides to consider, positive and negative impact of technology on modern businesses, has technology improved our lives.

As it is rightly said that necessity is the mother of invention, all technologies that have emerged and thrived so far have been invented to meet the needs of society. As newer technology is introduced, it certainly reflects the very essence of a population’s needs and wants. Nowadays, technologies and societies are inseparable. It is like a cycle, where each one significantly affects the other. As humans evolve and their needs and wants change over time, advanced and modern technology come to the rescue to fulfill these needs. 

Has the use of technology improved our lives? Join us as we address in our Java Course . We examine how different facets of contemporary life are impacted by technology through perceptive debates and useful examples. We'll examine how technology has transformed every aspect of our lives, from communication to healthcare, and offer a comprehensive grasp of both its advantages and disadvantages.

Technology is molding our society today. Following are some of the ways it is improving our daily lives. 

• Business Efficiency: A tidal wave of exponential technological progress is sweeping away the business world. Today’s marketplace offers more than different ways to improvise, adapt and leap forward by means of the available technology. To enhance the customer experience, the utilization of business analytics has proved to be beneficial. Such business tools, which are powered by technology, have taken the aspects of business to different heights. Personalized messaging and user behavior analysis has also helped businesses to mark their fruitful presence in the marketplace. 
• Expedited Communication: The only certain answer to how technology has improved our lives is, it has dramatically changed the way we communicated with each other. It has led to the birth of several modes of electronic communication such as smartphone communication and social media. We have reached a certain point in civilization where instant and glitch-free communication is easily available. Speed is undeniably the significant improvement that technology has brought forth for communication. Instant and easy communication is now possible from the comfort of our homes.      
• Advanced Lifestyle: With technology at its helm, societies have been reshaped throughout history. Technology has played a pivotal role in the way humans behave and operate in the world. Technological improvements around us are a continuous thing. New advancements are emerging and it is surely impacting our lifestyles. Our lives are now radically different compared to earlier decades, thanks to technology. The touch of technology and its presence is felt everywhere such as commuting, farming, education, etc. On the other hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) has made our lives super easy. Smart homes and advanced electronic gadgets, through the medium of IoT, have drastically improved our daily routines. It has made several aspects of life easier.  
• Information Accessibility: Technology has heavily influenced the way we transfer and access information. Nowadays, any information is available at the tip of our fingertips. We constantly find answers and gather information from the internet. Technology is readily accessible to us, both in terms of its authenticity and relevance, only if one knows how to browse better. To speak of the advantages of technology, information accessibility could be considered as the best one.   

The influence of technology in our daily lives is far more widespread than we actually think. It is growing and progressing at a rapid pace. It has changed the way we access resources. It has also changed the way we learn new things. Nowadays, people tend to rely on technology for everything. Whenever we need to contact someone, we can just text that person instantly. Earlier, it was much slower with letters and meetings. This is the way technology has disrupted the way we communicate. Our requirements and technical demands continue to grow, which is eventually pushing the boundaries of technology and the way it influences us. 

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We have reached a point where it is difficult to imagine life without technology. It has considerably changed the quality of life. By seeping into every aspect of our life, technology has changed the way we behave and operate. From communication and transport to healthcare and connectivity, technology has enhanced our lives for the better. The best part is that it is ever-evolving by facilitating more advanced features. For instance, we have come far from traditional audio calls to instant messaging and facetime. Not to forget, technology has come to rescue during the pandemic. When the world was in lockdown mode, video calling and putting out words on the internet has paved the way for connecting with each other. Technology helped us stay together by living apart. Whilst the pandemic was fading away, work from home situation was possible only due to technology which further rolled the wheels of economy. 

Since the dotcom boom, over time, the world is increasingly getting access to the internet. It is disrupting many lives and the way they interact with their daily matters. It all started with industrial automation which made work easy and efficient, further it penetrated into every aspect of life. Ever since it is changing every dimension of life. 

Though technology has changed things up, there are some downsides to consider. There are some pros and cons of technology. Privacy is the foremost concern that technology has brought forth. Digital technology means that enormous quantities of data are being collected and stored. This includes private information with regards to individuals and organizations. It is a challenging task to keep this information safe and secure. A single mistake or voluntary breach of data means that the private information landing into the hands of hackers, terrorists, etc. 

On the other hand, real-life contact has been diminishing away since the advent of technology. People tend to meet and greet online rather than interacting in-person. This ultimately results in isolation and a sense of disconnect from society. Several studies have suggested that lesser interaction with the society has further brought forth various kinds of mental health issues such as depression and social anxiety. 

With a slew of benefits of technology, there are some other downsides to consider such as job insecurity due to increasing automation, addiction to gadgets, less experience to life events, etc.  

There are so many pros of technology. Technology is continuously redefining the way organizations conduct their businesses by being more visible over the internet, accessible to customers. It is dramatically enhancing internal modus operandi as well as services they offer. Strategies concerning the execution of digital technologies have gained some ground of immense popularity over the last decade owing to the perks that businesses have been privileged to enjoy as a result of adapting to such technologies. By incorporating digital solutions, avant-garde tools and technologies, organizations have seamlessly managed processes, expedited production cycles and have been able to offer high quality products and improved customer experience whilst cutting down cost and boosting productivity and profitability. Technology has made organizations competitive with its sweeping impact.  

Positive and negative impacts are two sides of the same coin. Face to face communication is decreased due to the availability of audio and video calls. This influences decision making and can lead to misunderstanding. Also, organizational data is sensitive. If someone hacks into the system, it can lead to irreparable loss. Dependency is another issue which can hamper productivity.   

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While technology has certainly increased our standard of living in numerous ways, it has also brought a whole host of new challenges and dangers that must be addressed. Our lives are now more interconnected than ever, yet this can come at the cost of our privacy and security. Cybersecurity threats are now commonplace and can cause serious disruption to our lives, while issues such as cyberstalking, sexting, and cyberbullying have all become issues that must be addressed by responsible adults and children alike.

Technology has changed our lives in countless ways, from the way we communicate with each other to the way we watch TV. As technology advances, more and more of our daily lives are being impacted.

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Impact of Technology on Communication Essay

Introduction, advancement of technology in communication, media technology and online communication, the impacts of mobile phone on communication, reference list.

The realm of technology is ever-changing. New advances in applied science have forever transformed the way people interact. Exploring the impact of technology on communication and debating whether people connect with others differently seems to be the topic of the day.

Technology has allowed people to keep in touch no matter the distance. One is able to communicate 24 hours around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days on an interpersonal level.

What are the real impacts of technology on communication? How do electronics mediate and change the ways in which humans interact? How has the emergence of the Internet, mobile phones, and social networks affected society and businesses?

In order to reveal the importance of technology in communication, the essay tries to find answers to these questions. It explores how everything has changed over the years and discusses the connection between technology and communication.

To begin this examination and find answers to these questions, we begin by defining media and communication and outlining the stages of technological advancement from old age to the present day in the field of communication. The paper will highlight the use of the Internet, newspapers, radio, and other media, but it mostly dwells on the use of mobile telephony.

Communication is “the imparting or exchange of information by speaking, writing or using some other medium” (Daniel & Rod, 2011). On the other hand, media is defined as “the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively.”

Technology has changed everything in the modern society. The way we communicate has been revolutionized by the advancement of new innovations in the telecommunication sector. Connecting with other people with ease is more feasible in today’s world, and this is due to speed.

Several centuries ago, books and newspapers reigned as the only choice of communication. Then later, innovators brought the radio and television before innovation was taken a notch higher with the coming of the personal computer (Johnson, 1997, p.3).

With every new innovation, the reliance on books and newspapers as the mass medium of communication continued to reduce. With time, human culture has come to understand the power and the mechanisms involved in technology and invention. In today’s world, information has permeated the cycles of change and development.

The world today, past and present, can be studied at ease with the growing information technology. Technology has advanced with sheer velocity allowing different media to shape our thinking and habits. The people who were born during the television era thought that it was the climax of innovation, but they suddenly found themselves acclimating to a new medium, the World Wide Web.

Every time a new medium rolls out, the perceptions towards the previous media you were used to change (Johnson, 1997 p5). Technology proved to be powerful in the sense that no human being can predict what will change and what won’t with certainty.

The irony of it all is the fact that the influence of technology extends beyond generations to come. It is with no doubt that technology has changed the lives of human beings; information and entertainment are being received in a more convenient way.

The innovation of having a conversation using a device called the telephone changed everything in communication. This became magical, and one couldn’t believe such innovation would exist (Tofts, 1997, p.40).

With the emergence of new media technologies, consumers have been empowered to ‘filter’ the information they want to receive. This allows them to have a choice of which news to watch or what information to listen to (Palmer, 2003, p.161).

Media consumption has been made an engaging experience with marketers studying the preferences of the consumers in order to reflect broader social changes in society. In today’s world, the computer is seen as a multi-purpose machine with work and leisure functions, therefore, creating more value.

The rise of the Internet has also made it possible to have virtual offices where the user can work from home or any convenient location. The flow of information from different media has greatly changed the social structures of society at different levels (Barry, 1999).

Digital media has enabled news and event to be channeled in real-time. The combination of the Internet and commerce has given birth to e-commerce sites providing huge potential for marketers to reach out to virtual communities.

In the world today, there are numerous media screens within our surroundings. This ranges from the television sets in our houses, computer monitors at the office, mobile phones and MP3 players in our pockets and handbag.

Even when shopping or waiting to board a plane, you’re most probably staring at screens with entertainment media (Soukup, 2008, p.5). Heavy marketing has been adopted by producers of mobile technologies targeting consumers who possess mobile phones with picture and video capacity (Goggin, 2006, p.170).

Media texts producers have termed mobile media as a “third screen,” a device that consumers carry around with much ease. Unlike television screens, broader communication networks have been integrated into personal computers and mobile phones (Goggin, 2006, p.9).

Train, buses, and airplanes have been dominated by mobile screens providing passengers with entertainment as well as other media content, especially advertisements (Caron & Carona, 2007, p.17). With a lot of commercial media content, the preferences of people change in their everyday lives.

The world of popular media has become chaotic, with hundreds of television channels to choose from, thousands of songs ready for download, and not forgetting millions of web pages to surf.

The emergence of social media like Facebook and Twitter has enabled people to manage interactions and relationships with many friends. Technologies have impacted interpersonal communication enabling people to interact more often than before.

In addition to reducing the distance between people, online communication with tools like Facebook and Twitter enables people to keep track of their contacts with friends and are more aware of the last time they interacted with them. Online communication now incorporates more than one mode of contact, including text, voice, and body language.

A mobile phone is a device that has always been seen as connecting people who are far apart, thus overcoming the geographical distance between them. The number of mobile phone users has continued to increase substantially. The mobile phone has been integrated as part of people’s lives in the sense that it’s available and easy to use, keeping us connected to our families, friends, and business people (Ling, 2004, p.21-24).

The how and when the way we use our mobile phones impacts our communication not only with those we’re communicating with but also with the people within our proximity. At this point, it is paramount to note the changes that have taken place and that have allowed the adoption of mobile phones. The tremendous proliferation of this device has drastically changed the traditional communication model.

Who are the users of mobile phones, and for what purposes do they use them? Has there been any change in the way mobile phone facilitates communication? How has the face to face interaction been affected by mobile calls? Has mobile communication enhanced relationships?

These are some of the questions that arise when we try to fathom the way communication has affected our personal and professional lives. There are sentiments that mobile phones have reduced humans to emotionless beings.

There is no doubt that the revolution brought about the use of mobile phones in the way we communicate. There have been different perceptions among individuals and social levels in society in regard to mobile usage.

When we had fixed telephone lines that were put in a booth, telephones were seen as business tools only and were placed in a fixed, quiet environment. There was restriction when it came to teenagers using these phones (Agar, 2003). The ‘birth’ of mobile phones brought changes, and phone calls became a habit to many irrespective of age or location.

Today, people can use mobile phones wherever they are in private or in public. People have been addicted to their mobile phones more than any other gadget known to man, with the device remaining on throughout. Its portability enables people to carry it wherever they go (Castells, 1996).

A personal virtual network has been created whereby users can be available at all times to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues. The geographical barrier has been destroyed, making people feel close to one another, and the face to face communication has been rendered rather less important with this mediated communication (Richard, 2004, p.22).

Meetings and briefings have become obsolete, with communication being mediated by a computer or a phone. Mobile SMS (short messaging service) service and the Internet has become the preferable communication channels for most teenagers and young people all over the world (Plant, 2000, p.23).

There are places where mobile phones have become taboo devices, places like churches and crucial corporate meetings. At such places, the mobile ring is seen as a nuisance. In other scenarios, it is seen as a destructive device by acting as a third party and especially for dating couples who want to have a private conversation.

Any phone ring is seen as an ‘intruder,’ and this harms the relationship between the partners (Plant, 2000, p.29). In his research, Plant observes that there are those people who use mobile as ’a means of managing privacy where calls are carefully selected’. He categorizes this group of people as ‘hedgehogs.’

The other category is those people who use mobile phones as the key central part of their life. They become so attached to the device and cannot do without it. Plant referred to this group as ‘fox.’ They are regular users who need to feel connected with their families and friend. Their life will be dreadful if they lack the device (2000, p.32).

Telephones have promoted the use of text messaging and modernization since it’s allowing people to communicate more both verbally and by texting in a more convenient and efficient way. SMS has made communication to be more immediate, and users can customize the message at ease with the various applications installed on their mobiles (Richard, 2004, p. 100).

The advanced phones have email support as well as multimedia messages making chatting become a lifestyle for many who conduct business and those initiating intimate communication. It has emerged that SMS has made people become more united.

Users have developed abbreviated messages, which are now universally accepted as an appropriate language. The initial purpose of the phone to make calls has even lost taste with many people, especially the young generation.

According to Reid &Reid, more than 85% of teenagers prefer texting to talking on their mobile usage (Reid & Reid, 2004, p.1). There is ease of communication when it comes to texting in the sense that some formalities are eliminated, making communication more personal.

Texting has helped introverts who may lack the skills to have phone conversations allowing them to express their true self to other people leading to greater understanding and stronger relationships (Reid & Reid, 2004, p.8).

The use of mobile technology has affected the personalities of people to a great extent. Today, more people are hiding their feelings and whereabouts behind mobile phones, and this has raised suspicions among families, friends, and couples.

People go through text messages of others just to find out more about the individual who might even have no clue about what is happening. Contrary to this, most people believe that mobile is so crucial in enhancing the relationship between people no matter the distance and that it bonds us together more than it separates us (Plant, 2000, p.58).

The usage of mobile phones by children and teenagers has changed the way parents bring up their kids. Parenting has really changed as parents try to increase their surveillance and monitor their children’s mobile usage.

Their concern is to know who communicates with their kind and the kind of conversations they normally have. They are worried about the kind of social network the children create in their contact lists.

With the emergence of virtual communities, the influence of mobile phones has spilled over and affects parenting in general. Nonetheless, the primary purpose of mobile phones to facilitate communication has not changed.

There is no doubt that technology has changed the way humans communicate. Great impacts can be seen in the way communication has changed the social structures of our society at all levels. Even in years to come, technology remains the driving force of the way people interact.

The advancement of technology ensures that communication is quicker and that more people remain connected. There has been an evolution in interpersonal skills with the advancement of technology, and users should always be keen on adapting to new ways of communication.

Technology has continually brought new methods of communication leading to the expansion of mediated communication. The reality of having one message shared across a huge audience (mass communication) is now with us. A situation where neither time nor geography can limit the accessibility of information.

We have seen the merging together of newspapers and books with computer technology so that the frequency and ease of reporting information and advertisements can be increased. The exposure of both individuals and society to mediated communication has therefore affected our daily lives, particularly in our culture and the way we communicate.

Agar, J., 2003. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone . Cambridge: Icon Books.

Barry, W., 1999. Networks in the Global Village . Boulder Colo: Westview Press.

Caron, A, & Caronia, L., 2007. Moving cultures: mobile communication in everyday life. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Castells, M., 1996. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume 1. The Rise of the Network Society . Oxford: Blackwell.

Daniel, C., & Rod, M., 2011.The Dictionary of Media and Communications . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goggin, G., 2006. Cell phone culture mobile technology in everyday life. New York: Routledge.

Palmer, D., 2003. The Paradox of User Control’. 5 th Annual Digital Arts and Culture Conference (Proceedings), pp.160-164.

Plant, S., 2000. On the Mobile: the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life . Web.

Postman, N., 1992. Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology . New York: Vintage Books.

Reid, D. J. & Reid F. J. M., 2004. Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging . Web.

Richard, L., 2004. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society . San Francisco Morgan: Kaufmann.

Soukup, C., 2008. ‘Magic Screens: Everyday Life in an Era of Ubiquitous and Mobile Media Screens’, presented at 94 th annual Convention . San Diego .

Stephen, J., 1997. Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate . San Francisco: Basic Books.

Tofts, D., 1997. ‘ The technology within’ in memory trade: A Prehistory of Cyberculture, North Ryde: 21C Books.

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Davos 2023: Eight ways technology will impact our lives in the future

The next generation will live a very different life to us, thanks to technology. Image:  Pexels/ThisIsEngineering

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• Technology will be a vital tool for creating a cleaner, safer and more inclusive world, but what changes can we expect to see?
• Panelists on the Technology for a More Resilient World session at Davos discussed future trends and developments in tech.
• Be it the metaverse, smart glasses or large language models, the world as we know it may never be quite as we first imagined it.

Technology can be an important tool in the transition to a cleaner, safer and more inclusive world. But what strategic opportunities are there for technology to be an accelerator of progress and how is it likely to affect the next generation?

Leaders gathered on day two of Davos to talk about how technology and platforms will change the world, what tech trends and developments we’re likely to see, and even provide a glimpse into what our grandchildren can expect in future.

The Technology for a More Resilient World session featured Nicholas Thompson, CEO, The Atlantic; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM Corporation; Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO, Accenture; and Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated.

Here’s a selection of what they had to say:

1. Technology is boosting productivity

Businesses are increasingly looking to digitally transform their operations amid an incredible demand for things to be more intelligent and connected, says Cristiano Amon , President and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “I think technology right now, probably more than ever – especially when we talk about the current economic environment – we see that there is this desire of companies to digitally transform and use technology to become more efficient and more productive,” he said.

2. Glasses will overtake mobile phones

The future of computing will become virtual as computing platforms continue to evolve – just as it evolved from personal computers to mobile phones, says Amon . What we now know as the video call, particularly post-COVID, will soon become a holographic image in front of you seen through smart glasses.

“The technology trend is the merging of physical and digital spaces. I think that’s going to be the next computing platform and eventually, it’s going to be as big as phones. We should think about that happening within the decade,” he adds.

Have you read?

How to follow davos 2023, we are closing the gap between technology and policy, 3. the rise of quantum computing.

Quantum computing won’t replace classical computing but it will begin to solve problems in the physical world - materials, chemistry, encryption and optimization problems - within a few years, according to Arvind Krishna , Chairman and CEO, IBM Corporation. Indeed, quantum computing is already so good you may want to think about it now. “I would strongly urge everybody to invest in quantum-proof decryption now for any data, that you really, really care about,” he advises.

4. 5G will create lots more use cases

5G will create a lot of new use cases including drone management, robotic surgery and autonomous vehicles, says Sunil Bharti Mittal , Chairman, Bharti Enterprises. Industrial applications will particularly benefit due to their larger capacity. “In the meanwhile, people will get used to better connections, higher speeds, and lower latency for their regular devices as well,” he adds, before warning: “It’s going to cost a lot of money.”

5. ChatGPT-like tech will become the norm

Large language models will become a given because they lower the cost of artificial intelligence (AI) by allowing you to have multiple models over one base, giving you a speed advantage, says Krishna . “Beyond language is going to be a given, language because code can be a form of language and then you can go to, ‘what else can be a form of language?’ Legal documents, regulatory work etc,” he adds.

6. Great things will need good data

The recent excitement around ChatGPT has demonstrated the potential of having large amounts of data and the great things you do with it, but it has also highlighted the need for ‘good’ data, says Julie Sweet , Chair and CEO, Accenture. “We love what’s going on right now, with everyone talking about it. Because in many cases people have been doubters about why you need to have really clean data connecting to external data, use these then foundational models on specific use cases – a lot is going to be in digital manufacturing, in agriculture, industrial use cases – and it reminds everyone you have to get the data right.”

7. The metaverse is evolving very quickly

The metaverse is evolving faster than expected because it taps into human need while also creating something new, observes Sweet . “With human need, what we’ve discovered is that when you immerse yourself in an experience together, you learn better and you can also do things better,” she says. “We estimate there will be $1 trillion of revenue influenced by the metaverse by 2025.”

8. We will see a democratization of services

Our grandchildren will live in a very different world thanks to the democratization of products and services that are currently only available to the elite or wealthy, predicts Mittal . “Sitting like this, in the metaverse, you’ll probably have a few million people join from around the world, to experience what we’re experiencing today,” he says. “You’re going to see the benefit of technology really impacting people’s lives on a daily basis, and they will live a very different life to us.”

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