We may have never before been in an era of such rapid technological change.
Of course, much more is coming. Last fall, Gartner research predicted some of the big tech trends of 2018 and beyond, and it was quite a bounty: The continued rise of artificial intelligence and cloud-based computing, new developments in the internet of things, conversational platforms and other areas made the list.
All of that and more is underway, but I see a few advances coming in 2019 that can be truly transformative of the marketplace and consumer tech reality.
1. Blockchain-Based Identity And Privacy
With the growing prevalence of data breaches and the massively interconnected world we live in, new ways to verify identity and protect privacy will be game changers. Blockchain is a natural for this role because the whole point of it is to provide robust, incorruptible — yet encrypted — recordkeeping that anyone can easily verify. Companies like Evernym are already starting to do it….
2. ‘Dueling AI’
It’s a simple idea: Want to make your AI smarter? Have it battle it out with another AI. In this case, the arena is digital images: One AI attempts to create a realistic image, and another AI attempts to decide whether the image is real or artificial.
Of course, this is just one domain in which AIs can “duel.” Any domain can be modeled by computers: voices, video or whatever you might want to work with. The concept is called “generative adversarial networks” (GANs).
3. 3D Metal Printing
3D printing is a great example of how incremental innovation can be revolutionary. We’ve always had printers and parts manufacturing, of course, but plastic 3D printing has been taken to the consumer and prosumer level. Now, 3D metal printing is poised to be the next big wave in this industry.
HP is planning its first offering, the Jet Fusion model, which it hopes will make a difference in the metal parts manufacturing sector. Other industry giants are also on board: GE has been printing metal fuel nozzles for its Leap jet engines, and Nike’s even printing metal cleats.