If there’s one thing about technology, it’s that it’s seldom regressing and exclusively moving forward. To make matters even more terrifying (while some would say optimistic), we live in a period of unprecedented technological development in human history. After all, we’ve come from the Ford T-Model to the iPhone in less than a century, which is something that people often lose sight of.
Today, instead of waiting for centuries for major technological leaps, we get some every year, as well as trends that accompany them. With that in mind, here are some trends that will be hot in 2024.
1. AI-enhanced cybersecurity
AI technology (especially generative AI) has unlocked some new fears when it comes to cybersecurity. After all, generative AI can imitate your voice, use deep-fake technology to impersonate your biometrics, and even chat and scroll like you would. The only way to combat these AI scams (which are present despite the best efforts of engineers to implement ethical safeguards) is with the help of AI diagnostics.
To you, an AI-generated voice of a celebrity may be indistinguishable from their real voice, but for the AI analytical tool, this won’t be much of a challenge.
Since these diagnostic tools share much of the same databases as the rest of the AI tools, there’s nothing that can fly under their radar. A human may overestimate or underestimate another human, but this won’t be the case with AI. Here, the battleground is always equal – like in a chess game.
As for human scammers, they stand no chance against AI security measures. These algorithms notice even the slightest irregularities and notify you about them.
2. AI-enhanced information curation
AI is incredibly good at recognizing fake news and misinformation, which is pivotal in today’s world and news cycle.
You see, the biggest problem with this misinformation is the fact that a lot of people are willing recipients. People in epistemic chambers don’t question the validity of the information they receive. All that they care about is that it aligns with what they already believe in. In other words, they cherry pick information that reinforces their prior beliefs.
While AI cannot change their minds or have that deep sociological effect in this post-truth world (at least not yet), it can help in several ways. First of all, it can label misinformation in real-time and even add links to studies and examples that disprove it.
Will some people still believe what they want to believe? Beyond doubt! However, now, they won’t be able to plead ignorance.
Also, AI will be great when it comes to recognizing this content and either removing it or urging people in charge to remove it.
3. Reemergence of crypto
Sure, 2022 wasn’t kind to crypto, but assuming that this means that you can just write crypto off because of this would be just as naive as expecting that the housing market will never recover in 2009.
2023 was already much better, arguably one of the best in cryptocurrency history. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum delivered returns of up to 155% and 90%, respectively, to their investors.
In fact, there are many new cryptos with the serious potential to increase in price. The best part is that, unlike with BTC and ETH, here, there’s still a chance to be an early adopter. If you could go back in time, you probably would have bought BTC for $12 per coin, the same way as you would have bought Apple stock in the 80s. The thing is that there’s no such thing as a time machine, but you can find a new opportunity.
Some of the newest crypto in 2023 delivered up to 9600%. Sure, the chance that you’ll find that exact crypto is pretty small, but it’s zero if you don’t invest.
4. Home health tech
In the past, even the majority of hospitals had only rudimentary equipment, and if we go way back, we’ll enter the era where barbers worked as dentists and surgeons. Medical science has advanced so much but there was an even greater stride made in the field of medical equipment availability.
Namely, in the past, in order to have your heart rate monitored 24/7, you needed to be in a medical facility. Today, you can get there with a simple fitness band or a smartwatch. Even your phone can (relatively accurately) monitor your fitness patterns.
Not to mention that devices measuring blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol exist in almost every household. Modern devices can even be connected to an app on your phone in order to help you lead a sort of parallel medical chart.
This home-health tech will only get more sophisticated, reliable, and available in the future.
5. Ethical mitigation of AI risks
The evolution of AI has made a massive difference in the field of ethics, as well. You see, since the dawn of time, ethics has always had humans at their focus. What’s fine or not fine for a human to do in a society? So, how do we apply these ethical principles to machines?
First of all, AI is learning from the available data, and based on that data, it can develop both bias and discrimination patterns.
An AI has different relationships toward creativity and ownership. A human, for instance, can pick up an idea and replicate it without even registering that they’ve heard it someplace else. With an AI, plagiarism is always conscious and deliberate.
Then, there’s the issue that scares everyone the most: job displacement caused by generative AI.
All in all, there’s a lot of ground to cover, and this is a relatively new field. This year might be huge in terms of figuring some of these things out.
6. Superior travel apps
It seems like the effects of the 2020 lockdowns are still not over, which is why people are traveling like never before. Truth be told, with the help of online booking, organizing a vacation is easier than ever before.
Not only that, travelers will be much more tech-savvy in 2024, which is why so many of them are actually using VPNs when booking. They know that different regions sometimes get different prices on the website (in an attempt to milk people from regions with higher purchasing power parity). Fortunately, now travelers know better.
One more thing that has seen a massive breakthrough during the previous year is translation tools. Why last year? Well, due to the massive advancements in the field of AI and NLP (natural language progression), translation tools are much better at cutting through thick accents, context, and even speech impediments.
Lastly, there are so many different apps, some of which are even capable of forecasting turbulences, which is great for those who have trouble relaxing while flying.
Even this early, it’s easy to tell that some of these trends will be huge this year
The thing is that the majority of these technologies and tech trends aren’t new to 2024, but this year, we’re expecting to see their peak. AI technology is still relatively new, which is why it’s captivated so much public interest and why progress in this field seems so rapid. Still, this is not all that’s going on in the world of tech, as you’ll have a chance to see.
Also read:
