- [Narrator] We've all heard
of the industrial revolution.
The steaming pumping from trains,
the churning factories,
and bustling city streets unrecognizable
compared to the century before.
In a few short decades,
humanity went from being constrained
by the power of its shoulders
and the strength of the ox
to being able to harness
a nigh unfathomable source of energy.
It wasn't the last revolution of industry.
In fact, there's been three industrial revolutions.
The first was of steam,
the second of steel,
and the third digital,
heralding the new Information Age.
It was a transformation unparalleled
in human history,
and indeed quite possibly the whole cosmos.
Now another is brewing.
It will make the others
look like a mere dress rehearsal.
The next industrial revolution promises
to do for our brains
what the first revolution
did for our brawn.
Christened the fourth industrial revolution,
it will use artificial intelligence, or AI,
to create an increasingly automated
and interconnected world.
These trends will converge towards
this singular era-defining metamorphosis,
covering topics as broad as
gene editing, advanced robotics, 3D printing,
and vertical farming.
Join us as we venture into
the coming decades
and investigate how the rise of AI
will change humanity forever.
Job Market.
Perhaps the most disconcerting prediction
comes in the job market.
According to the World Bank,
60% to 70% of current jobs
are threatened by the rise of AI.
Whether it be driverless cars
laying off the entire logistics sector,
like the car to the horse,
or advanced algorithms doing
the work of doctors and lawyers
in a fraction of a second.
Indeed, much of the work of lawyers
involves analyzing reems of past legal cases.
New algorithms can complete
the task in seconds.
Even more impressive,
they can increasingly write
the articles and papers themselves.
In fact, likely,
you've already read an AI-written article
without realizing it.
The World Economic Forum
predicts that by 2025,
more than 50% of work
will be done by machines,
up from 29% today.
Before industrialization
came for blue-collar jobs,
now, the professionals are in the firing line.
They may not be so happy about it.
In the 19th century,
rapid industrialization meant workers
often failed to receive
their fair share of prosperity.
In the city of Nottingham, England,
one disgruntled bunch smashed
the mechanical looms,
naming themselves after
a legendary figure Ned Ludd.
The Luddite movement spread like wildfire,
leading to the mass destruction of factories.
Will the next generation of Luddites fail?
Or will new jobs rise to take the old's place?
Only time can tell.
Military and Defense.
Few movies have installed
a greater fear of AI
than the Terminator franchise.
Sometime in the future,
it predicts, an AI will be given control
of the US defense network.
Skynet, as it is known,
starts a nuclear war to defend itself,
fearing for its own safety.
Is this fiction or fact?
It's unlikely AI is about
to be given control of nuclear weapons.
However, autonomous weapons
of some kind do look
like a real possibility.
Computer vision is an area
investigating how to create algorithms
to understand what the camera sees.
Initially, such systems
are likely to be used defensively,
like Israel's legendary Iron Dome program.
Such systems will detect
incoming rocket attacks
and use automated turret systems to respond.
But later, as machine learning algorithms
become ever more complex,
computer vision is likely
to be used offensively,
as well as in the surveillance of vast areas.
Militaries will be able to spot faces,
help train pilots,
and improve targeting systems,
all thanks to the growing AI legion.
For example, DARPA's TRACE program
can identify and locate targets
utilizing radar images.
It offers real-time AI-enabled systems
to change the course of battles.
Health and Biotechnology.
Who would choose a machine over a doctor?
In the future, possibly you.
AI and predictive analytics,
for instance, will be able
to take all your health data,
your dietary choices,
your family history,
information on infectious diseases
in your area
and run it through an algorithm.
You'll then receive a personalized
diagnosis and treatment plan
using cutting-edge medical research.
And it'll do all this
from the comfort of your home.
In fact, you may not even need
to say a word if the prophesied
brain chips come to pass.
Currently, we cannot help
the blind to see
nor reverse the tide of Parkinson's Disease,
such acts would be miraculous.
Brain-computer interfaces
will change all that.
The chip will detect
your neural activity,
and the AI will decode the message.
It could be the movement of a hand,
visual information,
or even just your innermost thoughts.
It's a beautiful concept,
but also a dark one.
While many are captivated
by Elon Musk's proposed Neuralink,
not just for its medical applications,
unlocking the locked box of the mind
could have frightening implications,
including the death of privacy
as we have always known it.
"And if my thought-dreams could be seen,"
wrote Bob Dylan,
"They'd probably put my head in a guillotine."
It's a very real possibility.
Transportation.
In 1915, there were 26 million horses
in the United States.
They pulled carriages and carts,
worked the fields and more.
They were essential
to the functioning of the nation.
By 1960, however,
their population had dwindled
to a mere three million.
The horse had been made obsolete.
According to the US Bureau of Transportation,
today, over 13.3 million people
work in transportation-related industries,
roughly 9% of the US workforce.
They drive trucks, taxis, ambulances, and more.
But advances in self-driving vehicles
may send these jobs the way of the horse.
Even worse, there are millions
of jobs adjacent to transportation,
think of the waitress
working the pit stop cafe.
Already Uber is trialing
driverless trucks.
Amazon is investigating a driverless van
to deliver packages,
complete with a robot
who'll drop it off at your door.
Meanwhile, AI won't just be driving the cars.
It'll be managing the entire road system.
The benefits are incredible.
Traffic congestion, for instance,
costs the US economy $50 billion a year,
and road accidents remain a major killer.
Future algorithms will prevent
all of these problems
and increase the network's efficiency.
However, the loss of vast chunks
of the economy's jobs will cause
major social upheaval.
If any group of workers are
the next Luddite rebellion,
truck drivers are a pretty good bet.
Entertainment.
Part of the sheer genius
of AI and machine learning algorithms
is their predictive power.
They take vast datasets
of users' preferences and choices,
and analyze them for patterns.
They can then predict
the film you'll like,
the music you'll listen to,
even the webpage you're after
when you search Google.
Soon, such AI won't just recommend
users what to watch,
but studios what to make.
In an era of mass content,
consumer data will allow creators
to see niche markets and upcoming trends
hidden amongst the noise.
Another role for AI in entertainment
is in the upcoming metaverse.
Predicted to be a virtual reality world
combining online gaming
with social media,
AI will allow the creation
of non-human characters,
virtual personal assistants,
and even the real-time translation of languages.
It'll also be able to mine the same user data
to create worlds you
can only dream of, literally.
These photorealistic creations
will be the new meeting place
of the latter 21st century.
But just as social media's
promise of interconnectivity
led to an increasingly atomized world,
the promise of the AI-fueled metaverse
could also lead to further
social isolation and discontent.
After all, Facebook's launch
of its own metaverse project
was met with much criticism.
Lifestyle.
Technology always starts in the factories
and ends up in our homes.
Who could have imagined
a personal AI assistant
sitting on your kitchen counter?
Yet Alexa will answer
almost any question you can think of.
Indeed, AI is already changing
our psychologies and lifestyles,
whether it be curating
our social media feed
or suggesting the latest product.
Soon it could also be running
our washing machines,
heating, lighting, and more.
This so-called Internet of Things
will permeate every aspect of our daily lives,
all controllable from our phones
or wearable technology.
In fact, it'll be harder
and harder to see where AI ends,
and you begin.
But the promise of effortless efficiencies
and built-in technology is likely
to lure most of us in.
Indeed, your home AI could monitor the weather,
your skin temperature,
and your house to provide
the perfect ambient temperature
wherever you sit,
it might even predict
when you're going to the bathroom
and heat the area in advance.
It may sound a little creepy to some.
However, surveys of AI technology
in our lifestyle suggest most people
trust AI moderately to a great deal.
And 54% of people feel
positive about its impact.
But what do you think?
Are the AI innovations of the future
a revolutionary improvement in our lives?
Or is today's solution tomorrow's problem,
just another technological crutch?
Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this video,
make sure to watch our video
on "The World in 2050."
Thanks for watching!
We'll see you next time.