Entrepreneur and futurist Peter Diamandis opened RISKWORLD 2024 on Monday, May 6, as risk and insurance professionals gathered in San Diego for the annual RIMS conference. Diamandis, the founder of multiple companies and the author of books on the future of technology, focused his talk on the rapid rate of adoption and evolution of new technologies and the longevity of AI applications across various industries, including machine learning, robotics and healthcare. Quoting his co-founder and futurist at Google, Ray Kurzweil, Diamandis said, “We will experience as much technical progress in the next decade as we made in the past century.”
To illustrate his point further, Diamandis focused on five meta trends in technology that will impact our lives over the next six years:
Ubiquitous Communications and Sensors
There is a massive increase in energy abundance right now, and new technologies are making it cheaper. Diamandis said, “We’re heading towards a time when everything and everyone is connected everywhere and always, and on top of that, you will have the ability to know anything, anytime, anywhere.” For example, Diamandis cited SpaceX satellites, which will soon be able to deliver gigabit connection speed anywhere in the world, senors that can provide endless amounts of data, and the emergence 6G, which is 100 times faster than 5G and is expected to be deployed as soon as 2028. According to Diamandis, 6G would be fast enough to download 142 hours of Netflix in a second. "You'll never get out of bed again," he said.
The Growth of AI
According to Diamandis, AI is "the single most important thing that humanity is doing right now," and suggested four reasons the technology is experiencing a growth spurt now despite being around since 1956:
- Computation is doubling every two years
- Global data is also doubling about every two years
- The cost to train AI systems has gone down 99.5% in the last five years
- There is more capital in AI now than ever before
With AI becoming as dominant as it has, Diamandis said, “There will be two kinds of companies at the end of this decade: those who are fully utilizing AI and those that are out of business.”
Robots are Coming
Robotics is a vast industry that is taking advantage of AI advancements, and sooner rather than later, there may be robots to do the dishes and clean bathrooms. Diamandis quoted entrepreneur and technologist Vinod Khosla, who asserted, “In 25 years, there could be a billion bipedal robots. This will radically change GDP, productivity and human happiness. These robots could create enough value to support the people they replace.”
Future of Autonomous Transport
Companies like Lyft, Alphabet and Uber are already deploying autonomous electric vehicles in Europe, California and Arizona. Electric air taxis will be able pick you up and fly you in a straight line at 150 miles per hour to get you through dense traffic, while drone deliveries will be able to deliver packages directly to your front door within minutes of placing an order.