2025 will be the year when the Big Tech they will move from selling us simple tools to providing us with real ones enhanced abilities. The difference may seem subtle, but the implications are profound. It will not yet be the age of “implants,” but instead new technologies will endow us with superhuman abilities that we will still perceive as an integral part of ourselves, rather than an extension.
It will be like having an omniscient alter ego at your disposal at all times. And perhaps, I fear, quite intrusive.
The Skills Arms Race
The passage from selling tools to offering skills marks a major turning point for the technology industry. Giants like Meta e Google have already shown their cards, investing heavily in artificial intelligence, augmented reality e conversational computing.
The convergence of these technologies will give rise to what the expert Louis Rosenberg defines “augmented mindset”: contextual AI agents, integrated into wearable devices such as smart glasses, which will accompany us in our daily lives, enhancing our cognitive abilities.
Omniscience within earshot
Imagine walking down the street and wondering what time a store opens. Instead of looking for the information on your smartphone, you can simply whisper the question, “What time does it open?” as if you had a person next to you who is right there with you, and a voice will instantly answer in your ear.
No searches, no “Alexa, tell me the opening hours of such and such a store”. - Contextual AI Agents They will share our reality firsthand, seeing what we see and feeling what we feel. They will provide us with information, advice and guidance navigated according to the context, making us feel as if we had innate abilities, or a highly trained “prompter” always ready.
The Evolution of Digital Superpowers
According to Rosenberg, who goes one step further, by 2030 We won't even have to whisper our requests anymore: we'll just have to mime the words with our lips and the AI will understand our intentions. Within the 2035, instead, thanks to the analysis of muscle signals it might even be enough to think about saying a sentence to obtain the desired information.
AI will learn to anticipate our needs before we even express them, making us feel truly gifted with digital superpowers. Everything, of course, will have a cost.
The Risks of an Empowered Future
As Peter Parker's legendary Uncle Ben would say, (or Lord Melbourne, who at least it really existed) “with great power comes great responsibility.” And in this case, the responsibility will fall not so much on us consumers, but on the companies that will provide us with these enhanced abilities and the regulators who will oversee them.
The risk is that our perceptions are selectively altered and that AI influences us with targeted advice and suggestions. To avoid dystopian scenarios, Rosenberg suggests adopting a subscription-based business model, rather than monetizing influence. Subscription Skills: Brooker, when are you doing the next series of Black Mirror?
Augmented Abilities, the Crossroads of Technological Progress
Ultimately, the advent of AI-enhanced abilities seems inevitable and perhaps even necessary to not be left behind cognitively. But the path to this superhuman future is strewn with pitfalls. It will be up to us, as a society, to decide whether to take the path of ethical enhancement that respects individual freedom or whether to give in to the allure of a digital omniscience that could prove to be a double-edged sword.
As the physicist stated Richard Feynman: “For every advantage offered by evolution, there are corresponding disadvantages. Progress was made only when the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.”
Now it’s up to us to choose which fork in the road to take. Will we opt for a future of enhanced abilities where we will be masters of our augmented minds or will we be enchanted by an illusion of omnipotence that will make us slaves to Big Tech and algorithms? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: the game for our minds is about to begin. And no one wants to be left on the sidelines when superpowers are at stake. But beware: sometimes even superheroes end up saving us from themselves.