Social Security is a program that forms the financial foundation for a majority of our nation’s retired workers, and that’s not expected to change anytime soon. We’re really dependent on Social Security income, and that could be a problem
Data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) shows that 61% of all current retired workers receiving benefits count on Social Security to provide at least half of their monthly income.
People in Britain are more scared of the artificial intelligence embedded in household devices and self-driving cars than in systems used for predictive policing or diagnosing diseases. That’s according to a survey commissioned by the Royal Society, which is billed as the first in-depth look at how the public perceives the risks and benefits associated with machine learning, a key AI technique.
Continue reading… “Our fear of artificial intelligence – Is it for all the wrong reasons?”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2002, when Dr. Bor Jang, a little-known researcher in Akron, Ohio, filed his patent for graphene, few people had a clue as to how revolutionary it would be. Certainly not the people at the Nobel Foundation who forgot to check the patent registry and instead awarded the Nobel Prize for graphene to scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester.
As the poster child for the emerging new super materials industry, graphene is a form of ultra thin carbon just one atom thick. If you can imagine something a million times thinner than a single sheet of paper, you get the picture.
Continue reading… “How graphene is going to transform the way we get power”
Could the skyscraper of the future dispense homes like a vending machine?
Growing and adapting to Tokyo’s housing demand, this Pod Skyscraper is constantly under construction. Residents can order a ready-to-use modular dwelling manufactured by 3D printers on the top floor of the building, and then cranes lower it into place.
Continue reading… “Japan’s 3D Printed Pod Skyscrapers set to Revolutionize Highrise Living”
Advancements in the robotics field are helping to transform a number of industries, construction being one of them. Companies that build things can expect to see a host of new machines that perform a variety of tasks — adding efficiency to construction projects as well as reducing injuries to human workers.
Continue reading… “Robots and drones: Coming soon to a construction site near you”
The world has set its sights on Mars — not just to visit, but to stay. Private organizations and governments have made it their mission to get to the Red Planet, and the United Arab Emirates wants to be first. The UAE said it planned to build the first city on Mars in 100 years. (Pics)
Jeff Hancock likes to give his Stanford University students weekend assignments that let them experience concepts discussed in class for themselves. Before 2008, he would sometimes challenge his students to stay off the internet for 48 hours and then discuss how it affected them. But when Hancock returned to work in 2009, after a year-long sabbatical, things had changed.
“When I tried to introduce the task, there was a class revolt,” says Hancock, who studies the psychological and social processes involved in online communication. “The students emphatically said the assignment was impossible and unfair.”
Continue reading… “What if the internet stopped working for a day?”
On January 10, 2017, my new book, “Epiphany Z – Eight Radical Visions for Transforming Your Future“ was officially released in bookstores all around the world. Here are a few excerpts from the book where I discuss the concept of “future self.”
Being a Futurist is far more than just making predictions. It involves digging deep into the nature of humanity to better understand who we are and why we do the things that we do.
So what kind of relationship do you have with your future self?
In 2012, Futurist Thomas Frey predicted that 2 billion jobs would disappear by 2030, roughly half of all jobs that exist today. Oxford University researchers reinforced this with their estimates that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated within the next two decades. But which ones will robots take first?
First, we should define “robots” as technologies, such as machine learning algorithms running on purpose-built computer platforms, that have been trained to perform tasks that currently require humans to perform.
Continue reading… “Which 5 jobs will robots take first?”
Automation could replace 250,000 jobs in government over the next 10 to 15 years — with potentially one million more under threat. The UK’s public sector workforce stood at around 5.3 million in the middle of last year, and has been falling since 2009, when it stood at 6.4 million. But that could be slashed significantly if the public sector adopts a policy of automating predictable jobs, according to a report from thinktank Reform.
Continue reading… “Robots will replace over 250,000 government jobs — and that’s just the beginning”
The McDonald’s on the corner of Third Avenue and 58th Street in New York City doesn’t look all that different from any of the fast-food chain’s other locations across the country. Inside, however, hungry patrons are welcomed not by a cashier waiting to take their order, but by a “Create Your Taste” kiosk – an automated touch-screen system that allows customers to create their own burgers without interacting with another human being.
Continue reading… “Robots will destroy our jobs and we’re not even ready for it”
2016 was a banner year for artificial intelligence. Alpha Go’s victory over Lee Sedol was perhaps one of the most important, but we saw advancements in self-driving cars, the continued embrace of bots and personal assistants for retail, adoption and competition around in-house assistants like Amazon Echo, along with frequent, sometimes weekly, breakthroughs on the academic side, mainly relating to machine learning. With the biggest tech companies in the world–Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and others–devoting more and more resources to AI, the momentum is going to increase.
Continue reading… “9 Predictions for AI in 2017”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.