Could Siri say 'dump him'? How mobile devices could run your life

Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 Could Siri say 'dump him'? How mobile devices
 could run your life

                                                                                            The
 Galaxy Gear opened a new front in the technology wars. But could mobile
 devices eventually know us so well they'll recommend when we should
 break up with someone?

 The interconnected, automated future

 Editor's note: Gerd Leonhard is a futurist, speaker and CEO of
 TheFuturesAgency, based in Basel, Switzerland. The opinions expressed in
 this commentary are solely those of Gerd Leonhard.

 (CNN) -- The Web is set to change our lives dramatically over the next
 decade. This will also raise questions about the use of personal data and the
 need to balance new powers with ethics.

 Here are five ways you can expect the explosion in technology to impact you:

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Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 1) Artificial intelligence and ultra-smart software engines will be
 embedded everywhere.

 They will be largely invisible yet become indispensable for most Internet
 users, and will combine dozens of data streams harvested from our digital
 breadcrumbs.

 Mobile devices are the key to this empire and the convergence of TV and the
 Internet (known as Social TV) will add yet another dimension to this
 exponential trend: The TV will know who you are.

 Read more: Should robots be deployed on the battlefield?

 Powerful, fast, totally customized and self-learning algorithms will feed off
 our personal data streams, giving us an ever-expanding and free choice of
 seemingly harmless anticipatory services (think Google Now x 100).

 Imagine your mobile
 device recommending
 that you break your next
 date because of obvious
 incompatibility
 Gerd Leonhard

 Prediction engines will be able to give a "heads-up" on anything from
 weather, to stock market changes, to food warnings or even imminent

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Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 relationship changes.

 Read more: Stuck in the digital transit zone

 For many of us, this will cross the border into creepiness. Imagine your
 mobile device recommending that you break your next date because of
 obvious incompatibility based on what "the system" knows about you. AI will
 start to literally run our lives (as this Gartner report put it: Sync Me, See Me,
 Know Me, Be Me).

 2) Automation is likely do away with hundreds of millions of
 "simple" jobs.

 It will replace cab drivers (no need, with self-driving cars), check-out clerks
 (all done on mobiles), data analysts, bank tellers, file clerks, delivery people
 and others.

 Smart software engines and networked cloud systems are likely to replace
 accountants and book-keepers, among others, while delivery drones will
 replace delivery drivers.

 Robots will become common in many households, such as for basic elderly
 care, but will remain far from human-like or even sentient for quite some
 time.

 Read more: Inventing machines for the future

 Reports such as the Oxford Martin School Future of Employment study have
 already predicted that nearly half of all U.S. jobs could eventually be
 automated away.

 Clearly, human-only tasks and right-brain skills will need to be much more
 emphasized in education, as well, and the concept of a minimum guaranteed

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Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 income may seem a lot less futuristic fairly soon.

 We may get paid to just be creative.

 3) Augmented reality and "natural" human-computer interfaces
 will overtake traditional means of making queries.

 We are going from typing a request, to speaking, to gesturing to blinking to
 (scarily) thinking. Some may start to feel like they live inside a machine or
 that a machine lives inside of them.

 Humans are likely to become dependent on digital machines and what they
 do for us, simply because they will be so easy to use, so powerful, so addictive
 -- and because they make so much money for those who run them.

 Read more: The end of the World Wide Web?

 This is not as dystopian as it may sound -- but there are ways to balance the
 trend.

 4) Automated, real-time, mobile and accurate language
 translation will be with us within five years.

 Imagine speaking into your mobile device and having someone else receive
 the precise translation at almost the same moment, in a multitude of
 languages.

 Then, imagine all these conversations being recorded and added to your
 profile in your "personal cloud." This will dramatically change the nature of
 media and advertising. Kids may also question the use of learning languages.

 Humans are likely to
 become dependent on

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Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 digital machines
 Gerd Leonhard

 5) Everything will be recorded, photo- and video-graphed, tracked
 and measured.

 Your car's movements, your performance at work, your dietary habits, the
 meta-data of your communications will all be scanned.

 Read more: My year of living open source

 The explosive growth of the Internet of Things and the upcoming explosion
 of Internet access in devices that are wearable, embedded or implanted
 means we can expect this trend to be all-pervasive within the coming decade.

 Do we need to control this?

 The most important consequence of such trends will be the reemergence of
 ethics as a key issue.

 Major challenges, such as personal data protection, privacy, human
 augmentation, "digital obesity" and dependency on technology will be
 magnified exponentially.

 We will no longer ask if something is possible or doable but whether we
 should do it, where and when.

 I predict many of tomorrow's leaders, thinkers, innovators, scientists and
 creatives will spend time and effort devising something like a "global digital
 bill of rights and ethics."

 Read more: After Snowden, we're self-censoring

 The need for global agreements on these key issues will emerge as a direct

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Could Siri say 'dump him'? - CNN.com                                                   09/12/13 13:21

 response to the vastly accelerating abuse of personal data and the powerful
 AI that crunches it, giving those that control it almost irresistible powers.

 I predict even the most technology-friendly or social-network obsessed users
 will soon start to object to being instrumentalized in such a way.

 This will force governments and businesses towards creating a "secure
 framework" for society.

 The need for global
 agreements on these key
 issues will emerge
 Gerd Leonhard

 As with nuclear power, we will need to distinguish between what can be used
 for bona-fide purposes and what could be used for sinister purposes.

 The resulting digital data and AI ecoystem will need to become the global
 guideline, akin to a kind of "artificial intelligence and automation non-
 proliferation agreement."

 Technology does not have ethics -- but we should.

 The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gerd
 Leonhard

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