My Tech Predictions That Will Change Your Life

About four years ago I wrote this on LinkedIn:

“Prediction: In the next 5 years there will be a song on the top 10 list created using a deep learning tool.

I don’t believe this will be true for the lyrics, but I do believe it to be true for the music. #deeplearning #music”

Now I have one year or less left on my prediction, but with Paul McCartney’s statement of using AI to extricate John Lennon’s voice for their final Beatles album, it gives me hope that my prediction will come true.

With technology and our lives ever changing, I enjoy thinking about the future and the potentials of technology to change the way we live our day-to-day lives.

Here are a few more predictions:

1. Buying clothes – Although the process of buying clothes (and shoes) has changed from mostly going to stores to ordering clothes online, I believe the real industry shift will come within 10 years. With VR headsets apt to become very popular soon, I believe that a secondary wave of technology will come that converts rooms in our homes into VR rooms (similar to the Holodeck on Star Trek). These rooms will frame the future of buying clothes (as well as a host of other activities that usually require you to leave your home like going to the doctor). For this example, you will step into the room, ask the computer to try several different pairs of jeans from different online sellers and compare their appearance on you virtually using a virtual mirror in the room. Once you choose the pair you like, you can also have your pants altered/hemmed virtually and then eventually the real pair is adjusted and shipped to you. Better yet, you pick your pair of jeans and the pair is custom-made to your measurements captured within the VR room. 

2. Personal Assistant – With ChatGPT all the rage, I believe that one of the eventual evolutions from ChatGPT will be a personal assistant. This should happen within five years. This personal assistant will live in the cloud and be integrated with all of your existing technology including phones, computers, Alexa, etc. The assistant will be created based on your definitions but also your presence online and using LLMs of your own data. Once created, you will interact with your personal assistant to help you with a variety of tasks that are more complex than the current examples in our daily lives. Current simple tasks include: set this alarm and add this to my shopping list. Personal assistant tasks will include researching products to buy and relaying responses and much more complex tasks such as helping with exercise and weight loss. Think of going to a restaurant and needing advice on what to order based on your weight-loss goals and asking your assistant for recommendations; or to direct you to the proper exercises (having learned from experts in the field) based on monitoring your metabolism. The personal assistant support items are endless; for instance, give me the top five things I should watch on Netflix right now or tell me the top five based on what my friends are recommending (obviously allowing some interaction with the others’ personal assistants). On top of all of this, the personal assistant will be named and may have its own online presence!

3. Identity without numbers – We have all been on the wrong end of attempted or successful scams; whether this is an email or text link for you to share your bank credentials or someone simply looking on the dark web for your identity – placed there due to thousands of database and website breaches containing your information. In the U.S., the use of social security numbers is the main way to identify someone – on tax returns or mortgage applications, or really most important business and personal interactions. Given the state of identity theft and my belief that it will become completely unruly within the next few years, I believe that there will be a new way within 10 years to identify yourself besides using a nine-digit number. This will come in the form of a DNA-identity checker which will allow your identity to be confirmed without giving up your entire DNA ​​sequence. This device will be available as easily as purchasing a phone and will require the consumer to authorize the check. This will be useful for a variety of situations including filing tax returns, getting on airplanes, and a host of other situations where identity validation is either required or preferred.

Of course predictions are always fun to make and I have no idea if any of mine will come true. No matter how the world changes in the future I am certain that some things won’t ever change. It will always remain true that being good to others is paramount and as my Uncle Barry always says (an original quote about winning which he altered), “Family isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”