2023 was a big year with lots of opportunities showing up as technology continues to become more and more accessible. As we move into 2024, here are my thoughts on what we should be looking out for:

• Automated Digital Assistants, and corporate AGI
  • Consumers will start to get an understand of what the next genration of AI assistants can do when they begin to take control over our devices and interact with apps just like we do. With these new AI assistants implemented on the system layer, users will be able to instruct them to operate their devices to complete tasks. This is pretty much just streamlining automations that already exist, but the ease of use will make out digital worlds start fitting together. Will AI finally start breaking through walled gardens?
  • Corporations will start ramping up AGIs to assist workers and rapidly develop new technology. These will be very powerful and work in tandem with LLMs trained on very specific propiertary data sets. Foundational models will become cornerstones to corporations and securing access to their functionality will become extremely limited.
  • Open source AGI will continue to be developed and might be achieved, however, not many people will have the resources to run them enough to complete larger tasks more efficiently than people. Compute resources will be a bottleneck because the open source community can not afford the massive amount of computer power needed to develop and move towards a sustainable AGI.
• Automation
  • Increase in automated cars. More legal opportunities and regulations will allow automated cars to continue to spread. Tesla might release a robo taxi, or a software update that allows their cars to be used as one.
• Healthcare
  • Drug discovery has just been superpowered with every protein now unfolded. This allows researches to quickly find and simulate how medidicnes might impact people, and more individualized medical treatment options will open up when combined with genetic testing.
  • CAT scans will be ramped up to use less helium and will become more common as a preventive and monitoring tool rather than targeting diagnoses.
  • Concierge healthcare continues to grow. Amazon launched their own healthcare service and more companies will explore new business models for healthcare sollutions.
  • Accelerated cell growth will speed up drug testing. Discoveries in how cells age will help us simulate test conditions better, as well as lead towards advancement in life extension.
  • Genetic engineering will be weird scary and done in other countries that allow it.
  • Fentanyl continues to destroy lives and there is very little being done about it.
  • Legalized psychedelics will open new opportunities for mental health care
  • Digital therapists will become more common as people become more comfortable talking to an AI over a human.
• Additive Manufacturing
  • Rapid Liquid Printing will allow quick 3d printing with different and new materials. This is a bit like how they print humans in Westworld.
  • New 3d printing centers will start oppening up to deliver on-demand products that will increase in size and functionality. A growing trend of innovations in consumer electronics will be a ton of fun for tinkeres and maker spaces. Anyone in interested in building physical things will have a ton of fun this year.
• Robots
  • Advacements in motors, actuators, and AI will continue to push robots towards a consumer product. We’re already seeing robot usage grow more and more in factories and there are now plenty of demos taking these robots and using LLMs to have conversations and control them. Scale and cost will start to be realized.
  • Do not underestimate how quickly robots will appear once they start building each other. There will be a huge market advantage to early movers that can scale production fast. Car companies will have a lead here: Tesla and Hyundai.
• Media & Election
  • BE CARFUL!
  • You will not be able to distinguish between AI generated images, videos, and sounds from a human unless you can verify the source of information. Expect AI generated content to appear everywhere. Lots and lots of scams
  • Election will be chaotic, I except Trump vs. Biden with a very strong 3rd contender coming in. (Either a tech billionare or a celebrity).
• Global Politics
  • Everything is getting scarier and scarier, and there is no sign of slowdown. More proxy wars, more bombings, and more needless lives lost while militaries and contractors drool at the idea of testing out their new technology to fight each other.
  • Humanatarian crisis. Millions of people are being displaced by war, climate change, and population density, and too few countries are oppening their borders to support those in need.
  • Countries will continue to work towards become self-sufficent and rely less on global trade for nesscacites. Pulling out of countries that rely on those trades will leave a gap that will be open to be taken advtange of.
  • Mercinary groups will opperate outside govenments and make bolder and larger moves. I expect lots more violence in Mexico next year from mercinary groups fighting cartells.
• Mixed Reality
  • New headsets will kick off the year and lead towards more folks getting their hands on emerging technologies.
• Entertainment
  • The impact of the writers strike willl lead to a large amount of reality TV, reruns, and low quality work. This is a lag effect from last year.
  • Video games are great value for the consumer with all the streaming platforms paying for quality content to pull people in. This is bad for developers, because once those deals don’t renew, they won’t have a platform to reach their customers. Expect more layoffs.
• Employment
  • Economic correction leading to layoffs.
  • AI leading to layoffs
  • Unsustainable businesses leading to layoffs
  • High demand, with little pay, for social and healthcare workers.
• Taxes and Finance
  • Hopefully, taxes become simpler with AI, yay!
  • AI financial managers could help
  • Too few signals in market lead to predictable volatility for market makers to take advantage of.
• Energy
  • AI causes HUGE increase in demand for energy.
  • Continued inovation in Fusion,Fision, Solar, Wind, Tidal.
  • Demand for batteries and grid efficency.