IKEA becomes the first retailer to let customers pay for goods with time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The concept of value is fluid, and new tools and technologies are letting companies re-imagine how their customers pay for goods. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Over the past few years we’ve seen lots of amazing new...
An American grad student just admitted using an advanced AI to write his term papers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Creative machines that are capable of generating all forms of new content can be used for good, bad, and also “fun” purposes – from writing books and fake news to cheating at school. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my...
Futurist Keynote: The Future of Work and Skills 2040, Aon
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way we work and the way we tap into skills is changing, and tat impacts everything from how we educate our children and train our workforce, to how we build and operate companies. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote,...
IBM trials virtual classroom to help students master Chinese faster
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF They say that people learn faster when they are able to live the experiences they’re being taught, and that could make VR a game changer in education. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Often the best way to...
Scientists taught birds to sing songs by implanting false memories
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we unlock more mysteries of the mind this is yet another stunning example of how in the future we’ll be able to manipulate the mind to learn new things. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. You might be...
Futurist Keynote, UK: Education in the Exponential Era, GEMS
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Everyone agrees that today’s industrial education strategies are not fit for purpose and will ultimately leave us with a huge skills gap in the future. Firstly, I would like to thank the team at GEMS, the world’s largest private school company, with over 150,000...
Vodafone combines 5G and haptics to let rugby players 100 miles apart tackle each other
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This is just one example of how 5G will let us work and play in new ways, and it’s just the beginning. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Vodafone showed off several demos of its new 5G network...
Steppingstone’s electromagnetic floor lets VR users walk real miles in their own rooms
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of the biggest problems with VR is that if you want to walk from A to Z you soon hit the walls of your living room, but now you can walk forever without ever leaving your room. Interested in the future and want...
Edtech company Udacity uses deepfake tech to create educational videos automatically
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most online educational courses are text and graphics based, but now Udacity is using deepfake tech to automatically generate educational videos from the content. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Producing content for Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms...
Teslasuit’s haptic bodysuit lets VR users experience full body immersion
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Virtual Reality headsets are all well and good but they only give users a visual experience, and haptic suits literally let you feel everything. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Following on from Disney’s haptic VR jacket, that let’s...
You can now try the “world’s most dangerous” fake news AI for yourself
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A basic version of the “world’s most advanced, and dangerous, fake news generator” is now online for you to try for yourself. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. This spring, the Elon Musk founded AI research lab OpenAI made a splash...
2,000 Chinese schools are using robots to give students daily health checks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Artificial Intelligence and robotics are helping China deliver healthcare in new ways. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. China is increasingly in love with technology, and the government, for a variety of reasons, is keen to develop and deploy...
Future musicians could be trained by AI
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Advances in AI technology mean we have a variety of new ways to educate and train children, all of which could help them learn more, faster. There’s a lot of technology emerging in the education sector that’s designed to help us learn faster and...
AI and automation: The benefits for business and industry
On 4 August 1997, Skynet, a US military developed program, became self-aware and began to think for itself. Operators tried to deactivate the computer system but the now ‘intelligent’ system perceived this as a threat and in order to protect its mandate of ‘safeguarding the world’ Skynet launched a nuclear...
Companies are building the tech to bring Star Trek’s Holodecks to life
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ultimate sci-fi concept, Holodecks have been talked about since they were first shown on TV, and now several companies are building the tech to make them a reality. San Jose holographic display start up Light Field Lab and Los Angeles graphics company OTOY, which focuses on cloud...
Facebook 3D photos sources depth information straight from your camera
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cameras in our gadgets can do alot more than take photos, and with just a minor tweak we can use them to create living 3D photos. Leveraging the extra “depth” data found in some iPhone photographs, Facebook today announced the rollout of 3D Photos – images...
Nvidia unveiled a new AI engine that renders virtual world’s in real time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Arguably the most complex part of creating VR content is coding and building the environments, Nvidia just bought those barriers crashing down. Nvidia have announced that they’ve introduced a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Deep Learning model that “aims to catapult the graphics industry into the AI...
Virtual reality headsets tune into users brainwaves to train people faster
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As many people worry about the rise of AI and automation, and the effect they will have on jobs, new faster and smarter ways to educate and train our children and our workforces are emerging. Before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games members of the...
Revolutionary brain prosthetic that boosts human memory by 35 percent unveiled
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This breakthrough converted human memories into digital binary code, then downloaded and re-uploaded them in living human subjects with great results. Just months after two different teams of researchers figured out hot to edit and delete human memories Researchers in the US have figured...
PWC program prepares employees for the next generation of jobs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world is changing faster than ever before, leading to a shortage of talent, meaning companies are being forced to find new ways to adapt and overcome skills shortages. Everyone by now understands that the workplace, and the workforce is changing as a result...
