The New Tech Reality, Coming Soon!
In recent years, technology has advanced drastically. AI generated audio, video, and written content have been most prominent, but innovations have also been made with technologies like self-driving cars, and those closer to the tech world are also aware of fields like Quantum Computing that are rapidly expanding.
Until now, many in the United States have been able to avoid these new high-tech products, but this will soon change. It’s begun in El Salvador, whose government officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 (although in 2024 this was reversed) (1 Source), but Donald Trump is launching similar developments domestically with executive order 14179.
This order is a response to Biden era order 14110, which regulated AI’s development- requiring “developers of […] powerful AI systems share their safety test results […] with the U.S. government” (Biden White House Archives), mandating government “develop standards […] to help ensure AI systems are safe” (Biden White House Archives), “protect Americans from AI-enabled fraud” (Biden White House Archives), “Protect against […] using AI to engineer dangerous biological materials” (Biden White House Archives), and “Strengthen privacy-preserving research and technologies, such as cryptographic tools that preserve individuals’ privacy” (Biden White House Archives). Trump’s order revokes Biden’s previous order, and “suspend[s], revise[s], or rescind[s]” (The White House) all actions taken based on Biden’s order that don’t “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security” (The White House).
While these developments might seem abrupt, certain geopolitical power players have known about these topics for at least a decade. World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab published The Fourth Industrial Revolution in 2016, yet it’s many times more relevant now than when it was written. While he’s off on the timing of some predictions (no, 90% of the population isn’t using cell phones (4 source), nor are they implantable, nor has AI been on a cooperate board of directors), his writing provides blueprints for new technologies only being realized today. Implantable human microchipping (source 5), the ballooning Quantum Computing industry, advanced robotics, genetic engineering, and other fields currently beginning to explode in relevance are discussed by Schwab in detail. Schwab and those like him are critical to pay attention to in the future to better anticipate impending realties of the new world to come.
