Future

As the sharing economy grows, experts are undecided as to whether it will have a positive or negative effect on prominent urban problems.

New European legislation is changing the world of banking, with Fintech startups challenging traditional financial service business. But some experts have concerns over the effect this will have on customers’ security.

Wooden skyscrapers are making building quicker and more environmentally friendly. Architects are getting excited about a new timber, which is different from straight-up wood.

The future of advertising is coming, but it won’t be totally dominated by AI-powered machines. Humans will still play a role as the power of machine learning technology is still lacking.

Technology is transforming sports. Innovative companies are coming up with even more strange and wonderful ways to improve player performance and the viewing experience.

New research presented at this year's World Government Summit in Dubai suggests that in the future humans will communicate telepathically via a collective AI consciousness.

Some fear that our reliance on technology will mean there’s no record of the 21st century. Information can be deleted or taken offline, making it inaccessible.

Data for sale? Not with blockchain. It has the potential to help cut identity theft by allowing people to encrypt their personal information and release parts when relevant.

Virtual reality has recently emerged as an effective tool in research and development, meaning companies can save millions by testing new products – virtually.

Advancing technologies may play center-stage at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, not only improving athletes’ performances but also how audiences around the world engage with the games.

Driverless cars are rolling this way, with Google’s autonomous vehicle expected by 2020 and Tesla’s sooner. Now they just have to get the market on board.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predict that in the future, VR and AR will become fully integrated into our daily lives.

Publishers want to use augmented reality to get people’s attention. Instead of just reading text alone, users can experience storytelling in more dimensions than ever before.

The role of translators is changing, with technology increasingly taking a seat at the table. And one of the latest industry technologies is improving its odds of getting the translation right. Still, the technology is far from replacing human translators.

Body heat could help combat the global energy crisis. The technology is still in the works, but holds promise for a new kind of energy generation.

Google and Microsoft are offering new consumer-based software and hardware that seek to improve the quality and user accessibility in translation. That might mean humans and machines can have meaningful stakes in the industry as it moves ahead.

2D lenses are coming, and they could change photography as it’s understood today. Its implications range far and wide, including for smartphones, which could become thinner as camera thicknesses shrink.

User Experience is a moving target – that is, new types of interfaces are being developed, with UX on the cutting edge. One element that remains yet to be seen is how far technology, including UX, can go in terms of adding the human touch in AI and machine-based settings.

Watch out, Dubai – small, autonomous vehicles are taking control of your police force. Equipped with drones to get in and out of tight spaces, the cars can drive themselves, or be controlled by police officers from afar. Singapore-based Otsaw Digital is making it possible.

Future-facing companies claim telepathic thought-sharing should be coming in the next decade. Just ask Harvard Medical School Professor David Boas. Originally a skeptic of elements of BCI technology, he says he now believes telepathy via technology might be possible.

Duplicating your brain might not be that far away. Even after death, a person’s consciousness could live on. From holograms to social media, technology is trying to figure out how to approach the topic in a universe where death seems anything but permanent or mundane.

Companies are lining up to find ways to use AI to enhance and improve cities around the globe. Several companies are already at it, and academics are tracking it, to see what developments lay ahead.