New generations of batteries let us power increasingly demanding equipment while reducing loading times. With these batteries, we can power equipment vital for gathering data for AI in dangerous environments or places that are otherwise hard to reach for humans. New knowledge acquired for the purposes of training AI results in increasing effectiveness, developing new technologies, solving logistic problems, etc. In other words – in today’s day and age, technologies drive each other and push each other toward development.

I would like to point out that I am not an expert in any of the aforementioned fields; hence this whole article is a very subjective insight into the nearest future.

AI

The year 2022 has seen many advancements in the field of AI – the development of this branch of technology began to pick up the pace, becoming more accessible to average customers at the same time. Whether it is the controversial creation of images, texts, or even the writing of code – the pace of AI’s evolution (or is it a revolution?) can make one’s head spin.

Last year was just a foretaste of what is in store for us – the boom in stuffing AI wherever possible has only just begun, and autonomous vehicles, unmanned shops, or digital artists are barely the tip of the iceberg. An increasing number of companies invest in developing AI in order to offer better products and services. In some cases, it is used to improve existing products, in others to design new ones, and in others to provide end-to-end customer service – from greeting them in the store and helping them select the right goods, to payment processes.

AI is being developed mainly by programmers; therefore, it should not be a surprise that it helps us as well. It is now able to generate simple functions, scripts or even classes. Unfortunately, due to the lack of moderation of source material, even though its (the AI’s) hints work, in terms of code quality or compatibility with the industry standards, they often leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, this aspect should improve significantly in the coming months. We are still some time away from being able to say something like ‘Jarvis, put together an e-commerce platform for me, here is a list of customer requirements (let’s ignore the fact that at this moment, Jarvis would freeze into a loop of mutually exclusive requirements; this is what we are here for, though: to tell our client when and why something would – or would not – work), but AI is becoming more and more helpful in developer’s job. There are times when our brains simply cannot find the answers or solutions, or we overlook something obvious due to fatigue or other distractions AI can suggest a solution that will make us go “OMG, right, how easy was that!”, and which we can then rewrite, giving it our own spin.

Leaving aside the advantages and possibilities of everyday life, AI is becoming an invaluable help in developing new drugs, treatment methods, the optimisation of production processes or in logistics. As it can independently learn and conduct complex mathematical equations, AI can ‘invent’ many new solutions and technologies – even if it is still partially theoretical (so far, I believe no-one has managed to set up an advanced lab operated solely by AI, which would test its ideas in practice), each of those can be a glimmer of hope for humanity. A properly trained (in terms of empathy and psychology) AI could prove itself as a helpline (automatically dispatching emergency services when a threat is detected), or affordable psychological help for people afraid to book a meeting with a real psychologist. And to think that in 2005, some of us thought that the AI of enemies in F.E.A.R. was the pinnacle of possibility…

VR, AR, Metaverse

The evolution of virtual and augmented reality may also be this year's 'thing'. VR and AR, mainly associated with games, are finding more and more professional applications. From training staff to respond to emergencies (without risking injury), through virtual offices, to performing surgical operations.

When it comes to the virtual office (which is not, of course, renting an address for a business), VR technology is enabling more and more. ImmersedVR is a perfect example of this. An idea brilliant in its simplicity (it has been in development for years, but has been getting more publicity recently). All we need is a more powerful laptop and VR goggles. Once the goggles are on, we are transported to the office, which we can decorate however we like, play appropriate music, etc. However, this is not the best part. As developers, we often use 2, 3 or even 5+ monitors. These, of course, take up a lot of space, you have to invest additionally in mounts to fit everything on one desk, on top of that they consume energy, increasing (slightly, but always) the electricity bill, etc. With ImmersedVR, you just put on the goggles and add as many screens as your heart desires (and as many as your hardware allows). And so we can have the IDE on one screen, the application we are working on on another, instant messaging on a third, a browser on another, and so on. This is a remarkably convenient space-saving solution and an even better way of separating work at home from everyday life – we take the goggles off and that's it – there's nothing work-related in front of us.

Unfortunately, the technology still has some way to go. Firstly, the resolution – goggles displaying at least 4k resolution are not cheap (and at lower resolutions, the office in VR is not very comfortable – it's hard to get a clear image looking at several virtual monitors at once). Secondly, the need to make a lot of head movements – when working on real equipment, eye movements are usually sufficient. Unfortunately, not all goggles on the market track eye movement, so every now and then you have to turn your head as much as 90 degrees left and right, or wave it up and down. My bet is that this year these pain points will be solved. If the prices of VR equipment start to come down a little faster, it will be a very interesting and affordable alternative to the regular 'battle station' of programmers, CPR workers or emergency number attendants. You could feel like Norman Jayden from Heavy Rain when he wore his goggles.

All that is left of Science-Fiction is Science

In 2023, we can also expect an accelerated development of quantum computers. Their power will likely increase even further and new technologies will emerge to miniaturise current solutions. Using new methods of processing and storing information, quantum computers will be trillions of times faster than currently available CPUs. Overall, they are already there, but it is not easy to put them into practice. When humanity reaches the point where programming a quantum computer is as easy as programming current machines – any technological limitations in terms of computing power will probably disappear.

The development of this technology also poses a threat of sorts. With such gargantuan computing power, current cryptographic methods will prove completely useless – any passwords, regardless of their level of complexity and the encryption algorithms used, will be able to be cracked in the blink of an eye. Never mind hacking into someone's e-mail or FB account... worse if the government of the unfriendly country that first develops the technology decides to use it to conquer other nations – causing total technological and communications paralysis in the country under attack literally at the touch of a button, just like in Sci-Fi movies.

Green energy

A book-sized story for many years – after all, we all want to live the best life on Earth and to enjoy good health. This branch of technology has been thriving for many years, but the responsibility is often ultimately shifted to the private sector. Some tech moguls like to make a high-profile media stunt that ultimately leads to nothing. Fortunately, the target users of the services are increasingly aware that behind the apps they love – Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon – there are giant data centres, consuming enough energy to power a town. Consumers who care about the environment do not want to accept this and are in a position to force suppliers to invest in renewable energy sources. The more users start to give up their services, the greater the pressure on suppliers will be.

Edge computing

In theory, Edge Computing is supposed to be the successor to cloud computing. The premise is simple – keep the latency associated with cloud computing to a minimum. The idea is to decentralise data centres as much as possible and allow chunks (of data) to be stored outside the cloud – where the need is the greatest (this can mean many places in the world at the same time), thus reducing the time required to send a query to the 'main' cloud, the time required for calculations, and the time required for sending feedback. An additional advantage is that there is no need to connect to the main data centre at all.

In a nutshell – it is a highly decentralised cloud, it can be forcefully compared to a DNS or other cache server, except that here we still get dynamic responses instead of a static cache. A simple example – we have a data centre in the USA, it stores information about international flights. We also store part of the data (Poland ↔ USA flights) on servers in Poland. Thanks to this, when we are in Poland and looking for a flight to the USA, our query does not have to travel by cable across the ocean, but will reach the nearest server in Poland, which will accept the query and, based on the available data, send an answer. The problem here may be the synchronisation of data with the main cloud, especially when it is is unavailable for some reason, but I suspect that there are already solutions for this, too.

Automation and robotics

The rapid development of AI and mobile energy sources is brilliantly supporting the development of automation and robotics technologies. The question of the coming months is the emergence of new automated warehouses, where the only task of a human being will be to indicate which goods to load into a truck. The rest will be taken care of by robots – in the blink of an eye, the system will find the automated rack containing the required products, send a signal and the platform/rack will drive itself to the loading point, determining the fastest possible path, while not blocking other mobile goods platforms. The advantage of this solution is that it saves a great deal of space – the goods platforms can be packed next to one another, without leaving any space for forklifts and staff. If necessary, AI moves such platforms accordingly, so that the one we are interested in can reach its destination freely. A bit like the 'sliding puzzles' of childhood – only solved in a split second. Sort of like Ocado, only on a much bigger scale. More merchandise in the same space will mean that there will be no need to build and rent new warehouses in such quantities as there is now.

I also expect a big leap in humanoid robots. Admittedly, we were able to admire the presentation of Optimus last year, although it didn't quite turn out to be what I expected. I know, it was just a prototype for the media. Still, it raises hopes – that the next version will move much smoother, more naturally, follow the user's commands, maybe self-analyse the environment for things as trivial as dirty plates or an empty cat food bowl. More new battery types could help power such a robot for many hours without recharging. This, in turn, is another step towards something that was still SciFi not so long ago – robot butlers. All in all, it still sounds a bit funny, but it's closer than we think. I'm sure we'll see some breakthroughs in automation and robotics in 2023.

Environmental editing​?

It sounds strange, but the technology to enable 'environment editing' is set to have its big show this year. Giant 3D printers that allow one to print out an entire house do exist – Cobod and Wasp, among others, have such equipment and are already selling printed homes. As it is still a novelty, the prices are not too dazzling, but over time they will start to fly downwards. And so, instead of a construction crew for our plot, we will order a printer with an uploaded design that will take care of the rest.

The second buzzword hidden under this heading is DNA modification. People have been doing this for a long time, but rumour has it that 2023 is set to bring a breakthrough in this field. And it's not about creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but correcting what nature has failed to do, or has failed to adapt to changing conditions – from crops producing more plentiful yields and being more resistant to the elements, to treating food allergies, to curing human birth defects while still at the fetal stage. The braver ones mention changing the physical features of our bodies, such as eye or hair colour – however, I personally believe that here humanity will go more into practical than cosmetic applications, at least in the upcoming years.

They already exist, but…

In addition to technological innovations, this year should be defined by an increasingly rapid, even aggressive implementation of already existing patents. Automated car parks, placing cars side by side on multi-storey structures, will at least partially solve the parking space problem. Unmanned shops will start to spring up like mushrooms, and AR guides in the form of smartphone apps will allow anyone to visit cities, museums and monuments at any time of day or night, without having to hire a live guide. Like a cartridge for the Nintendo 3DS, as in the Louvre museum (Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre), only on steroids.

Monitoring your and your family's health could also move forward. Recently, researchers at NIST used a WiFi router as a breath monitor that detected respiratory problems with 99.54% efficiency. They plan to develop a smartphone app that allows people to test themselves in this way, thus detecting illness before symptoms are even felt. Smartwatches are also likely to gain a whole host of new functionalities to help monitor health and warn of diseases before the first symptoms appear. They will suggest a better diet based on our activity and the AI-analysed photos of food that many so eagerly upload to social media.

Smart homes will also become even smarter. At the moment, they mainly clean (by firing cleaning robots at the right times), open the entrance gate, control air conditioning and lighting, activate alarms or add pet food (provided we have a 'smart feeder'). Soon, however, they will also start to analyse camera footage and, for example, pick out people whose behaviour stands out from the rest and who often appear in the area at night. Identification based on body movements, the way people walk, run, etc. is no longer a Punisher invention – it's real software, available increasingly more widely. With such solutions, our Smart Home will be able to inform the police of an attempted break-in before the burglar has had time to jump the fence – and we will only find out in the morning what happened in the first place.

Of course, there is no fooling ourselves – all the data collected by all this tech will also be increasingly used by corporations 'for marketing purposes'. ;)

Parts of this text are probably quite obvious and predictable to everyone, parts are more like this wishful thinking (albeit very real) for the near future. But one thing we can be sure of – just as 2022 was a very interesting and exciting year (from a tech point of view), 2023 could be a real technological shock for everyone – in a positive sense, of course. Sometimes I think with excitement, but also fear, what the next 10 years might bring – especially when humanity finally combines the power of AI with the unimaginable power of quantum computers and the latest developments in mechatronics. On the one hand, these are beautiful visions of an ever-better world, where man's role is reduced to following his passions; on the other, a typical dystopia straight out of Akira. However, visions and dreams are one thing, and reality is another – after all, in 2015 we were supposed to have hoverboards and holograms instead of billboards and flying cars... McFly!!!