AUSTIN, Texas  — Professor Amy Webb’s job is to see into the future, and the trends in technology she sees this year with her think-tank colleagues are ones that will come with new functional and regulatory challenges.

Webb is an annual presenter at the South by Southwest Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas, a teacher of strategic foresight at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the chief executive officer at the Future Today Institute. Her job is to help businesses across 20 industries prepare for upcoming technology trends, be it health care, entertainment, logistics or financial services.

“This is a scary one this year,” Webb said of FTI’s 16^th annual Tech Trends to Watch report. “You are going to need a strong stomach for what I’m about to show you. So that’s just your warning. There is some scary stuff ahead, but the good news is that at the end, we are going to end on a message of hope.”

Webb was talking about two big trends  — really, clusters of similar activity across industries  — that will impact the future. One was the advent of Web 3.0. That's the changing role of the internet, from the simple computation and published content in Web 1.0 to the ability to perform and interact in Web 2.0, which is often recognized as the rise of algorithms. The Web 3.0 concept is that data will be so overwhelming that it will be decentralized, with the individual user being able to take control of their content. A paper by Google researchers labeled Web 3.0 technological "neural network," Webb said. 

"It's a neural network that can learn context in sequential data," said Webb, adding that it changes the relationship between data and user. "Think about search. If Version 1.0 of search was blue hyperlinks, and Version 2.0 was knowledge graphs showing you images and video, then Version 3.0 is going to wind up being something different. It's the continuous transfer of information and knowledge sharing, a little closer to human conversation."

That ability to ramp up the use of data is tied to a second big trend Webb sees, which is the rapid acceleration of AI, or artificial intelligence. The more ability built into the artificial intelligence performance, the more data the computer can recognize, analyze and, eventually, predict.

"They call it an AI accelerator," Webb said. "These are specialized computer systems designed to accelerate AI and machine learning. Because they can speed up processes, they can do tons of very heavy computations. By 2030, we could have AI systems that are 1,000 times more powerful than they are today. That's not an exaggeration."

So where is the downside to all this growth in technology? First, Webb says guardrails need to be set up for what data can and should be used in these massive computations. The industry still lacks clarity in this area, Webb said. 

"This is good in theory, but we don't want some random model Hoovering up all the available data out there and finding patterns in it without a human in the loop. This (AI accelerator) technique is meant to fine-time these models and align them with human values," Webb said. "But I gotta ask, 'Which humans are doing this? Which humans are ranking the outputs? Do they represent a wide variety of diverse backgrounds and worldviews?' Right now, the answer is, 'I have no idea.'"

So it's an area ripe for potential abuse, Webb said. It puts wide-ranging decisions in the hands of a few powerful tech companies and, in turn, the employees who are best trained in the use of this new technology. 

Webb has two scenarios for the future: one optimistic and the other catastrophic. The optimistic view would envision strategic people-focused industry decisions with the goal of common good. Cloud providers and AI models aren't walled off, and data is not held in proprietary moats. Clouds of data would be held by multiple companies so that power is not concentrated in a few. Models are transparent, and a user can choose when to share data. 

"Life is easier, more seamless, like you don't have to waste time hunting down content anymore," Webb said. "You just say, "I want to watch 'Friends,' and then it shows up on our screen. Which streaming company has a right to license and distribute 'Friends' won't matter anymore because you may never know because subscriptions are dead. You've allocated $50 to streaming content, regardless of where it comes from."

The other side of these trends — where no one has prepared for the new order — is more bleak, Webb said. 

"We weren't prepared for AI-mosis event that happened, and when it happened, life changed for the worse," Webb said. "Information now chases you around like a lawyer who chases ambulances. Marketing and advertising exists, but actual human marketers have been replaced by systems that continually aggressively scrape up data. It's led to the death of search and the birth of aggressive curation and recommendations."

That, paradoxically, will end the ability to find what you actually want. "So, when you want to watch 'Friends,' you can find it quickly, but you can't easily choose what episode that you want to see," Webb said. "Your streaming service only plays the one with the prom video from Season 2. Because you happened to be looking at old prom photos from high school, and that's the data the system uses to make recommendations."

It doesn't stop with entertainment. Accelerated AI and machine learning could improve multiple industries, Webb said. It could speed up research on potential cancer cures. It could upend time-intensive tasks. It could add predictability and precision to areas like health care. 

"But knowledge workers have to know how to use these system and their prompts, going forward. But we're not teaching these tools, we're banning them," Webb said. "The New York City Department of Education has banned ChatGPT on devices because they're worried about negative impacts on student learning and safety JP Morgan has banned generative AI over compliance concerns."

By avoiding, or downplaying AI, an entire industry could be dragging its feet, Webb said. Learn to harness technology and move forward. Avoid it, and it comes with consequences.

"I have some questions, and I think you should have some questions, too," Webb said. "What if, with all this assistive technology, we are unintentionally creating a new digital divide that we just don't see, one that drastically impacts the future of our workforce and economy?"