Chen Qiufan A scifi vision of life in 2041 TED
It’s 2041.
The world is even stranger than fiction.
Full of astonishing technologies
and scientific advances.
But there’s still one thing
that is very familiar.
COVID is still with us.
We’ve just figured out
how to live with it.
You haven’t been outside
of your apartment for three years.
The pandemic of 2021 traumatized you.
You still have the nightmares
about losing your grandparents
and despite advances,
fear of infection has kept you
inside and isolated.
You’ve just found out
that the lover you met
in an immersive online game
has flown halfway
around the world to meet you.
But now he’s quarantined in the hospital,
stricken with a new,
extremely virulent variant of the virus.
It looks like he might die
even before you met him.
You decide you’ve got to venture out,
into the dangerous world
beyond your four walls.
Luckily, there are robots to help you.
Your housekeeping robot
takes you to a special elevator
reserved for robots only,
allowing you to completely avoid people.
It’s crammed with all manners of bots.
DeliveryBot,
CleaningBot, SeniorCareBot,
DogWalkingBot,
even the walls and ceiling
are covered with DisinfectionBots
that resemble insects.
You cautiously step out on the street
for the first time,
eyeing the passers-by with suspicion.
You rely on your Safety Circle app
on your mobile device to keep you safe.
It alerts you with a vibration or buzz
if potential virus carriers
step too close.
The biosensor membranes
on your inner wrist
display real time physiological data,
including the expiration
of various vaccines –
and yours are three years out of date!
Without this electric identification film,
you definitely can’t get to the hospital,
or anywhere, as it’s needed
to access transportation.
Meanwhile, your device streams
real-time medical status
of your dying lover,
making it hard not to panic.
You race against the clock.
When you make it in time?
Can you even get there?
You can.
Thanks to AI-automated processes,
it was possible to synthesize
a quick-fix drug for your lover.
And technologies such as AlphaFold
will accelerate the speed of vaccine
development from years to weeks.
So, what else could happen in 2041?
Anti-fake detectors are part
of the standard configuration
for cybersecurity.
The abuse of technology such as deepfakes
to spread rumors and hatred
increase conflicts
and tear the society apart,
it’s a thing of the past.
Real personalized learning finally arrives
with customized AI companions
that calibrate creativity,
communication and compassion
to each individual equally.
Educational technology no longer
exacerbates class divisions.
With digital twins enabled
by natural language processing
and XR technologies,
Kobe Bryant, Maradona
and Whitney Houston would be reborn
and become immortal virtual characters
in your customized
entertainment experience.
2041 is just around the corner.
Only 20 years away.
And most of us watching this talk
will, if lucky enough,
be alive to experience it.
That’s why, together
with the artificial intelligence expert,
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee,
I chose to write a book
that blends science fiction realism
with the analysis, not just of technology,
but also the big ideas
that animate technology.
When most think of AI in science fiction,
it’s often dystopian.
HAL 9000, Terminator, Ex Machina –
The AI always feels competitive, hostile,
the outlook for humanity bleak.
But with our book,
we explore a different approach.
We spent almost two years
visiting labs and AI scientists,
entrepreneurs, researchers and scholars,
trying to figure out the most realistic
road map of AI development
over the next 20 years.
The AI technology
we researched into for the book
range from natural-language processing
to GPT-3, to augmented
mixed virtual reality,
computer vision, GANs,
brain-computer interfaces.
We put all this solid know-how
into predictions
and futuristic storytellings,
set in 10 different cities
all around the world.
It was not easy
to tell stories in that way.
But without disregarding
AI’s faults and nuances,
Kai-Fu and I endeavor to portray a future
where AI technology could influence
individuals and societies positively.
We wish to represent how individuals
from disparate cultures
and industries,
with different identities would react
to the future shock induced by AI.
Let’s get back to 2021, the present.
The pandemic still spans the world.
The people are still unemployed,
isolated from friends, family and nature.
Will AI really solve
all these problems?
From modern submarine to the laser gun,
from mobile phones to CRISPR,
many scientists will admit
inspiration from fiction.
Imagination does shape the world.
So for every future we wish to create,
we must first learn to imagine it.
By imagining the future
through science fiction,
we can even step in, make changes
and actively play a role
in shaping our reality.
Thank you.