From detecting breast cancer that doctors miss to creating award-winning art, artificial intelligence (AI) is being heralded as the technology of the future. Bill Gates published an article on March 21 titled “The Age of AI has Begun,” and compares its impact to mobile phones and the internet. Gates believes AI “will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other.”
For generation Alpha, a group still being born today, there is no doubt AI technology will be influencing their lives, much like how smart phones and social media have shaped gen Zers. Smart AI toys are growing in popularity, with the global market expected to reach $35 billion by 2030 from its $12 billion value in 2022, according to research company Contrive Datum Insights. AI companions for kids aim to educate, form relationships, and grow with the child. Examples such as Miko 3 and Roybi AI Robot are billed as emotionally intelligent educational robots that are safe for children. In April 2023, Vancouver-based Toymint announced TeddyGPT, a physical toy that uses OpenAI. The preorder and launch date is yet to be announced, but TeddyGPT promises “to cater to each child’s unique preferences and needs,” refining its personalized engagement as it adapts to and grows with each child.
Excitement around AI is expressed by both parents and children, according to a March poll commissioned by non-profit organization Common Sense Media. The survey found that 77% of parents and 92% of students aged 12-18 were interested in AI-powered education tools that could help students learn. Experts are already accepting that AI will be integral in evolving education. The Telegraph predicts that “AI technology like ChatGPT ‘could lead to the end of coursework,’” according to a March article. Reflecting this change, an April publication by MIT Technology Review titled “ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it” explains that incorporating AI into education is inevitable. “We need to be asking what we need to do to prepare young people—learners—for a future that’s not that far in the future,” Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) explains in the article.
It's not just education that is changing, but jobs too. According to Goldman Sachs, up to 300 million full-time jobs could be replaced by AI systems, but could also generate higher productivity, new job opportunities and raise the global GDP by 7%. “In the next ten years we will see a birth of many creative ways of using AI,” Daniel Hulmes, CEO of AI company Satalia tells VML Intelligence. Hulmes expects AI to offer efficiency and remove friction from the creation and dissemination of goods, making operations faster, better, and cheaper.
If AI’s trend of taking on mundane tasks continues, this will free up time for people to focus on creative, ethical and social ventures. Hulmes has high hopes for gen Alphas. “For the generation being born now, they could potentially be born into a world of abundance. In theory, the next generation will be economically freer to contribute to humanity,” he says. He likens the shift to a Star Trek quote: “the acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” suggesting that in the future status will not revolve around how much you’re making but rather how much you’ve contributed. While the ethical implications of AI may still be in question, its ability to facilitate daily life and its future impact on rising generations is clear.
