Entrepreneur and investor, Vinod Khosla, is known as a techno-optimist, pioneering open systems and helping shape the tech industry over several decades. As the founder of Khosla Ventures, his company has invested in numerous early-stage companies, most notably OpenAI, Square, DoorDash, and others. He presented an inspiring TED Talk this past Spring regarding the future of technology. While his predications may seem wild, he explains why entrepreneurs, not experts, will be the ones to bring about innovation, change, and improbable solutions. Here are his 12 predictions for the future of technology.
- Expertise will be near free – AI could enable access to free experts 24/7; free doctors; free tutors; expertise for the cost of computing
- Labor will be near free – robots will replace human labor, yet there will be enough abundance for redistribution and to take care of everybody
- Computer use will grow expansively – humans will not have to learn computers as computers will adapt to us
- AI will play a large role in entertainment and design – diversity and creativity will increase with the assistance of AI
- Internet access will be mostly by agents – agents will act on behalf of consumers, doing tasks and fending off bots
- From the practice to the science of medicine – there will be a focus on sickness prevention instead of sick care
- We will have new food and fertilizers – we will have better alternatives to animal protein as well as greener fertilizer
- Cars could be displaced in cities – improved, on-demand transit will replace cars in cities
- Flying will be faster – we will have Mach 5 planes jetting us all over the world in record time
- There will be clean, dispatchable electric power – fusion power will replace coal and natural gas power plants
- Resources will be plentiful – more natural resources will be discovered once we develop the technologies to look deeper into the earth
- Carbon will have solutions – new technologies will capture carbon dioxide to increase output of product
See Vinod’s TED Talk, in full, below.