(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
The Washington Post / Bloomberg
Washington: Since the selection for Oxford's yearly word is done by public poll, this leads me to my first prediction in this column of observations for tech in 2025.
The brain rot Economy will show signs of weakness as people grow more wary of what is being served up to them by algorithms as they scroll endlessly.
In the past year, the flood of AI slop content has made looking at facebook even more pointless - and eyeballs will go elsewhere.
Along the same lines, we can expect more anti-social media and anti-smartphone legislation from governments and local authorities around the world following the drastic action taken by Australia to ban users younger than 16 from social media and more and more bans on smartphones in US schools.
Momentum is growing, and I expect more sweeping directives will follow - along with more spirited debate over whether such bans are justified or effective.
At the center of tech policymaking will be Elon Musk.
The world's richest man will be looking for a strong return on his investment in Trump.
What exactly that looks like remains to be seen, though we've already seem him wield the force of his social network, X, to bend Congress to his will.
But his ownership of X, and his power over what is posted and amplified there, will likely make him a lightning rod for the warring factions in right wing politics.
Last week's bitter row over H-1B visas shows how suspicions over Musk's aims lie just beneath the surface, and the billionaire's unwillingness to back down from a fight could prove damaging to his companies.
In 2025, Musk needs to show real progress on his robotaxi vision.
Tesla's share gains since Trump was elected suggest Wall Street thinks the plan is right on track, but I think Tesla investors will be sorely disappointed when Musk's robotaxi plan reveals itself to be infeasible (some would argue that's apparent already).
Investors will also be keeping a close watch on chipmaker Nvidia Corp.
Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, will be a man under siege as rivals such as Amazon Inc. and Broadcom Inc. seek to provide bonafide alternatives to Nvidia's AI chips and geopolitical tensions between the US and China put Nvidia on the front line.
Wall Street demands for meaningful return on investment from AI will get louder.
Capital expenditures from data center construction and semiconductor hoarding will skyrocket, but the capabilities and revenue of AI won't match the pace of investment.
In a political environment friendlier to large mergers and acquisitions, we can expect significant consolidation in the AI industry.
AI pushback will also come from news organizations that feel AI companies are stealing their work and putting their futures at risk.
In 2025, newsrooms globally will need to contend with AI as both friend and foe, recognizing its potential for arming journalists with incredibly powerful new reporting tools while wondering if multimillion-dollar deals with OpenAI and others are giving away the farm.
Legislators and judges will get into the fine print of modernizing copyright law.
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