Each year, I look ahead at what’s new in technology to predict what may affect your life in a big way. Before that, let’s take a look back at 2022. Hardware was very “meh”. Last year’s iPhone was an even more incremental upgrade than the one before. Separately, Meta released a $1,500 virtual reality headset that Mark Zuckerberg envisioned would change the way that people worked.Though with two hours of battery life, most will probably use it only to play games.

Social media became very weird. Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, gutted the staff and suspended the accounts of some journalists and techies, which sent droves of Twitter users to seek alternative sites. And the fate of TikTok is in jeopardy, as over a dozen US states, citing national security concerns, have banned the app’s use on government-issued devices.

Then came something truly remarkable. OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company, released ChatGPT. People realised it could compose essays, write code and draft business proposals.

We can expect advancements in AI-powered, language processing tech, along with the same trends that have endured in the past few years. There may even be a rebirth of social media.

New chatty assistants

Early adopters who have been wowed by the linguistic competence of ChatGPT have just as quickly been stunned by how wrong it can be, particularly with simple arithmetic. Flaws aside, we can expect AI companies to improve on the strengths of these chatbots with tools that streamline how we write and read text.

That doesn’t mean we’ll see a flood of stand-alone AI apps. Many tools we already use for work will begin building automatic language generation into their apps. Rowan Curran, a technology analyst, said apps like Microsoft Word and Google Sheets could soon embed AI tools to streamline workflow.

Virtual reality

Tech firms have been promoting VR headsets — Quest 2, HTC Vive, Sony PlayStation VR — for playing games. Companies are making lofty promises that these headsets will eventually reshape our lives.

In its unveiling of the Quest Pro headset, Meta envisioned the tech could become a multitasking tool for workers juggling meetings while scrolling through emails and other tasks. Apple is expected to release its first headset. Tim Cook has laid out clues, expressing his excitement about using augmented reality to take advantage of digital data in the physical world. “You’ll wonder how you lived your life without augmented reality, just like today you wonder: how did people like me grow up without the Internet?” he said.

ECs beyond Tesla

Tesla continued to dominate electric vehicle sales, but 2023 may prove to be a turning point for the industry. Tesla’s brand has taken a beating since Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Competition is intensifying as EV makers like Ford Motor, Kia, General Motors, Audi and Rivian ramp up production.

Also, Tesla said it would open up its charging connector design to other electric cars. That would enable drivers of other types of cars to replenish their batteries at Tesla’s charging stations.

California and New York have moved to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. This all adds up to a perfect storm for the electric car industry to become much bigger than one brand in 2023.

More options for SM

Twitter was in chaos for much of 2022, and this will most likely continue. Musk asked his followers in a “poll” whether he should step down as the company’s leader. A majority, roughly 10 million users, voted yes. TikTok, too, is in hot water after ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, said an internal investigation found that employees had inappropriately obtained the data of US users, including that of two journalists.

Many journalists, techies and influencers have migrated to Mastodon. And lots of younger people have moved on to BeReal, where friends stay in touch by taking and sharing selfies at the same time.

It’s unclear which new social media app will be a big deal in 2023. (Mastodon servers are struggling to handle the surge in users.) But one thing is certain: people who feel burned by Twitter are looking for a safe, fun place to hang out.

(New York Times News Service)