Over the years, people have made wild predictions about artificial intelligence (AI), ranging from the mundane to the downright outlandish. Think flying cars, tele-transporting, talking robots, and computers running our lives.
While some ideas remain stuck in science fiction, many predictions have surprisingly come true, and AI, which was once reserved for the science laboratory or movie screens has found its way into everyday human life. With machines changing the way we live to AI making decisions in a human capacity has turned the fiction of AI into reality.
Read on to learn the 10 craziest AI predictions that came true.
Portable Devices (Smartphones)
The idea of seeing the person you are talking to on a phone popularized by early Star Trek episodes, was the stuff of science fiction. A French documentary ‘Oeil de Demain’ talked about people in the future walking on the streets with portable devices with antennas foreshadowing videophones, cellphones, and the Internet. However, it is now an everyday feature thanks to smartphones with front-facing cameras and apps like FaceTime, Zoom, and WhatsApp.
What was once a dream of futuristic communication has become indispensable, connecting families, friends, and workplaces across the world.
Robots Performing Surgeries
Medical experts used to scoff at the idea of machines outperforming doctors, but the reality is here for everyone to see. AI tools like IBM Watson and Google’s DeepMind are diagnosing diseases, analyzing X-rays, and even predicting patient outcomes with remarkable accuracy.
Apart from this, robot-assisted surgeries have been taking place since 1992. TSolution One, an active autonomous, image-based robotic milling system, uses a robot to precisely cut bone. If the research goes well, we will soon have an autonomous robot to perform bowel surgery with minimal surgeon assistance.
Self-Driving Cars
When Isaac Asimov, one of the best science fiction authors of the 20th century, wrote in his 1964 essay about flying cars, it was written off as a piece of fiction. However, companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Cruise with their self-driving cars turned those pipe dreams of autonomous vehicles into reality.
Asimov had written about cars with robot brains that were capable of reaching destinations without interference from human drivers. While fully autonomous cars aren’t yet widespread, the technology is rapidly evolving, with features like autopilot and parking assist already common in modern vehicles.
AI Will Take Over the World
The fear of AI “taking over the world” has been a recurring theme in movies like The Terminator. While we haven’t seen robot overlords, AI-driven algorithms do control much of what we see and believe online.
Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook use AI to create echo chambers, where users are continuously targeted with content that aligns with their existing beliefs. This has influenced elections (think the 2016 US Presidential Elections), fueled misinformation, and shaped public opinion.
Smartwatches
If you have been a fan of the futuristic world of The Jetsons (1962–1987), apart from flying cars, you would have noticed one more standout device. It was a smartwatch-like technology they used for video calls and communication.
In an era when rotary phones dominated real life, the concept of a wrist device capable of real-time video conferencing felt like pure fantasy. Fast forward to today, and the Jetsons’ smartwatch concept is a reality. Devices like the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch not only enable calls and video chats but also track health, manage calendars, and integrate seamlessly with other smart technologies.
Wi-Fi Devices
In the early 20th century, Nikolas Tesla dreamed of a global wireless system that could transmit data, energy, and information over vast distances without cables transforming the way humans interact with machines and each other.
Though his ideas seemed fantastical then, they laid the groundwork for modern Wi-Fi and wireless communication. From smartphones and laptops to smart home assistants like Alexa, printers, and security cameras, wireless connectivity has become the backbone of daily life.
AI Mimicking Human Creativity
Decades ago, the idea of a machine creating art or composing music sounded absurd. Creativity was considered uniquely human.
Yet today, AI tools like OpenAI’s DALL·E and ChatGPT are creating artwork, writing poems, and even generating entire novels. AI programs like DeepArt and Runway have created stunning visual designs and assisted in producing movies.
AI Defeating Humans In Complex Games
When IBM’s Deep Blue beat chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, it was groundbreaking. But AI didn’t stop there. Google’s AlphaGo shocked the world by defeating the best Go players in the world, a game far more complex than chess.
AI has even conquered multiplayer video games like Dota 2, proving its ability to outthink humans in strategic environments and play aggressive games.
AI In Warfare
Decades ago, movies like WarGames (1983) and The Terminator (1984) imagined autonomous machines making life-and-death decisions on the battlefield. Today, these predictions have almost become a reality. AI-powered drones and surveillance systems are already used in modern warfare in recent conflicts involving Israel and Russia, analyzing massive datasets to identify threats and plan tactical operations.
Countries are investing heavily in AI for defense, including autonomous weapon systems. While we still do not have fully autonomous “killer robots,” the role of AI in military applications is growing rapidly and reshaping the way wars are being fought.
Customer Service Chatbots
Science fiction has portrayed robots as customer assistants, handling queries without human intervention. This prediction has come true with AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Duplex, and those on platforms like Amazon.
They now handle customer inquiries, make reservations, and resolve issues, often without users realizing they are interacting with a machine.
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