From AI to hydrogen planes: My Wildest Prediction second season wrap-up
The second season of My Wildest Prediction has come to an end.
Over the last eight months, we have delved into the business world through the words of entrepreneurs, researchers, futurists and experts from around the globe.
Our goal has been to understand the challenges facing our economy and society, exploring how they affect our lives now and in the years to come.
My Wildest Prediction is a podcast series from Euronews Business where we dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries.
Among other topics, we discussed work. Some guests, like bestselling author Bruce Daisley, painted a pessimistic picture, predicting that 'work will get worse before it gets better'. Others, like futurist Dom Price, offered a more radical point of view, arguing that we will abandon the productivity myth — the idea that constantly working is the key to success.
Overall, our guests agreed that work will become increasingly mobile, with entrepreneur Karoli Hindriks arguing that 'passports will be obsolete' and marketing expert Rory Sutherland saying that people will adopt a nomadic lifestyle.
We also explored the future of our cities and our relationship with the environment. Urbanist Greg Clark predicted that by 2080, there will be more than 10 billion people on Earth, with 90% living in cities. Additionally, explorer Bertrand Piccard forecast that hydrogen planes will fly commercially by 2035.
And of course, artificial intelligence (AI) was extensively discussed in our podcast and remained a polarising topic. Human resources expert Patty McCord believes 'AI will not be the big scary thing we think', while others like professor Scott Galloway predicted that AI will fuel US domestic terrorism.
This is just a glimpse of the predictions shared during our season.
Watch the wrap-up and listen to the episodes on YouTube or your favourite audio platforms.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
35 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Oil Futures Diverge on U.S. Holiday Price Lag, Contract Expiration
Oil prices were mixed in European afternoon trade on Friday, with Brent crude down more than 2% to around $77 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate edging 0.7% higher to $74 a barrel. Brent futures fell after President Trump set a two-week deadline to decide whether the U.S. will strike Iran, easing fears of an imminent military intervention. The international oil benchmark had settled 2.8% higher on Thursday at $78.85, its highest close since January.
Forbes
37 minutes ago
- Forbes
Dispute Resolution: Is Decentralization The Answer?
Saro McKenna is the CEO of Dacoco GmbH and cofounder of Alien Worlds. Although the godfather of online dispute resolution, Ethan Katsh, once observed that "the power of technology to resolve disputes is exceeded by the power of technology to generate disputes," as human beings, we cannot help ourselves. Even the prospect of AI sentience and bots capable of overpowering their flesh-and-bone creators cannot halt our penchant for relentlessly leveraging tech to achieve advancement in one area or another. As far as disputes are concerned, the technology that has increasingly been used to intercede is blockchain. This is no surprise. Of all the suggested use cases for a censor- and tamper-proof decentralized digital ledger, jurisprudence rightly ranks high. Over the past decade, many technologists have attempted to adapt traditional legal concepts and resolve conflicts on-chain, with mixed success. So, why is blockchain considered the best "lawtech" tool to settle disputes? Decentralized dispute resolution is appealing because of its ability to bypass centralized authorities that are prone to bias or bureaucracy. Smart contracts and empowered jurors streamline arbitration, handling all kinds of disputes with transparency. As traditional legal systems often prove unwieldy or unfit for specific disagreements, DDR offers fast, fair outcomes. Evidently, there are many factors that entice developers to build Web3 protocols that are concerned with dispute resolution. Blockchain, being apolitical, decentralized and transparent, is perceived to be perhaps the best vehicle for administering justice when two or more parties are in disagreement. These parties can consist of individuals or even companies and governments. Perhaps blockchain is too broad a term, however, because it is often specific features of certain chains, like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and smart contracts, that prove useful in an arbitration capacity. The economic incentives baked into blockchains are another important consideration, with the general idea being that users can become jurors, reviewing evidence and voting for the party they believe is right. In blockchain-based systems, jurors are usually financially motivated to make a sound judgment, i.e., one that accords with the majority. Kleros is one of the earliest examples of a decentralized adjudication system, one that uses jurors and game theory to produce judgments in a secure and inexpensive way. Founded in 2017, the Ethereum-based arbitration service was designed to "resolve any kind of dispute," building on the work of early Web3 pioneers like Vitalik Buterin and Paul Sztorc, whose idea to use Schelling Point-based incentives for blockchain oracles gave rise to the notion of "decentralized truth-telling." In the case of Kleros, the probability of crowdsourced jurors being selected is proportional to the amount of tokens staked. Staking, then, signifies one's willingness to participate in the adjudication process in contrast to the traditional court system, where jurors are selected at random. Arbitration fees, meanwhile, make it difficult for attackers to spam the system by creating frivolous disputes. Many similar protocols appeared around this time, among them Jur (2018) and Aragon (2016). While the former focused on enterprise use cases and selected jurors based on their reputation rather than token stake, the latter favored a subscription model and was intended for arbitration within DAOs themselves. Although they held promise, neither project is currently actively maintained. The popularization of DeFi around 2020 prompted renewed interest in dispute resolution, most notably in the case of the UMA protocol's Data Verification Mechanism (DVM), which resolves disputes about the price of a synthetic token derivative contract. This type of system, of course, has a much narrower focus than projects like Kleros, which seek to be multipurpose courts. A watershed moment for DDR occurred in 2021 when a Mexican court enforced a decentralized arbitration award governed by Kleros, which related to a real estate dispute. Last year, Mexico also passed the General Law of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, the first national legislation recognizing decentralized justice as a valid dispute resolution system. Central to the premise of DDR is the idea that arbiters can come to a fair and transparent judgment based on the available evidence: the wisdom of the crowd, enforced on-chain. Arbiters play a key role in the recently unveiled Worker Proposal System of blockchain-based metaverse Alien Worlds (which I cofounded), which is centered on the activity of various DAOs. While the system empowers users to suggest and execute new projects, arbiters act as neutral mediators in any disputes that arise. For example, arbiters can step in and cast a deciding vote when there is a disagreement about project milestones. In this particular arbitration model, a blockchain escrow account is also used since the Worker Proposal System is designed to furnish the awarded party with tokens for meeting pre-agreed targets. Arbiters must complete an identity verification process, demonstrate a solid understanding of the Alien Worlds ecosystem, commit to a minimum term of four months to ensure continuity and dedicate specific weekly hours to their role. They are also paid a set rate for performing this role. As the primary contributor to Alien Worlds, my company, Dacoco, takes a notable approach to dispute resolution by blending Web2 and Web3 concepts in a unique way. While disputes are enforced on-chain, and a DAO system transparently manages worker proposals, the arbiter functions similarly to an independent mediator in any traditional legal process. In other words, Dacoco is not relying entirely on blockchain to adjudicate. In most cases, protocols promising to administer decentralized justice have failed to achieve their objectives, whether due to technical, market or other challenges. This is a great shame because on-chain arbitration offers many advantages over a sluggish legal system that is notorious for its inequity (the most powerful people can afford the best litigators) and complexity. Although decentralized dispute resolution has yet to gain widespread adoption, and many challenges remain, expect lawtech solutions to grow more sophisticated over time and for traditional courts to follow Mexico's lead in recognizing such systems. In a sense, it is analogous to the way in which the financial world has gradually recognized Bitcoin, a consequence of the number of individuals storing their wealth in the network. Ultimately, the best and most efficient solutions have a tendency to break into the spotlight. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
European shares show slight rise despite Iran-Israel crisis, while oil stays high
European shares showed a slight rise in early trading and oil prices remained high on Wednesday as investors tracked the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. US benchmark crude oil was down around 0.43% at $74.52 per barrel, while Brent, the international standard, slipped around 0.52% to $76.05, although both WTI and Brent remain high on the month. Crude prices rose more than 4% on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump left a Group of Seven summit in Canada early and warned that people in Iran's capital should evacuate immediately. Within about eight hours, Trump went from suggesting that a nuclear deal with Iran remained 'achievable' to urging Tehran's 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives. Iran and Israel continued to exchange airstrikes on Wednesday. The fighting has driven prices for crude oil and gasoline higher because Iran is a major oil exporter and it sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's crude passes. Past conflicts in the area have caused spikes in oil prices, though they've historically proven brief after showing that they did not disrupt the flow of oil. European stocks, meanwhile, showed faintly positive trends in early trading. The DAX 40 was up around 0.11% at 23,461.41, the CAC 40 rose 0.29% to 7,706.08, the STOXX 600 was broadly flat, while the FTSE 100 rose 0.23% to 8,854.79. Related Israel-Iran crisis: How vital is the Strait of Hormuz for oil market? Trump demands Iran's 'unconditional surrender' again as conflict with Israel continues Earlier in the day, Asian stock markets showed a varied picture. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 0.78% to 38,837.48. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.17% to 23,698.65 while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to 3,388.77. The Kospi in Seoul gained 0.54% to 2,966.20 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1% to 8,533.10. On Tuesday, US stocks slumped under the weight of higher oil prices and weaker than expected retail sales in May. Trump raised the temperature on Israel's fight with Iran by calling for 'Unconditional surrender!' on his social media platform and saying, 'We are not going to' kill Iran's leader, 'at least for now'. The S&P 500 fell 0.84% to 5,982.72 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 42,215.80. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.91% to 19,521.09. On early Wednesday morning in the US, S&P futures rose 0.11% to 5,991.50, Dow Jones futures increased less than 1% to 42,245.00, while Nasdaq futures advanced by 0.13% to 21,759.00. The markets will be looking to the Federal Reserve as it makes a decision on its interest rates today. The nearly unanimous expectation among traders and economists is that the Fed will make no move. In currency trading early on Wednesday, the US dollar fell 0.2% to 144.94 Japanese yen. The euro edged 0.18% higher, to $1.1502. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
