The doomers have it wrong. AI is not going to end the world--but it is going to end the web as we've known it. AI is already upending the economic covenant of the internet that's existed since the advent of search: A few companies (mostly Google) bring demand, and creators bring supply (and get some ad revenue or recognition from it). AI tools are already generating and summarizing content, obviating the need for users to click through to the sites of content providers, and thereby upsetting the balance. Meanwhile, an ocean of AI-powered deepfakes and bots will make us question what's real and will degrade people's trust in the online world.

Five years ago, Future Tense Fiction started publishing a short science-fiction story each month. Our goal was simple: to give people more tools to imagine our future through tales that inspire us to weigh reasons for concern against excitement, caution against exploration. More than 60 stories later--plus accompanying response essays and art--we've covered mobility and A.I. ethics, space exploration and biometric surveillance, gig work and military tech, gender and the relationships between humans and animals … and much more. The stories serve as both alarm clocks and lighthouses, waking us up to challenges stemming from scientific and technological change and guiding us toward possible ways forward. They are written by authors and journalists, but also by researchers, doctors, and policymakers, from the U.S. and elsewhere (Hong Kong, Norway, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, to name a few).

Technology zoomed ahead in 2020 and 2021, spurred in large part by the global pandemic. Companies embraced digital transformation and AI, driven by a need to connect remote workers, improve efficiency, and offer new online services. This surge of adoption has also added renewed focus on a variety of technologies including augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, and the rollout of 5G communication networks. We have indeed entered an age of acceleration. In turn, these developments are leading to new innovations such as the metaverse. First envisioned in the 1990s, the same underlying technologies to make the metaverse concept a fully immersive and seamless experience are now approaching maturity.

Hackathon[3]: "New Realities" examined what's real in the shrinking gap between our physical and digital lives. In terms of existing and emerging technology, reality is whatever we are capable of. We can talk to our TV with Siri, live inside a game with Oculus Rift or travel anywhere through Google Street View. There's never been a time of more reality-challenging innovation, as our Hackathon[3] teams demonstrated in a quick-turn all-or-nothing competition built on the latest forms of what's possible.] "Knack," the winning project, made sales empathy a reality. Knack is a product that demonstrates how artificial intelligence and organic intelligence empower a sales force to sell to the person and not to the script.