In times like these when it’s hard to anticipate what’s next, futurist Amy Webb shares practical advice and useful tools for dealing with uncertainty.
Read More
You have access to nine of the 2019 Thinkers50 winners
Future of work and learning expert Kelly Palmer shows businesses how to better train employees in an economy facing a critical skills gap.
A recent CBS “60 Minutes” segment throws open the doors of the MIT Media Lab and provides insight into the visionaries who work there.
In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Dan Barasch reveals how innovative designs can revive abandoned structures while improving communities.
Our clients aren’t just in the news. They are the news.
With the holiday season in full swing, minds often turn to family gatherings, festive parties – and, of course, food. But while we in developed countries take it for granted…
What should our devices – smart phones, watches and the like – do for us? While they currently increase our efficiency and accessibility, they also distract us from the world…
A report by McKinsey indicates that 62 percent of executives believe they will need to either replace or retrain a quarter or more of their staff within the next five…
Blockchain and cryptocurrency expert Neha Narula explains the high-tech future of this new technology.
These 10 speakers help leaders prepare for the impact of AI, automation and the gig economy.
NEW to Stern: Mary Lou Jepsen has already made an impact on consumer electronics and health care; now she wants to read people’s minds.
How does your organization view communication technology? Does digital connectivity enhance human interaction, or replace it? In an op-ed for the New York Times, renowned social psychologist Sherry Turkle took…
Thomas Malone’s new book shows organizations how people and computers can accomplish far more together than either can alone.
In a powerful presentation, Hugh Herr describes how the age of the cyborg is closer – and more benign – than you might imagine.
AI expert Rana el Kaliouby explores the marvels of modern science as co-host of PBS’ “NOVA Wonders.”
NEW to Stern: Neuroengineer Ed Boyden is changing the way we understand the human brain and innovation in all fields.
In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, we speak with Emotion AI pioneer and CEO of Affectiva Rana el Kaliouby about her vision for equipping machines with the ability to sense human emotions.
NEW to Stern: Cellular biology trailblazer Isha Datar is inventing the future of food.
New to Stern: Biotech executive Andrew Hessel is programming life. And every industry will be affected.
Autonomous vehicles can still be the future. But only if their makers understand the importance of gaining the public’s trust.
Amy Webb’s annual Tech Trends report helps organizations in every industry prepare for the unexpected.
Minds Worth Meeting converses with futurist, best-selling author and NYU Stern Professor Amy Webb, who discusses future trends and how technological change, such as the ubiquity of artificial intelligence, will impact businesses in the very near future.
VR is the next technological game-changer. Jeremy Bailenson’s new book reveals how it will revolutionize companies and humanity.
Virtual reality is very close to becoming a major element of society. With its ability to alter perceptions of the real world, what implications does the emerging technology have for the future of business and society? Minds Worth Meeting chats with VR pioneer and Stanford University Professor Jeremy Bailenson, who discusses the possibilities, opportunities and dangers of using this new medium.
Trust expert Rachel Botsman shows how the financial sector has much to gain by better understanding the changing nature of trust in society.
Futurist Amy Webb analyzes Republican tax reforms, revealing how they jeopardize the long-term competitiveness of America’s economy and workforce.
Amy Webb and Hal Gregersen win big at Thinkers50!
What are we training students to do? In the last millennium, the structure of education has remained constant: students sit in rows listening to a lecturer as they follow along in a book. This factory model, says futurist, award winning author and digital transformation guru Robert Tercek, will be the demise of the workforce if we don’t reinvent the education system to meet the needs of the 21st century society…
In the November-December issue of Harvard Business Review, award-winning author and Harvard business professor, Michael E. Porter, and PTC Chief Executive, James E. Heppelmann, pen the business case for augmented reality – showing what it is, how every link in the chain, from manufacturing through sales, will reap the rewards of its application, and how converging the digital and physical worlds will enhance human capabilities, changing the business landscape forever…
Future generations will call today the beginning of a radical social, technological and economic revolution. Erik Brynjolfsson, renowned MIT professor and leading authority on how businesses can leverage emerging technologies, concludes that harnessing advances in artificial intelligence (AI) is the grand challenge for our society…
Robots are revolutionizing how humans go about their daily business. Amazon’s robotic “personal assistant,” known as “Alexa,” may be the first of the new personally relatable machines. Rachel Botsman introduced her three year-old daughter Grace to Alexa, and what ensued was an experiment in how the upcoming generation will relate to machines.
At MIT’s Center for Extreme Bionics, Professor Hugh Herr and his team of researchers are working miracles. Through his own determination and scientific prowess, Herr overcame the loss of his lower legs after a tragic 1982 climbing accident. Today, he’s abolishing the debilitating physical and neurological handicaps afflicting humanity.
Imagine a new technology that, within only a few years, revolutionized everyday life while rendering obsolete nearly all assumptions about leading companies and planning for future growth. At the beginning of the last century, that technology was electricity. Today, it’s artificial intelligence (AI)….
Envision this: free of the 9-to-5, more of us are “micro-entrepreneurs” who set our own hours and incomes, empowered to profit off our own assets and time without traditional employers. It’s not a far-fetched scenario; in fact, it’s the future of work…
Immersive technology is having its moment. After decades of development, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are finally catching on – with businesses. Wal-Mart’s announcement last week that it plans to make…
Emotions influence every aspect of our life – how we learn, communicate, make decisions. Yet, they’re missing from our digital world. The devices and apps so ingrained in our day-to-day routines have had no way of knowing how we feel. Until now…
We’re well on our way to a future of self-driving cars – but uncertainty still paves the road ahead. When a driverless car crashes, who’s at fault? And who pays for the damages? Likely not the driver…
In 2017, a plethora of changes are approaching the world of education: a new American presidential administration is bringing new policies to K-12 schools, universities are reconsidering graduates’ need for a four-year degree, and modern technology is increasingly altering the times and places of instruction delivery.
Amy Webb, futurist and bestselling author, is concerned. The recent comments by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin about the effect of artificial intelligence and automation on the job market (“…not even on my radar screen… 50-100 more years.”) indicate to her that the administration is not up to speed on the latest developments in the field. In response, Webb looks at the state of artificial intelligence and its potential to replace human jobs in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.
Despite what workers may think, findings show almost every job will be impacted by robots. Rapid leaps in artificial intelligence (AI) are putting entire professions and industries on the chopping…
Credit card fraud cost the U.S. retail industry $32 billion in 2014. One of the easiest ways for a scam artist to gain access to credit card information is a “skimmer,” a small device illegally installed on an ATM. Now several banks are going for a technical fix: cardless ATMs. Anindya Ghose, the foremost authority on mobile economics and author of the groundbreaking “Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy” (MIT Press, April 2017), details the ways these new mobile-phone-based systems will make retail banking more secure.
Fifty years ago, Moshe Safdie was a recent architecture graduate, intent on realizing the ideas explored in his thesis project at McGill University: a three-dimensional model for urban housing. Sandy VanGinkel, one of his professors, recruited him to help design the master plan for the World Exposition in Montreal. Safdie agreed to join the effort, with the caveat that he could continue his exploration into housing as a potential entry for the Canadian pavilion.
(Photo credit: Timothy Hursley)
Are you preparing today for tomorrow’s global trends? In other words, are you thinking like a futurist? Amy Webb’s “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream” (PublicAffairs, 2016) has revealed her methodology for answering vitally important questions about the future, and earned the 2017 Axiom Business Book Gold Award in the Business Technology category.
Around the world, trust in our institutions is collapsing. More than a trend, this is a profound shift changing politics, business and social norms. Trust once reserved for respected institutions and brands, we now bestow on complete strangers through digital platforms such as Airbnb and Uber. The shift isn’t just about the failure of institutions; technology is rewriting the rules of trust.
More than one million refugees arrived in Europe last year. Alexander Betts, an Oxford University professor and foremost expert on immigration and refugees, thinks that the West has some room for improvement in its reception, and perception, of those million people.
The transportation industry is changing. Vehicles are getting smarter and smaller, environments are being designed on a more human scale, and companies are rushing to innovate in the face of these changes. Or as Jeffrey Schnapp, of Harvard’s “idea foundry” metaLAB, describes it: “a sense that the world of mobility is undergoing a significant transformation.”
Africa’s economic slowdown, triggered by a plunge in commodity prices, has raised lingering questions about the continent’s future: Is Africa’s population boom more of a curse than a blessing? Can its economies generate the jobs necessary to employ a workforce projected to reach 830 million people by 2050? Will its leaders deliver the education and infrastructure required to unleash the productivity of its people?
The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation hopes to answer these questions and more through the work of its new research division focused on global prosperity. Led by researcher Efosa Ojomo, a champion of creating economic prosperity through disruptive innovation, his team will examine how emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Asia can create prosperity by focusing on innovations that build new markets and spur long-term economic growth and employment.
Kevin Kelly with advice for confronting a future filled with AI, robots, and constantly upgrading systems.
In Rwanda, more than 80% of the population lives in homes with a dirt floor. In India, only 25% of the population can afford a refrigerator. Such poverty-stricken countries are not markets for business – or are they?
