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Below you will find some hand-picked fresh thought-leadership content, giving you an overview of recent developments, topical innovations, and what we're seeing and hearing out there towards the digital frontier.
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Recent articles
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OpenAI could be the next WeWork when we consider Boom and Bust.
An insightful article in the Guardian newspaper describing the implosion of the latter much-hyped office provider could easily be re-used in the future if OpenAI turns out to be similarly over-inflated.
The 2019 piece starts: "...startup took a tumble when investors tired of its messianic CEO and lack of profits. But why were its backers so keen to pour billions into it in the first place?".
WeWork rapidly collapsed from a pre-IPO valuation of USD$47 billion in 2019 to filing for bankruptcy in 2023.
In a nutshell, WeWork got way over its skis; hubris was no substitute for firm financial fundamentals when reality came calling as investors lost patience due to a lack of tangibility and appropriate transparency.
Sound familiar?
Given the excessive exaggeration of its business benefits - despite being economically unproductive - Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tech purveyors are desperately searching for the commercial "killer app".
CEO Altman is not an "alt-man" delivering a new period for humanity; he's running an unsustainable business and making hay whilst the sun is shining but dusk is approaching...
Where we are presently with all things Gen AI and its dubious future returns on investment is analogous to the Penrose Triangle.
The Penrose Triangle cannot exist in reality as it is fundamentally an optical illusion; whilst simultaneously simple yet specious it thus symbolises impossibility.
OpenAI and its ilk are not fantasy: they do have innovative products and impressive services available which can do some novel stuff.
However, whilst Gen AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are helpful they are not lucrative, and are not a panacea.
Spoiler alert: no tech ever is, can, or will be a complete Silver Bullet.
Many senior executives who supported significant sums being invested into Gen AI change projects during 2024 found although there may have been some utility, little substantive results were delivered.
Useful is not a synonym for valuable.
Often the hyperbolic external vendor salespeople had over-promised; the core issue thus around excitable people rather than of the core tech itself.
The biggest internal impediments being - as seemingly always - poor quality data plus the resistance of people (process, politics) to change.
We've seen this market cycle around emerging tech many times before; the DotCom bubble, or more recently even Blockchain...
With macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical instability continuing around the world, many businesses are rightly taking a more careful approach to 2025 and beyond.
Contact us to discuss how independent strategic foresight can shed light on what the future may hold for your organisation when it comes to emerging tech - so you neither fall behind nor risk failure due to FOMO.
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Enough titles about the triumph or terror of trade tariffs - let's talk about turtles.
Specifically how previously partially paralysed sea turtles will soon be swimming more easily thanks to 3D printing technology.
A custom harness from Formlabs was created to alleviate a common mobility issue with their rear flippers or tail, which is often the result of a boat strike.
Known as "Bubble Butt Syndrome" (stop sniggering at the back...), this is where the shell deforms slightly after a collision.
As well as nerve damage (the spine runs directly under the shell), buoyancy can be an issue with air getting trapped in the gastrointestinal system.
These issues can result in the reptiles having their rear ends elevated; being unable to maintain a consistent level makes swimming a much greater effort, it puts pressure on internal organs, and may prevent deeper diving.
Previous prototypes to restore level buoyancy using glued weights were not successful; to fit the unique geometry of every animal a precise bespoke harness, light but durable, is the result of the scan and print.
Weights can be added - or removed - from the harness with relative ease, allowing for flexibility as the animal adapts to a more neutral swimming style, or grows.
It has resulted in an improved quality of life of one particular turtle called Charlotte in a US aquarium after months of design work and iterating.
The team of vets, engineers, volunteers, and experts of 3D-printing hope to scale the solution to be able to offer this to more afflicted animals in the future.
A straightforward example of where emerging technologies are being positively put to practical use to solve real problems - no ifs or but(t)s.
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"Superior force": force majeure events are those which are unexpected, and beyond the control of the parties involved.
The term is often used in contracts to relieve parties from legal liability when it is not possible to meet stated obligations due to the interruption of unforeseeable and/or unavoidable catastrophe(s).
Such clauses generally cover natural disasters and calamities created by humans; in the future we'll likely see desperate protagonists seek to extend its coverage to also include algorithms.
As more of our lives fall under the purview of digital automation like Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents with no human intervention, we play with fire as such non-deterministic systems are bound to go wrong at times.
When that happens - who takes accountability and carries the can?
We are not lawyers, but we posit that it won't be long before this keeps legal, audit, and compliance departments highly awake at night worrying about the potential risks and ramifications.
A simplified analogy: if you get caught speeding and the GPS gave you the wrong speed limit, the police are unlikely to interpret that as sufficiently mitigating circumstances - the driver is responsible.
Though most are aware that whatever AI systems produce has to be verified and validated by a person before being released, that's a principle that often simply doesn't happen - for three primary reasons:
One: people make mistakes.
Two: human attention spans that are getting ever-shorter.
Three: idleness...believing that the machine probably got it right.
Future Horizon has worked with many senior leaders who say they use Gen AI tools to make them more efficient, often giving the example of asking it to summarise chunky documents.
Gen AI tools cannot do that, as they have no context - they can SHORTEN a document, but not summarise it.
According to research carried out by the BBC, four major AI chatbots are inaccurately summarising news content with generated output containing significant inaccuracies and distortions.
Autonomous tools that may be fast and cheap but worse than humans cannot be considered success.
So what can organisations actually do?
Ignore the hype and FOMO: take the time to embed sufficient guardrails, and ultimately ensure that any automated tools meet organisational policies and data protection obligations - or you could be in hot water later.
As organisations desperately pursue the "killer app" to justify AI spend, throwing increasing levels of autonomous algorithms into your digital landscape at the cost of responsibility is utter folly.
When things go seriously South, blaming "the machine" or calling force majeure in future won't cut it with customers, shareholders, employees, or the authorities.
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Thank-you for reading and being part of our community - we trust you find these original pieces on emerging technology and digital innovation useful, valuable, and thought-provoking as we bridge the gap between today and what future tech might bring tomorrow in Plain English.
When you're ready, contact us to discuss how we can deliver independent, objective, and unbiased strategic foresight around the implications of emerging technologies for your organisation -
https://www.futurehorizon.digital/
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Think broad.
Think beyond.
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