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Hello, and welcome to the HORIZON weekly newsletter. Particularly warm greetings to our many new subscribers - please do forward this on to colleagues and connections in your network who would also enjoy the insights.
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.
Thank you for reading and being a part of the HORIZON community.
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Recent articles
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Ask yourself who knows best: you, or an outside element?
The Parcae were the female personifications of destiny in ancient Roman myth and religion, who recorded the lives of mortals and gods via the thread of life.
They did not direct actions other than the three fates: when someone was born, when someone dies, and how much they suffer...
Long-term, we may be at risk that our cognitive reliance on modern tech slowly but surely controls the bulk of other aspects of existence except those belonging to the Parcae.
In so many facets of our day-to-day life we are increasingly outsourcing the active thinking to digital devices and services: we are addicted.
Our phones wake us in the morning, and we then instinctively check our messages, notifications, the news, or the weather.
Our wearables remind us to move, or if our heartrate is in the optimum range during a workout.
Apps tell us if we have to leave early or take a different route due to heavy traffic, and if we have to run to make our chosen train for the morning commute.
We spend elongated periods in the bathroom, sat there getting numb legs from doom-scrolling our favourite social media.
Unsure what to eat, we summon sustenance with but a few clicks, or follow along to a guided cooking video if we're feeling creative.
Feeling poorly one can put symptoms into a search engine to find all kinds of advice, then have a remote video consultation with a health professional often quickly.
Over time we have gradually needed to remember less - such as contact numbers, say - as we now have it all there at our fingertips, able to be looked up.
None of the above, in isolation, is negative or regressive per-se: but just take a step back and a step up - observe your actions holistically in totality.
The last thirty years might be thought of as The Screen Age, yet the human brain has hardly evolved at all since The Stone Age.
Big Tech firms employ legions of behavioural psychologists to create products that give us morsels of dopamine, ensuring we don't look away, or put the device down - but give them full attention for as long as possible.
If we choose that the bulk of any mental heavy-lifting or critical thinking is done by algorithms, agents, and artificial intelligence on our behalf - then that moves us more towards merely existing than actively living.
Frontier technologies will offer us a great deal, unlocking new capabilities and solving problems; but few digital innovations by themselves are the issue - it's always in how it is used by us, the purchasers and users.
When assessing what might be coming over the horizon, working with an independent Futurist enables leaders to assess what might emerge next and what their options are.
Strategic foresight is the most valuable tool you can adopt to identify and chart a course for future growth and long-term prosperity.
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A small shifting stone on an unstable slope can cause a landslide.
That first rock may have just given way when it comes to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI).
Two years ago Builder.ai, the mobile app development startup backed by Microsoft, raised a $250 million Series D funding round - taking funds from significant backers like the Qatar Investment Authority.
The company last week filed for bankruptcy in the UK.
Details remain sketchy, but the CEO has said that the company is entering into insolvency proceedings and will appoint an administrator to manage the company’s affairs due to a major debt creditor seizing most of its cash.
Initially known as Engineer.ai back in 2012, it focused on enabling users to build software without lines of code or deep technical expertise.
In 2023 Fast Company voted the firm as one of the world’s top 3 ‘Most Innovative Companies’ in AI, alongside OpenAI and Google DeepMind.
That same year it secured a strategic collaboration with Microsoft, which included an undisclosed equity investment in the startup.
The firm’s founder stepped down as CEO in February 2025; never the best sign.
Subsequently the company was forced to lower sales estimates provided to investors and hired auditors to examine two years of accounts in response to former employees’ concerns about inflated sales figures.
The macro reason is clear: Gen AI is economically unproductive, and even the best capitalised firms are struggling with both cashflow and any semblance of recurring profitability.
We've seen this time and again historically: such “land grab” myopic models are simply not sustainable in anything more than the short-term.
Especially when there remains so much geopolitical instability and macroeconomic volatility.
Just last week JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon opined that recession remains a possibility as tariff fallout continues to buffet global economies.
Longer-term, AI will broadly form an important part of our future digital fabric and may be a transformative technology, but we're nowhere near that time yet.
Savvy companies are now prioritising change initiatives for 2025 and beyond which bring about confidence and certitude rather than "cool".
Pragmatic organisations that actively invest in Strategic Foresight are always those best equipped to adapt when change inevitably comes - contact us today to explore.
It's not a question of if but when: Winter Is Coming.
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It looks right, but it somehow feels wrong.
If you have never taken a trip to The Uncanny Valley, before long you might be experiencing it.
First coined in 1970, The Uncanny Valley describes the “eerie sensation” one feels when encountering a robot or computer-generated character with human-like characteristics.
The term was created by Masahiro Mori, a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology; he believed the phenomenon to be a survival instinct: "...an integral part of our instinct for self-preservation”.
This doesn't occur with all robots - but those that resemble human form and mimic our subtle non-verbal behaviours...sometimes disturbingly so.
On Sunday 25th May, the first-ever humanoid robot fighting tournament - the "Mecha Fighting Series" - kicked off (pun intended) in Hangzhou.
Clearly they are not aware of the first rule of Fight Club...
In case you missed the global livestream, humanoid robot "AI Strategist" emerging victorious after a fierce showdown.
Though some demonstrations of agility were pre-programmed and then performed autonomously, the competing metal-on-metal punches, blows, kicks, hooks and jabs were controlled by humans nearby.
When they fell to the ground, the ability to get back up again unaided was impressive, and no doubt we'll quickly see adaptive self-learning algorithms learn from mistakes to optimise both offence and defence.
Separately, Beijing will play host to the world's first comprehensive sports competition dedicated to humanoid robots in mid-August of this year.
The World Humanoid Robot Games will showcase robot skills in event such as soccer, dance, and track and field events.
The aim of such events are two-fold.
Primarily it is to drive technological advancement across multiple disciplines which intersect like mechanical design, artificial intelligence, optics, sensing, and materials science.
Secondly, to make the public at large more comfortable around such robots, with the intention to reduce friction and fear of interaction as they become more integrated into daily life scenarios.
The fact remains that there is actually limited need for robots to mimic the form and function of us warm fleshy bipeds (we're actually highly inefficient in many respects), and we also then avoid the risk of The Uncanny Valley.
Don't bet against seeing such machines augmenting human security and protection personnel at large-scale events, in banks, or outside bars in the years to come to deter - or quell - potential unruly disturbance.
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Thank-you for reading and being part of our community - we trust you find these original pieces on frontier 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/
Think bold.
Think broad.
Think beyond.
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As ever, we welcome all forms of feedback: compliments as well as constructive criticism! If there are particular topics you want to see more - or less - of, please let us know. You can reach us at horizon-weekly@futurehorizon.digital
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