This Futurist Predicts a Coming ‘Living Intelligence’ and AI Supercycle

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence hold immense disruptive potential for businesses big and small. But Amy Webb, a futurist and NYU Stern School of Business professor, says AI isn’t the only transformative technology that businesses need to prepare for. In a new report, published by Webb’s Future Today Institute, she predicts the convergence of three technologies. Artificial intelligence together with advanced sensors and bioengineering will create what’s known as “living intelligence” that could drive a supercycle of exponential growth and disruption across multiple industries. “Some companies are going to miss this,” Webb says. “They’re going to laser focus on AI, forget about everything else that’s happening, and find out that they are disrupted again earlier than they thought they would.” A ‘Cambrian Explosion’ of sensors will feed AI Webb refers to AI as “the foundation” and “everything engine” that will power the living intelligence technology supercycle. The exponential costs of computing to train large language models, the report also notes, are driving the formation of small language models that use less, but more focused, data. Providing some of that data will be a “Cambrian Explosion” of advanced sensors, notes the report, referring to a period of rapid evolutionary development on Earth more than 500 million years ago. Webb anticipates that these omnipresent sensors will feed data to information-hungry AI models. “As AI systems increasingly demand diverse data types, especially sensory and visual inputs, large language models must incorporate these inputs into their training or risk hitting performance ceilings,” the report reads. “Companies have realized that they need to invent new devices in order to acquire even more data to train AI.” Webb anticipates personalized data, particularly from wearable sensors, will lead to the creation of personalized AI and “large action models” that predict actions, rather than words. This extends to businesses and governments, as well as individuals, and Webb anticipates these models interacting with one another “with varying degrees of success.” The third technology that Webb anticipates shaping the supercycle is bioengineering. Its futuristic possible applications include computers made of organic tissue, such as brain cells. This so-called organoid intelligence may sound like science fiction—and for the most part today, it is—but there are already examples of AI revolutionizing various scientific fields including chemical engineering and biotech through more immediate applications like research in drug discovery and interaction. In fact, the scientists who won the Nobel prize in chemistry this year were recognized for applying artificial intelligence to the design and prediction of novel proteins. What it means for businesses Living intelligence may not seem applicable for every business—after all, a local retail shop, restaurant, or services business may not seem to have much to do with bioengineering, sensors, and AI. But Webb says that even small and medium-size businesses can gain from harnessing “living intelligence.” For example, a hypothetical shoe manufacturer could feel its impact in everything from materials sourcing to the ever-increasing pace of very fast fashion. “It means that materials will get sourced in other places, if not by that manufacturer, then by somebody else,” she says. “It accelerates a lot of the existing functions of businesses.” Future-proofing for living intelligence Webb says an easy first step for leaders and entrepreneurs hoping to prep for change is to map out their value network, or the web of relationships from suppliers and distributors to consumers and accountants that help a company run. “When that value network is healthy, everybody is generating value together,” she says. Second, she advises entrepreneurs to “commit to learning” about the coming wave of innovation and how it could intersect with their businesses. “Now is a time for every single person in every business to just get a minimal amount of education on what all of these technologies are, what they aren’t, what it means when they come together and combine,” she says. “It’ll help everybody make decisions more easily when the time comes.” Finally, she urges companies large and small to plan for the future by mapping out where they’d like to see their company—and reverse engineer a strategy for getting there. “I know that’s tough. They’re just trying to keep the lights on or go quarter by quarter,” she says. “Every company should develop capabilities and strategic foresight and figure out where they want to be and reverse engineer that back to the present.”