13 June 2019
Brussels
A foresight report published by the European Commission identifies 100 emerging developments that may exert a strong impact on the global economy and offer important solutions to societal needs. The report advised the EU to boost investments in artificial intelligence and related technologies.
The Commission’s foresight group also expects that technologies such as neuromorphic chips, biodegradable sensors, hyperspectral imaging, warfare drones, harvesting methane hydrate, thermoelectric paint, neuroscience of creativity and imagination and 4D printing, even if at a low level of maturity today, are fast moving and will find important use in the coming 20 years.
In addition, the report has found that radical innovation breakthroughs are coming in two distinct but interwoven waves. The first is powered by the rapid advancement of information and communication technologies, while the second wave does not have a clear technological scope but is shaped by political and social imperatives emerging from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As it states “The search for newly upcoming innovations in the SDG related arenas should be intensified. Interlinkages of environmental and health technologies with the ICT wave, and in particular the AI cluster, should be systematically explored in order to exploit synergies and avoid conflicts”.
You can consult the full report at this page.
