6 Scary Predictions for AI in 2026 | EUROtoday

When OpenAI declared a “code red” this month to refocus its groups on competing with Google, I couldn’t assist however suppose again to December three years in the past when the businesses’ roles had been reversed. Google was the one blasting the sirens to catch as much as OpenAI. What adopted the subsequent month, in January 2023, had been the primary sweeping layoffs in Google’s historical past. “A difficult decision to set us up for the future,” as the corporate described it on the time.

I wonder if the ChatGPT developer might make comparable workforce cuts early subsequent 12 months. This hypothesis impressed me to provide you with a complete set of predictions about what would possibly come within the 12 months forward. Here’s a have a look at six of the concepts, fine-tuned with the actual intelligence of WIRED colleagues.

Data Center Disinformation

Communities internationally are combating the development of knowledge facilities. In the US, many activists are organizing on social media utilizing instruments similar to Facebook Groups. The Chinese and Russian governments proceed to take advantage of social media to disseminate disinformation masquerading as actual information and genuine opinion. Slowing knowledge middle growth within the US can be a boon for China and Russia, that are each in search of to surpass the US in industrial and army AI capabilities.

Austin Wang, a researcher on the nonprofit suppose tank RAND who has studied China-controlled propaganda farms, says there’s no indicators of regarding exercise proper now. “Many newly established anti-data-center pages seem controlled by real US citizens so far,” Wang says.

But because the anti-data-center fervor picks up, China and Russia might attempt to pile on to the grassroots organizing. And the work has gotten even simpler because of AI that may shortly generate pictures and movies to rile up folks on social media.

Robot Demos Everywhere

In 2026, tech conferences from the Consumer Electronics Show to Amazon’s {hardware} occasion will doubtless be buzzing about AI-powered robots. Google and different large tech firms have spent years attempting to coach robots to deal with family duties by means of repeated observe. But now there’s a recent spherical of hype. The sort of AI fashions utilized in providers similar to ChatGPT and Gemini are being built-in into robots in hopes that they’ll deal with chores, like folding garments, with much less coaching and larger accuracy.

This previous September, Google launched a video of a robotic sorting trash, compost, and recycling in response to a consumer’s voice instructions. When Google executives take to the stage on the firm’s subsequent I/O convention, I anticipate them to immediate a robotic to tackle duties similar to, for instance, sliding a pizza into a kind of oven it’s by no means encountered earlier than and, whereas it cooks, retrieving a half-full Diet Coke from the again of a crowded fridge.

Barak Turovsky, the just lately departed chief AI officer at General Motors and a former chief in Google’s AI division, says developments in robots’ capabilities are potential as a result of giant language fashions can perceive a dishwasher handbook, discover ways to function a dishwasher from watching a video, and comprehend how one can seize a selected half by deciphering a drawing. “The next frontier for large language models is the physical world,” he says.