2029?

In 1999, renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil made a bold prediction: that by 2029, computers would have achieved human-level intelligence, marking the arrival of the singularity. This concept, popularized by science fiction author Vernor Vinge, refers to a hypothetical point in time when machine intelligence surpasses that of all humans combined.

Kurzweil's prediction is based on his "law of accelerating returns," which suggests an exponential growth rate in technological advancement, particularly in fields such as computing, genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence. His vision includes the idea that human and machine intelligence will eventually merge, leading to a future where human life expectancy and capabilities could be dramatically extended.

It is clear that AI, even in its non-AGI state, is already reshaping the economic and social landscape at an astonishing pace. Klarna, a huge payments company, just revealed its AI assistant now does the jobs of 700 employees. Recently, Elon Musk stated that he believes that Al will probably be smarter than any single human next year. By 2029, Al is probably smarter than all humans combined. Jensen Huang the CEO of Nvidia believes that “we are obviously less than 5 years away from AGI." Hot on the heels of that, Sam Altman the CEO of OpenAI has predicted "that 95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the Al - and the Al will likely be able to test the creative against real or synthetic customer focus groups for predicting results and optimizing."

In the face of this rapidly evolving technological landscape, it is essential that we begin to anticipate and plan for the transformative changes AI will bring. This includes investing in education and training to equip individuals with the skills necessary to thrive in an AI-driven economy, as well as developing ethical frameworks and regulations to guide the responsible use of AI.