Professor’s Visions of the Future

With so many changes happening in our world, it’s hard to predict what will come next. A hundred years ago, we thought we’d have flying cars by now — who’s to say we won’t have a robot-driven society in the next hundred? Anna Dehmer ’28 sits down with professors Daniel Vasiliu and Berhnanu Abegaz to gain their perspective.

We have yet to master the concept of time-travel, meaning it is nearly impossible to know what the state of the world will be in 100 years. Everything within our world is subject to constant change, whether that be the state of the economy, the state of our governments, the state of artificial intelligence, or the technological innovations to come. How the world looked 100 years in the past is vastly different from how it looks today. Because things are constantly changing, the future can seem uncertain. But there is a way to make the future clearer. By sharpening our understanding of the present — and the steps in the past that led us to it — we can power up a time machine and glimpse into the future, making sense of the uncertainty that lies ahead. 

Two of the most unpredictable forces shaping the future are AI and the global economy. As AI takes the world by storm, it seems as if every company has some sort of AI assistant, and websites like ChatGPT greatly impact how we come across knowledge. Likewise, the economy is in a very pivotal place. We are seeing welfare states, market economies, and command economies all competing for larger shares of power. Who will win in the end remains unknown. 

To try and understand the future of these two realms, I spoke with Daniel Vasiliu, Associate Teaching Professor of Data Science, and Berhnanu Abegaz, Professor of Economics. 

I first asked Vasiliu about his broad beliefs about where AI may become important in the future. He answered that he believed that manufacturing and assembly would be one of the most impacted areas in the coming years. 

“Mass production of goods will be changed massively by AI,” said Vasiliu. 

So, how exactly will AI improve manufacturing?

“One way this will happen is through discrete optimization of the production process,” he said.  

This means that AI will help create faster and cheaper methods for product manufacturing. However, Vasiliu believes AI’s importance in manufacturing is more than in simply planning how things will be made, but in making them as well. 

“The second impact of AI is autonomous robots that can perform many tasks,” said Vasiliu. 

This inference suggests that robots powered by automated technology will be the ones doing most of the manufacturing, taking the place of many of the existing undervalued human labor.

These robots and other AI technologies typically use large amounts of energy to function. Is increased efficiency worth the environmental costs? Vasiliu sees hope in this reality by believing that AI could be the key towards greater energy efficiency.

“We will see a revolution for advances in solar panels,” he said. Yet, solar energy isn’t the only energy Vasiliu believes that AI could help unlock. 

“AI will cause big advances in fusion energy,” said Vasiliu. However, that fusion energy will primarily be available to countries that can safely harness AI, and it will not be a universal advancement.  

The capability to be the one to control AI rather than AI controlling you is what marks the most important thing in determining whether or not any of these potential capabilities are possible, according to Vasiliu. He warns that people mustn't let AI become a replacement for thinking, and as long as we use it as a tool to do what we want rather than simply relying on it to choose what we want, these advancements can happen. 

It’s a slippery slope, but he believes that ultimately, AI will become the key to unlocking a brighter future. 

AI isn’t exclusive to the world of science. Abegaz discussed its importance, but in a different realm: that of world politics. He believes that recently, due to parallel advancements in AI, the Western world has lost its technological dominance. 

“China, with about a third of the per capita income of the US, has an AI capability that is comparable to that of the USA — no country has a monopoly over science and technology anymore,” said Abegaz.

The lack of a monopoly behind AI means that it will spill into multiple different industries, allowing it to impact everything. AI will also become incredibly influenced by the industries it touches, meaning it will likely impact the world just as much as the world impacts it.  Aside from AI, Abegaz theorized that general economic power will shift from being mainly dominated by Western states into the hands of countries such as China and India. 

“By the end of the 21st century, with BRICS plus Indonesia having a lot of room to grow, the West’s share [of the global GDP] will plummet to less than 15%,” said Abegaz. This loss, he theorizes, could be linked to the great increase in nationalism and protectionism in the United States today. We are losing relevance on the global economic scale, and are trying to become the great power we once were. 

Shifts in power centers aren’t the only thing to look out for though. Industrialization will likely change its centers towards that of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 

“Africa, supposedly an economic basket case, has now achieved universal primary education and will have the biggest youthful labor force in the world in a couple of decades,” he said. “I will not be surprised if Africa becomes one of the spikes of industrialization.” 

Industrialization and globalization could look incredibly different. Many of the economic systems we believed were set in stone are shifting. 

“The global capitalism that won over socialism is being upended by the call for deglobalization as the liberals become illiberal protections, and the statists allow more room for the private sector,” said Abegaz.

Abegaz theorizes that the economic systems of the future are likely going to alternate between globalized and deglobalized, before settling with some sort of multilateral economic order. Abegaz also believes that our individual economic demographics will shift as well. 

“Class inequality, which has risen alarmingly fast since 1990, will rise dramatically virtually everywhere,” he said. This inequality will continue to lead to a decline in the middle class, which will loosen the importance of liberal democracy, and will lead to the creation of uber-rich “global citizens” scouring the globe in search of more wealth. 

In general, these professors seem to believe the world will be incredibly different within the next few decades. The way we experience things and the way we live will be vastly impacted by these new developments and shifts in the global power structure. The world is a constantly evolving place, however, and it is impossible to know what lies ahead. These two visions are just predictions for what the future could hold, where life could take us.