They fear that the best knowledge will be lost or ignored in a sea of error and disinformation, that institutions previously dedicated to informing the public will be further weakened, and that basic facts will be drowned in a sea of entertaining distractions, outright lies, and targeted manipulation.

-They believe that digital and physical systems will continue to integrate, bringing "intelligence" to objects and organizations, and expect individuals to have personal digital assistants to simplify their daily lives; digital tools that allow people to freely defend their rights and mobilize with others to bring about the change they seek.

Pew Research Center releases report predicting digital life in 2035.

The Pew Research Center (Pew) released a report on June 21 inviting 305 experts to predict what will happen to humanity's digital lives in 2035 for good and for ill as artificial intelligence evolves.

Driven by generative AI and a range of other AI applications, the experts participating in the new Pew Research Center survey have high expectations for digital advances in all aspects of life in 2035. They expect significant improvements in health care and education; a world in which miracle drugs are conceived and enabled in a digital space; personalized medical care that meets patients exactly when they need it; people wearing smart glasses and earbuds to stay connected to the people, things and information around them; AI systems that push discourse into productive and fact-based conversations; environmental sustainability, the progress will be made in climate action and pollution prevention.

At the same time, experts who participated in the survey were concerned about the dark side of many developments. In addition to the risk of generative AI exterminating humans and bringing misinformation, they worry that digital technologies could disrupt the information environment, leading to mass unemployment, the spread of global crime, and bringing stress, anxiety, depression and isolation to populations.

The most harmful or threatening changes

This report covers the results of the 16th Future of the Internet survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University to gather expert perspectives on important digital issues. The survey was conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University. A total of 305 technology innovators and developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and activists responded to the questions covered in the report.

Respondents were also asked to indicate how they felt about the changes they foresee. Of these, 42 percent of experts said they were equally worried and excited about the evolution of "humans + technology" they expect to see by 2035; 37 percent of respondents said they were more worried than excited about the expected changes; and 18 percent said they were more excited than worried about the expected changes.

That said, about 79 percent of experts surveyed said they are more worried than excited, or equally worried and excited, about upcoming technological changes. These respondents spoke of several categories of concern.

First, the future will undermine the development of human-centered digital tools and systems. Experts who mentioned this concern wrote that they fear digital systems will continue to be driven by profit incentives in the economy and power incentives in politics. This could lead to data collection designed to control people rather than empower them to act freely, share ideas and protest harm and injustice. The impact of all this, they argue, could exacerbate inequality and undermine democracies.

Second, it will undermine human rights in the future. These experts fear that as privacy becomes more difficult, if not impossible, to maintain, new threats to rights will emerge. They see advances in surveillance, sophisticated robots embedded in civic space, the spread of deep falsification and disinformation, advanced facial recognition systems, and a widening social and digital divide as imminent threats. They foresee a wider spread of crime and harassment, and new challenges to human agency and security. Most worryingly, increasingly sophisticated AI could lead to unemployment, increased poverty, and a decline in human dignity.

Third, the future damage to human knowledge. They fear that the best knowledge will be lost or ignored in a sea of error and disinformation, that institutions previously dedicated to informing the public will be further weakened, and that basic facts will be drowned in a sea of entertaining distractions, outright lies, and targeted manipulation. They fear that people's cognitive abilities will decline. They believe that "reality itself is under siege" as emerging digital tools convincingly create deceptive or alternative realities. They fear that a class of "skeptics" will impede progress.

Fourth, the future will be hazardous to human health and well-being. Some of these experts say that human acceptance of digital systems has already triggered high levels of anxiety and depression, and predict that the situation may get worse as technology is further integrated into people's lives and social arrangements. Some mental and physical problems may stem from technology-induced feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Some may arise from people substituting technology-based "experiences" for real-life encounters; some may arise from job losses and related social conflicts; and some may arise directly from technology-based attacks.

Fifth, the future could damage relationships, governance and institutions. Experts addressing these issues worry that norms, standards, and regulation around technology are not evolving fast enough to improve the social and political interactions of individuals and organizations. Two overarching issues are the trend toward autonomous weapons and cyber warfare, and the prospect of runaway digital systems. They also say the situation could get worse as the pace of technological change accelerates. They expect that people's distrust of each other may increase and confidence in institutions may deteriorate. In turn, this could deepen already unpopular levels of polarization, cognitive dissonance and public withdrawal from important discourse. They also fear that digital systems are too big and too important to avoid and that all users will become captive.

The best or most beneficial changes

About 60 percent of the experts surveyed said they are more excited than worried, or equally excited and worried, about the upcoming technological changes. These respondents talked about their reasons for excitement.

First, the development of human-centered digital tools and systems is good for the future. These experts covered a wide range of possible digital enhancements in the areas of medicine, health, fitness and nutrition, access to information and expert advice to help people, education in formal and informal settings, entertainment, transportation and energy. They believe that digital and physical systems will continue to integrate, bringing "intelligence" to a variety of objects and organizations, and expect individuals to have personal digital assistants to simplify their daily lives.

Second, the future benefits of beneficial human rights. These experts believe that digital tools will allow people to freely defend their rights and mobilize with others to bring about the change they seek. They hope that continued advances in digital tools and systems will improve people's access to resources, help them communicate and learn more effectively, and give them access to data in ways that will help them lead better, safer lives. They urge that human rights must be supported and upheld as the Internet spreads to the farthest corners of the world.

Third, the future benefits of beneficial human knowledge. These respondents want business model innovations to emerge, local, national and global standards and regulations, and social norms to be developed. They want to improve digital literacy so that credible sources of news and information can be revived and enhanced in ways that attract attention and gain public interest. They want new digital tools and human and technological systems designed to ensure that factual information is properly verified, highly findable, well updated and archived.

Fourth, it benefits human health and well-being. These experts anticipate that many of the positive elements of digital development will lead to a healthcare revolution that will enhance all aspects of human health and well-being.

Fifth, benefit human relationships, governance and the future effectiveness of institutions. Promising experts say society has the ability to adopt new digital standards and regulations that promote pro-social digital activities and minimize anti-social activities. They predict that people will develop new norms for digital life and foresee them becoming more digital in their social and political interactions. In the best-case scenario, they say, these changes could affect digital life in ways that promote human agency, security, privacy and data protection.

Attached: Responses from some of the experts questioned in the survey

Aymar Jean Christian, Associate Professor of Communication at Northwestern University:

"Decentralization is a promising trend in platform distribution. web 2.0 companies have become powerful by creating centralized platforms and accumulating large amounts of social data. The next phase of the Web promises to give users more ownership and control over how our data, social interactions and cultural products are distributed. The decentralization of intellectual property and its distribution could provide opportunities for communities that have historically lacked the opportunity to capitalize on their ideas. Users and grassroots organizations are already experimenting with new models of decentralized governance, innovating on long-standing hierarchical corporate structures.

"However, the automation of story creation and distribution through AI raises obvious labor equity issues as companies seek cost efficiencies in platform creative content and content review. These AI systems are trained against the unpaid or underpaid workforce of artists, journalists and ordinary people, many of whom are outsourced by U.S. companies as low-wage labor. These sources may not represent the global culture or hold ideals of equality and justice. Their automation poses serious risks to American and global culture and politics."

"Sean McGregor, founder of the Responsible AI Collaborative (RAC):

"By 2035, technology will be a window into many of life's inequalities, enabling individuals to advocate for greater participation and decision-making power that is currently delegated to those with incomprehensible agendas and biases. The power of the individual will expand with the ability to communicate, art and educate like never before in human history. However, if trends remain as they are, individuals, organizations and governments interested in accumulating power and wealth in the broader public interest will use these technologies for increasingly repressive and extractive goals. It is critical that a concerted, coordinated and dispassionate effort be made to enhance human governance of AI systems on a global scale."

David Clark, Internet Hall of Fame member and senior research scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory:

"To have an optimistic view of the future, you have to imagine some potentially positive factors that could overcome major problems: the Internet becomes more accessible and inclusive, and the number of unserved or poorly served people is a much smaller percentage of the population; over the next decade, the characteristics of key applications such as social media will mature and stabilize, and users will become more sophisticated in dealing with risks and negative consequences will also become more sophisticated; increased digital literacy can help all users better avoid the most serious dangers of the Internet experience; and a new generation of social media emerges that is less focused on user analytics for selling ads and less emphasis on unlimited viral distribution and more on user-driven exploration and interconnection."