The next big thing after the internet was Mobile, then it was Crypto, then it was the AI/ML revolution. What's next after that is still up for grabs.
The other thing that stands out to me as making a noticeable impact in average people's lives is "Internet of things," although that's a pretty broad category that basically lumps together mobile/embedded compute hardware with some AI/ML touches (namely home voice assistants).
The thing that stands out to me as being a potential difference in kind in the near future is affordable high-speed low-latency satellite internet constellations. One could argue that mobile already gave us the biggest jump towards constant personal connectivity, but I suspect that truly global high-speed connectivity has a chance of unlocking some possibilities that could end up feeling like a difference in kind.
I suppose the big ones that many tech people would list for the near future are self-driving cars and VR/AR.
Yeah i get there are some applications in some niche tasks, but we're like in the 1970s of the AI/ML revolution if we compare it to the internet's timeline.
I've looked at numerous start-ups over the last couple of years that managed to substantially alter the landscape they operated in on the basis of the change in the state of the art due to AI/ML.
I've been following a dental AI startup. They've pivoted a couple times and I suspect it's because the dentists who would use this: 1.) don't want to make themselves obsolete and 2.) don't want to give credence to a robot opinion in the room. (e.g. have the insurance companies fighting them because what the AI bot says goes against whatever the dentist is saying).
Another prime example is the legal industry. There is soooo much of the legal industry that can be automated. We've been saying that the legal industry will collapse for decades because of this. However, coincidentally the people who stand to be made obsolete are also the people that can legislate themselves from being obsolete.
Thats exactly what happened to the dental AI startup I mentioned. They started off with "we make dental care more efficient" essentially undermining the dentist, to "dentists, let us help you with your practice"
Maybe some of suggestion type applications will work out but they don't quite seem like a revolutionization. Plus playing go, better astronomy image filtering and tweaking whatever server algorithms.
It feels like the internet and mobile were a lot easier to follow. But with AI/ML, most of it seems to be stuffed in black boxes that I have no way to follow.
https://www.kaggle.com/competitions
but there are plenty of others there that you might be able to relate to.
And Crypto too.