2023: Technology Lessons for Humans
A look back at how 2023 was the year humans started to reshape the technologies that have shaped us for the past twenty or so years. Exciting times are ahead.
While many forecasters and futurists and tech industry pundits are busily making their list of predictions for 2024, I thought it might be more interesting to look back and reflect on a very exciting year. And rather than look at 2023 from a tech industry perspective, to look at how culture is starting to reshape the digital technologies that have risen over the past two decades.
As always, we saw both good and bad things happen. That’s always been the way of technology and human societies. But I think overall, 2023 may be a benchmark year for how we made important advances for humanity with technology.
The Invisible Hand Started to Move on Social Media
Citizens in a number of democratic nations began to take actions against the societal ills they believe social media and some of the Tech Giants have caused. Law suits by citizens individually, in class actions and by justice systems. In our current economic system people know the best way to garner change is to hit a business where it counts; shareholder dividends. Law suits can be pretty good at doing that.
Citizens have pressured their politicians to a point where despite the immense power of lobbyists, votes keep politicians in office. That is a healthy democracy.
In a sign that at least one social media giant, TikTok, sees the risks to it’s business model, it is now requiring users to waive all rights to sue over past harms. This is dangerous. Business models are at risk. Expect them to push back.
But the reality is that social media usage is changing. People under 30 are using it less, dropping dating apps and preferring to socialize in real life. Facebook is ageing out, as is Twitter (uhm, X or whatever.) This presents interesting new opportunities for different approaches to social media. Innovators have an opportunity to disrupt. This is free markets at work and that’s good. Unless you’re the one being disrupted.
Artificial Intelligence. Playtime and Debate Time.
It’s important to note that there is no singular AI. It’s a marketing term for a suite of technologies. The AI tool that rode into societies like a pack of wild horses is Generative AI, or Large Language Models. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini etc.
The hype and exaggerations have been over the top. To say the least. But it gave a broad swathe of humanity a first real chance to play. And that is important for how societies adopt technologies. The debates, discussions and arguments have been spectacular in scale. This is good because it means society is giving LLMs agency and quickly trying to figure out how to make it work.
This is exciting. As open source LLMs push into the market, it will mean the moats that AI giants tried to build may not be so effective as they’d hoped. Again, this is free markets at work. The result will be better LLMs and other AI tools making advances.
Medical Technologies Advanced Significantly
We may soon be able to 3D print medical devices inside the body during a procedure. This has significant benefits. Some AI tools like Machine Learning are helping in drug discoveries and uncovering disease mysteries like dementia and depression. Through genetic engineering we advanced our understanding of our bodies significantly into 2023.
But perhaps what’s most interesting is that digital technologies have struggled in some areas of medicine to gain footing. This past year we saw technologies from AI to medical devices take a significant step forward as doctors and scientists become more accepting of their role in healthcare.
Robots Come to Town
For the past decade or so, many robot videos have been about creepy military applications. This started to change in 2023 when we began to see robots doing other, more interesting and more beneficial things. From dancing to cooking meals.
This is a change as robotics advance and their manufacturers begin to show they’ll be more helpful to humanity. And as many countries see population declines, we’re going to need a lot of robots. Now we are beginning to see a broader socialisation of this technology.
We Began to Question Digital Life
After being glued to screens during lockdowns and travel restrictions along with working from home, society has started to question the relationship we have with digital devices and their role in our lives.
This is healthy. The word authentic is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. This is a signal of societal reaction to technologies. Print books are increasing in sales, not decreasing, with one of the largest markets being those under 30. It became less socially acceptable to take pictures with phones at parties.
These are myriad signs of a societal change. For technology companies, the new opportunity is to find unobtrusive ways to build tools that quietly and easily augment peoples lives. Chatbots with personal AI assistants are unlikely to see broader societal traction for a few more years.
broader society began to question the issues of privacy and how companies are using their data. 2023 was the year of realisation and the debates and discussions will heat up. The EU government brought in sweeping regulations on data usage. Other democracies will follow. Surprisingly, China brought in very good privacy rules. Largely because they know foreign governments are spying on their citizens.
The Human Sciences Came Back
Long relegated to the dark, dusty and decrepit parts of universities, the human sciences, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, began to find a place in businesses and technology companies. As tech companies realised they need to become more human-centric and less user-centric.
This may well result in better software and other digital products in the coming years. It will lead to interesting new innovations. As social sciences begin to work with computer sciences, this collaboration will make technologies better.
As broader society becomes increasingly frustrated at wealth inequality and capitalisms dark turn away from customers to shareholders, 2023 was the year culture started to push back harder.
Overall Humans Came Back
As marketers and businesses in general began in 2023 to understand that data and analytics only go so far, they have begun to look beyond trying to quantify everything. Clicks, likes, search behaviour, site traffic are not who people are. They are the byproducts of what people do because of who they are.
The invisible hand of culture that was shaped by digital technologies is now beginning to reshape the technologies. This is an exciting period in the evolution of digital tools.
While we like to think that huge changes and improvements happen suddenly or overnight, they rarely do. It’s taken us a few decades to reach a transitional point, it will take more years to evolve how we want digital technologies to work in our societies. But a shift has begun. New innovations, new business models and better technologies will be the result.