Communication technology continues its rapid development, but it’s inevitably affected by the world that it serves, so it must contend with concerns about sustainability and the impact of the economic situation, as well as the legal context. The emergence of a new form of artificial intelligence might promise much, but it may misuse others’ content, Deloitte argues in its outlook for Telecoms, Media and Technology, or TMT.
The arrival of “generative AI”, the technology behind OpenAI’s much-discussed ChatGPT promises to be the “ultimate hack”, said Deloitte UK’s Paul Lee, generating usable computer code, or well-written, properly spelled long form answers to questions. It’s clearly a step forward from previous forms of AI, like voice recognition or “smart speakers”.
This kind of AI can generate images, video or music. To do this, generative AIs ingest a lot of information. “What we don’t know at the moment is exactly how these images are created,” said Lee. If it creates an “original image” how original will it be? Could it be 5% or 10% original?
Tech with consequences
Lee, a Deloitte UK partner who acts as TMT global head of research, spoke at a Thursday event in Luxembourg, giving an overview of some of his firm’s 2023 predictions.
He explained that image library manager Getty Images is suing companies that provide generative AI content like Stability Diffusion. At the same time, he said music companies see it as an opportunity that helps their most creative artists by considering AI-generated ideas.
Lee considers ChatGPT one of the most impressive AI tools. But he said it’s no surprise if you feel its output sounds like Wikipedia, because that’s one of its major inputs, alongside open source or out of copyright books.
Crowded orbits
The development of broadband satellites is key to allowing us to rapidly and efficiently exchange data around the world. Deloitte predicts that over 5,000 broadband satellites could be in low earth orbit by year’s end. Two “constellations” would provide high speed internet to nearly a million subscribers around the world, even in remote locations.
Compared to terrestrial – normal broadband – this is “a very, very small part of the market,” no doubt in large part because it’s much more expansive, Lee explained. However, there’s a push to develop the technology. By the end of the decade, there could be 40-50,000 satellites.
Given all the hype about 5G, it was interesting to hear Lee explain that currently available 5G isn’t good for much more than online speed tests. But he said, there’s another, much better version of 5G that’s coming in called “standalone 5G”. “You get much better performance levels, you get more functionality.” Many firms have licenses for private networks, but have only installed trial networks. The new 5G standard allows converting these into full scale deployments.
AI design
Only a year ago, severe shortages affected many technologies which rely on semiconductors. This has subsided, but efforts are under way to avoid the “boom and bust era happening in the semiconductor market,” said Lee. One key way is to use artificial intelligence to design semiconductors.
“It’s essential to the growth of the semiconductor industry,” said Lee. “If you want to move to ever more powerful semiconductors, you need to use technologies like AI to enable it.
One technology underpinning our connected lives is cloud computing, which lives on data centres, which have been accused of wasting energy and water. Paul Konsbruck, the CEO of LuxConnect, speaking as part of a panel discussion, explained there had been “a huge evolution in technology”. He said only 7 years ago, their data centres ran at an average temperature of 18 degrees, but these days they’re kept 4 degrees warmer to save energy.
Water consciousness
Konsbruck dismissed the idea that data centres use a lot of water, explaining that they need a lot on hand in case of an emergency, but daily use was minimal. “When I consider our newest data centres, we actually use more water for the toilets and washing machines than we use for data centre.”
Nomoko is a firm working on improving the digital map of our physical world. Vincent Pedrini, the co-founder, said his firm creates sustainability models for entire cities. “Modelling the energy consumption, analysing all the rooftops for where to put solar panels.” He said the model helped the government to better target subsidies