Hello, and welcome to this week’s installment of our regular feature The Future In Five Questions. This week I interviewed Paul Barrett, the deputy director of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, and the author of a report published last month on “Safeguarding AI: Addressing the Risks of Generative Artificial Intelligence” in which he brings his decades of expertise studying the intersection of big business, tech, and the public trust on generative AI. We talked about what the FTC can do to protect consumers in the age of generative artificial intelligence, the (at least near-term) folly of driverless cars, and why the metaverse is underrated. Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity:
What’s one underrated big idea?
I think that as a result of all the hype surrounding generative AI, many people have forgotten about 3D immersive technology. Some version, or versions, of the metaverse are on the way and will be hugely influential. A lot of what we now think of as social media will be moving to 3D.
We already have one application that’s pretty popular — gaming. That’s a harbinger, although I don’t think it’s an easy leap to transfer the gaming experience to the rest of life. 3D is obviously appealing if what you’re doing is chasing around other avatars and trying to chop off their heads, or whatever. Still, I think gaming does provide a proof of concept, that it can work and it can be very engaging.
What’s a technology that you think is overhyped?
Driverless cars. Consumers are simply not going to get comfortable anytime soon with autonomous automobiles…
