AI teachers and cybernetics - what could the world look like in 2050?

Laura Cress - Technology reporter

   The last 25 years has seen some mind-bending technological changes. At the start of the century, most computers connected to the internet with noisy dial-up connections, Netflix was an online DVD rental company, and the vast majority of people hadn't even heard of a smartphone. Fast forward two and a half decades, and innovations in AI, robotics and much else besides are emerging at an incredible rate. So we decided to ask experts what the next 25 years could bring. Here are their predictions for the technology we'll be using by 2050 - and how it could reshape our lives.

    Merging humans and machines

    Science fiction set in the 2050s is full of examples of humans using technological enhancements to feel fitter, happier and more productive. In the 2000 hit game Deus Ex - set in 2052 - the player can inject themselves with tiny robots called “nanites”. These microscopic robots manipulate matter on atomic levels, giving superhuman abilities such as enhanced speed and the ability to see in the dark. It sounds like something from the distant future, but nanotechnology - engineering at a scale of millionths of a millimetre - is already used in lots of everyday real-life tech. In fact, it is powering the way you are reading these very words right now - every smartphone or computer is run by a central chip made up of billions of tiny transistors - electrical components built on a nanoscale to speed up data processing. Professor Steven Bramwell at the London Centre for Nanotechnology told the BBC by 2050 we should expect the lines between machines, electronics and biology to be “significantly blurred”. That means we could see nanotechnology implants by then - but more to “monitor your health or aid communication” rather than to appear invisible, as in Deus Ex. Medicine could also make common use of machines at a nanometre scale to “deliver drugs to exactly where they need to go”, said Professor Bramwell. Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick is equally interested in studying augmentations, going one step further than most. In 1998 he became the first human to have a microchip implanted into his nervous system, earning him the title “Captain Cyborg”. Professor Warwick believes by 2050, advancements in cybernetics - the science studying the links between natural and mechanical systems - could lead to trailblazing treatments for diseases. He predicts the use of “deep brain electronic stimulation” as a partial treatment for some conditions such as schizophrenia, rather than medicine. He adds it is likely we'll see more cybernetic enhancements of the kind he has already trialled himself, so that “your brain and body can be in different places”. And what if we wanted to test out how the latest enhancement, or even new diet worked on our bodies, without any risks of experiencing the side effects? Professor Roger Highfield, Science Director of the Science Museum, believes “digital twins” - virtual versions of a physical object, updated using real time data - could become a regular feature in our lives. He imagines a world where each of us could have “thousands of simplified twins”, using them to explore how “different medications or lifestyle changes affect your unique biology”. In other words, we could preview our futures before we live them.

     The next generation of AI  

    Many technology firms, including Google and IBM, are currently locked in a multi-billion dollar race to revolutionise how we push fields like AI even further - in the form of quantum computing. Quantum computers are machines which can do very complex calculations at incredibly fast speeds - for example, simulating molecular interactions to design new drugs faster. In January 2025, Jensen Huang - boss of the leading chip firm Nvidia - said he believed “very useful” quantum computing would come in 20 years. AI itself will undoubtedly continue to loom large in our society as we journey towards the half century mark. Futurist and author Tracey Follows, who helped write a White Paper on UK education in 2050, believes learning will take place across “virtual and physical realities” using AI teachers which “adjust in real time”. Rather than textbooks, she predicts children will use “immersive simulations”. Meanwhile, education will be less standardised, with each child's individual DNA or biometric data studied to understand how they learn best.

Available on https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c865n800d5jo