The Tech Impacting the Generations

Foundation models plus agentic systems that plan/act; synthetic media blurs captured vs generated content.

Recommendation algorithms now mediate what 175 million Americans watch, buy, hear, and believe. The evidence they are reshaping human behavior is real, narrower than feared, and more interesting than either side admits.

AI agents that plan, execute, and iterate on multi-step workflows without human prompting. Inference costs have fallen 99.9% since 2020, 46% of code is already AI-generated, and entry-level job postings have plunged 35%.

AI tutoring grew 731% in a single school year. Fourth-grade reading scores hit 30-year lows. The tools have never been more powerful — and the evidence that they serve the students who need them most remains disturbingly thin.

Headworn spatial computing and AR overlays blending digital and physical work, learning, and play.

Decarbonization across power, mobility, buildings; plus long-shot clean-power bets like fusion.

Machines exploiting quantum states for select problems in chemistry, optimization, and cryptography.

Industrial, service, mobile, and emerging humanoid robots plus workflow automation.

Robotaxis, autonomous trucking, and ADAS are rewriting who moves freely — and who waits. Only 13% of Americans trust self-driving cars, but Waymo delivers 500,000 rides per week.

Devices that read neural signals to control software, prosthetics, or devices.

Digital identity, service delivery, participation tools, and election-administration tech.

Programmable biology (CRISPR, gene therapies, cell engineering) for medicine, materials, ag.

Digital currencies and blockchain assets promising financial revolution but often delivering gambling addiction wrapped in technology rhetoric.

Neobanks, BNPL, and algorithmic lending have become the financial operating system for a generation — 86 million Americans used Buy Now Pay Later in 2024 while the agency charged with protecting them was gutted to a skeleton.

Verifiable Credentials and DIDs enabling portable, selective disclosure of identity/claims.