There’s no debate about artificial intelligence (AI) changing the world.
The question is, how will it change the world?
And yet, Australians remain skeptical.
Just 44 per cent of us are open to artificial intelligence transforming our homes in the next five years, according to Samsung’s Australians@HOME in 2029 report, and only one-in-five (21 per cent) of Australians believe they’ll have access to an AI device with the power to control their entire home.
But it’s a reality that futurist Steve Sammartino says will arrive faster than we think and “catch people by surprise.”
“Technology doesn’t incrementally improve and we have an industrial mindset where things only get slightly better.”
“Exponential technology behaves very differently.”
“Think back 10 years ago to how cooked some pictures were on smartphones compared to what they are now. They’re basically broadcast quality.”
“At first things seem a little bit slow and people say ‘that will never happen’ and the next thing you know, we’re living inside a revolution.”
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While technology companies around the world have been scrambling to add AI ‘co-pilots’ to programs you already know and use (like Microsoft Office), less is being said about how large language models will supercharge life at home.
Samsung’s Australians@HOME in 2029 report highlights five key areas:
- ‘Ambient’ AI powering the ‘ecosystem of the home’
- Electric vehicles that double as ‘rolling lounge rooms’
- Soft robotics
- Energy management
- Transparent TVs
“Technology hasn’t been very human (in the past) and that’s why we often call these ideas ‘human-centred AI’ which is the term that Samsung uses,” Steve Sammartino said.
“The difference this time is that you can give the AI verbal commands.”
“If you can speak, you can do it… and then, in addition to that, it can follow your gestures and it learns and suggests things back to you verbally.”
That may sound a lot like today’s smart speakers but the belief is that they – and every other piece of technology in the home – will soon be supercharged by the same large language models (LLMs) that power ChatGPT, Google Gemini and X’s Grok.
That technology will allow us to communicate with every device more easily but, more importantly, allow different devices to communicate with each other.
“By stealth, we all become software developers because the only language we need to know to integrate these devices and plug them in and get them working is our preferred language,” Sammartino said.
Steve believes Australians will feel that difference most in their vehicles.
“Your car will become a rolling lounge room which is interconnected with the house.”
Can you tell the difference between a real image and an AI-generated one?
“You’ll get into your car and essentially be in the same place.”
“Whatever was happening in the home, then just naturally occurs in the car, because they’re talking to each other.”
That connection is already helping people with electric cars power their homes.
Instead of purchasing separate batteries to store cheaper power (solar or off-peak), cars with “bi-directional” charging are doing that job themselves.
According to Samsung’s report, 61 per cent of Australians consider “energy-saving technology” as their most important consideration when purchasing new products.
“Every major manufacturer in the world has said ‘we’re moving to an all EV Fleet’ by the end of the decade,” Sammartino said.
“Soon there won’t be any other choice… and because (electric engines) have only 20 moving parts… they’re actually cheaper to run and cheaper to produce.”
Prices are also forecast to fall on “soft robots” and the transparent displays LG and Samsung proudly showed off in January at CES.
Fewer than one in five Australians (19 per cent) believe that AI robots will play an integral role in simplifying day-to-day tasks at home despite many, including this author, happily outsourcing chores like vacuuming to robot companions.
And while eye-catching technology like 3D TV failed spectacularly, Sammartino says the same fate will not befall see-through screens.
“3D TV kind of isolated people when they had to put on some goggles to sit and watch.”
“Transparent TVs are far less intrusive.”
“Instead of having these black boxes sitting on your wall or as a piece of furniture in your room, it actually becomes something that’s there when you need it and invisible when you don’t.”
“That’s what all great technology, like electricity, does.”
“I think entertainment venues and sporting venues and businesses will adopt it before it enters the home… because you can have a heads-up display where you can have statistics that add to what you’re seeing live.”
“It increases the level of connection in humanity because it’s not obtrusive.”
“At first you hear about these things and think, ‘Is this really going to happen?’ and then next thing, you can’t live without your smartphone or you can’t live without your rolling lounge room or you can’t live without ambient AI.”
