UN 
As artificial intelligence prepares to shape economies and societies, AI-powered scientific discoveries, smart materials and carbon-capturing microbes stand out among this year’s most important technologies for tackling global problems.
The World Economic Forum has identified 10 key technologies that will provide innovative solutions to global problems such as climate change, food shortages and organ transplants, improve human health and impact societies and economies over the next five years.
This year’s top 10 emerging technologies include “Artificial Intelligence for Scientific Discovery,” followed by “Privacy Enhancing Technologies,” “Reconfigurable Smart Surfaces for Wireless Communication,” “High Altitude Platform Station,” and “Integrated Sensing and Communication.
Other emerging technologies include “immersive technologies,” “elastocaloric materials,” “carbon-capturing microbes,” “alternative animal feeds,” and “genetically modified organ transplants.
- Artificial intelligence in science
As countries rush to seize the opportunities offered by AI-based technologies, the development of artificial intelligence is expected to revolutionize science.
While artificial intelligence has been used in research for many years, it is estimated that advances in deep learning, generative artificial intelligence, and basic models will make great contributions to the scientific discovery process.
Artificial intelligence is emerging in scientific research as a transformative general-purpose technology that can unlock previously hidden discoveries, propose new materials that enable next-generation green technologies, advance knowledge of the human body and mind, and make unprecedented connections in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.
- Privacy Policy
Although most countries in the world have enacted regulations to protect consumer rights and privacy, many developments in the digital environment continue to violate privacy.
The interaction between consumers and businesses due to privacy concerns is driving interest and development in the area of privacy-enhancing technologies. Artificially created synthetic data that mimics the statistical properties and patterns of real data protects personal privacy and is poised to change the way information is handled, with powerful applications in health-related research.
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) technology transforms ordinary walls and surfaces into smart components for wireless communications and is expected to increase the energy efficiency of wireless networks. This technology holds promise for a wide range of applications, from smart factories to vehicle networks.
Mobile network access can be extended to remote areas with high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), which are base stations flown by airplanes, zeppelins and balloons. This technology is expected to help bridge the digital divide for more than 2.6 billion people worldwide.
The emergence of 6G networks will facilitate simultaneous data collection and transmission, while also enabling environmental monitoring systems that support smart agriculture, environmental protection and urban planning. Integrated sensing and communication technologies are expected to reduce energy consumption.
- Sustainability
Immersive technology (VR, AR, MR), which attempts to mimic a physical world through a digital or simulated world by creating a sense of reality, promises rapid improvements in infrastructure and everyday systems by combining computing power with virtual and augmented reality.
The technology is expected to enable designers and construction professionals to verify compatibility between physical and digital models, ensuring accuracy and safety, and contributing to sustainability.
- Climate change
As global temperatures rise with climate change, the need for cooling solutions is expected to increase. Elastocaloric materials, which offer higher efficiency and lower energy consumption, release and absorb heat under mechanical stress. Notably, these materials offer a sustainable alternative to existing technologies.
As countries race to meet their commitments to combat climate change, a variety of technologies that offer lower carbon footprint solutions or absorb carbon dioxide from the air are predicted to grow rapidly.
As global climate change poses increasing risks to human health and the economy, the use of microbes to prevent carbon dioxide produced by factories from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming is seen as a potential solution to combat climate change.
Organisms engineered with carbon capture microbial technology offer a promising approach to mitigating climate change by converting emissions into valuable products such as biofuels.
- Food
As the world’s population grows, animal food resources are diminishing by the day. Unless major innovative steps are taken, the demand for food is likely to outstrip supply.
Animal feed is needed to produce animal food. Alternative animal feeds are widely cited as the solution to feeding the world’s growing population.
It is believed that animal protein feeds derived from insects and food waste will provide a sustainable solution for the agricultural industry.
- Organ Transplantation
With chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer on the rise, new technology aims to make people healthier by replacing some organs.
While organ transplants save lives, the need for transplants is increasing worldwide. Genomics for transplantation is seen as a potential game changer in transplantation, addressing organ shortages with new engineering approaches.
The successful transplantation of genetically modified organs into a human being is expected to be a major advance in the field of health and bring hope to millions of people waiting for a transplant. (AA)
