Euronews Next spoke to experts to find out what we can expect from technology, cryptocurrencies and social media in 2025.
Artificial intelligence was the most talked about abbreviation in the tech world last year, but will it keep pace in 2025?
What other technologies will be important this year? Will cryptocurrencies continue to rise? How will social media change?
At Euronews Next, we look at what we can expect from technology trends as we start the new year.
AI: More agents and data centers
In 2024, many discoveries were made, including the use of artificial intelligence to decipher 2,000-year-old scrolls that would crumble if touched by humans.
AI also continues to be expected to make our lives easier in the future through so-called AI agents.
Many companies are deploying AI agents, but they don’t have the power to someday, but we expect to see more of them this year.
Kari Briskey, vice president of generative AI software at Nvidia, said: “Enterprises will deploy large numbers of AI agents, semi-autonomous, trained models that operate across internal networks to assist with customer service, human resources, data security, and more.” .
“Knowledge workers can benefit from personalized teams of AI-powered experts, increasing their productivity. Developers can use customizable AI blueprints to build these advanced agents. “We will be able to do it,” she added.
Charlie Boyle, vice president of Nvidia’s DGX platform, said AI factories and data centers are also needed to power this technology, with more facilities expected in 2025.
Making power-hungry technologies more sustainable is also key this year.
“As AI workloads continue to drive growth, pioneering organizations will move to liquid cooling to maximize performance and energy efficiency,” Boyle said.
He added: “Hyperscale cloud providers and large enterprises will take the lead in using liquid cooling in new AI data centers housing hundreds of thousands of AI accelerators, networking, and software.”
European technology: Cleantech AI startups and the Romanian moment
The CEO of European education and innovation organization EIT Digital said that green AI technology could also become a powerful tool in Europe’s arsenal by 2025.
“I think the big important development for Europe next year will be the continued growth of AI in the sustainability space of green and clean technologies,” Federico Menna told Euronews Next.
“We see that these themes (climate) are attracting more and more investment and talent. Historically, we have been working on these themes for European values, not for business purposes. “Europe therefore has a competitive advantage,” he added.
advertisementHe said there will likely be a “surge in cleantech startups” due to the growing urgency of addressing climate change.
Mena also said he believes this year will see the rise of Eastern European countries in the technology sector.
He said Romania was “really leading the way” in the technology sector and was a “Google maniac”, especially when it came to cybersecurity. Poland and Hungry are also investing heavily in cybersecurity.
The war in Ukraine has also increased the importance of defense technology, including cybersecurity.
advertisementMena said Estonia and Latvia lead the field in defense technology in Europe and will continue to grow in size in 2025, with dual-use military and civilian technologies expanding.
Quantum: Overcoming the quantum threat
Quantum technology continues to develop in 2024, with Google announcing its Willow chip. The chip performed calculations in less than five minutes that would take the fastest supercomputers 1 billion years to accomplish.
Google’s feat wasn’t exactly a turning point for quantum, but with other quantum companies doing similar things, we can expect to see the rise of quantum cryptography in 2025.
The quantum threat is that if extremely powerful quantum computers are built, they could break the public encryption systems that protect online conversations, bank accounts, and most critical infrastructure, wreaking havoc on governments and businesses. It’s about having sex.
advertisementQuantum cryptography, also known as post-quantum cryptography, is therefore emerging as the answer to preventing this digital apocalypse.
“I think quantum cryptography is really going to start to emerge, because quantum has always been on the verge of being the next wave,” Mena said.
“We’re seeing quantum become more and more relevant and ultimately tied into defense in some ways, so quantum cryptography is probably going to be very important to governments,” he added. Ta.
Social media: further regulation and advertisers
Social media will experience major changes in 2024, with Elon Musk’s social media platform It was seen.
advertisement“The leading social media platforms are competing with emerging social media platforms. I think TikTok has made a big mark in 2023-2024 and has emerged as a big, big, big player in the social media ecosystem,” Pakistan said. said Nighat Dad, an Internet activist based in , who runs the non-profit organization Digital. Rights Foundation.
He told Euronews Next that as authoritarian and semi-authoritarian governments strangle social media companies with “questionable laws”, users will lean more towards privacy-friendly platforms.
“Users will be forced to migrate to platforms that are more independent, open source, not owned by Silicon Valley CEOs, more user-friendly, and with better content moderation policies. ”
Dad believes that in 2025, regulations around the world will play a major role in terms of compliance regarding social media platforms and content moderation.
advertisementBut he said the United States would likely go the opposite direction from Europe, which is seeking to hold social media companies accountable through regulation because of Musk’s close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump.
“I feel like no one can predict anything with Trump and Musk, but definitely this universe is going to be the opposite of what the EU is trying to do,” she said.
She also believes that social media revenue comes through advertising, and that “advertisers set the rules.”
Dad said advertisers “have been a behind-the-scenes stakeholder in the past, but in 2025 they will emerge as a major stakeholder.”
advertisementAI in social media: “It’s a mess”
It is said that 2024 will be the year that AI appears in global elections, and there have been concerns that deepfakes and misinformation will flood the internet. Experts say things didn’t go as expected in the US election, but Dad said it’s happening in other parts of the world as well.
“I think AI on social media is going to be disruptive because it’s already not on the radar of the majority of people in the world,” Dad said.
“If social media platforms don’t really look at the area around AI-generated content, I feel like by 2025 they’re going to be out of control in terms of moderating that kind of content,” she said. added.
Robotics: has not yet completely taken over our homes
In July 2024, Musk said Tesla would produce “really useful” humanoid robots that would start working in its factories in 2025.
advertisementBut this is unlikely to be the year we see widespread use of household robots that do household chores we don’t want to do.
“In 2025, we will see the first prototypes of robots that can move outside of structured industrial environments and act relatively independently and proactively. It will help us locate items accordingly and even load them into the dishwasher,” David Reger, CEO of German robotics company Neura Robotics, told Euronews Next.
But he said AI and hardware developments in this area are progressing so rapidly, and many of the big advances are currently happening in secret, that he makes no serious predictions about whether people will be able to buy the product. said that it is impossible. This year, home robots will be available at electronics retailers and online.
“Regulatory and legal requirements will also play an important role, but the first pilot projects where robots take over household chores will definitely be seen in the commercial sector, public institutions, care homes and hospitals,” he added. .
advertisementReger said robotics could become an important market given Musk’s closeness to Trump.
Without cheap, skilled labor, he said, the United States “will not be able to thrive in online commerce, computers, search engines, and the Metaverse.”
“Thus, the need for rapid economic success in the United States could provide unique momentum for robotics, especially since robotics is the biggest market of the future and President Trump knows it. ‘ he added.
This, in turn, will be a positive force for the world and Europe, and the resulting partnerships and trade relationships will be huge, Reger said.
advertisementVirtual currency: market movements
Cryptocurrencies ended 2024 at record levels, with Bitcoin prices reaching historic highs.
It is unclear whether this will continue into 2025, but 2025 could be the year when the general public deepens their understanding of and accepts cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, according to cryptocurrency wallet company Ledger. CEO Pascal Gauthier told Euronews Next.
When it comes to crypto companies, “people will worry less about economic cycles and bull or bear markets because the market will be big enough for them to grow,” he said.
