If there’s ever a time to get on the artificial intelligence (AI) hype train, that time is now. That’s the message that one emerging technologies expert is sending companies all over the world.
As a former executive of both Facebook (NASDAQ: META) and SpaceX, Dex Hunter-Torricke has seen countless technologies rise and fall. And in his keynote address at the 10th Digital Conference (DigiCon) held in the Philippines, Hunter-Torricke explained that the last two decades in human history were transformed by the vast increase in access to software and analytics. Now, he says the age of AI has arrived, and there’s a steep price to pay for those who are too slow to adopt the technology.
“Any company that doesn’t take AI seriously won’t exist 10 years from now,” Hunter-Torricke told reporters at DigiCon 2025. “Fundamentally, they can either get on board the train, or they’ll get run over by it.”
Of course, AI technology is far from perfect. There’s a whole laundry list of limitations that humans must contend with just to use existing AI tools properly. These include reliance on possibly flawed data, the inability to engage in ethical decision-making, and a lack of genuine common sense and awareness, among others. However, developers are already working to address these limitations, and the world may soon see a level of AI that has only ever been seen in movies before.
The rise of Artificial General Intelligence
The goal for AI has always been to achieve human-level intelligence, now commonly referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). And apparently, it’s no longer a matter of “if” but “when” this will happen. Hunter-Torricke says there is considerable debate about the expected timeline, but it may occur soon.
“Most folks reckon we are less than a decade away,” he said. “We might be as close as three or four years, so it’s coming very quickly.”
Factor in extra time to scale AGI technology, and this is expected to radically transform business all around the world. Having machines that can function on the same level cognitively as people would change workflows even more drastically than what is happening today, and this is expected to become both a boon and a challenge for societies globally. Hunter-Torricke himself has a slightly cynical outlook on just how the world will be able to handle such a technology:
“I don’t actually see a single society in the world as being well prepared for that future,” he said. “So we’re actually quite late in the day now to actually begin figuring out what is the full sweep of things.”
Hunter-Torricke added that AGI will dramatically impact economies, geopolitics, climate, and sustainability—all of which he says are fundamentals for whether we have a promising future or not—and he advises everyone to take it seriously.
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The ethical challenges of AI
It seems that more than most other modern technologies, AI poses massive ethical challenges.
After all, when you have something as powerful as AI, you can create massive change for the better or for worse, depending on just how you use the technology.
Content creation, for example, is one area that Hunter-Torricke believes can be significantly transformed by AI. Specifically, the technology can affect the pace at which content is generated, in turn making it faster and easier to strategize and reshape the way people think.
“Are you using those technologies in ways that respect local culture, that reflect the right value systems that are working for clients who are going to deliver good for societies?” the former Facebook and SpaceX executive asked. These, he said, are challenges that industries are already struggling with right now, especially when there are people who do not care enough to meet the highest ethical standards.
“In a future where you will just be able to scale and operate and build your business much faster with much greater global effects, doing the wrong things means you’ll be able to do the wrong thing a hundred times greater at a faster scale,” Hunter-Torricke explained. He added that this is genuinely very challenging for companies and for societies.
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An important moment
While it is impossible to predict precisely how AI will develop in the coming years, one thing that the world agrees on is that the technology will be a game-changer. Companies that are too slow to adopt AI risk lagging behind their competitors, and may even be dominated in their industry.
Slowly but surely, AI is making its way into the everyday lives of the general public, and its continuous rise seems all but inevitable at this point. What remains to be seen is how companies will respond and who will ultimately emerge as the leader in the AI arms race.
“There’s never been a more important moment as a CEO, I think, to pay attention to what is happening technologically,” he said.
In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek’s coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/expert-tells-companies-take-ai-seriously-or-else-video/
