AI, robotics and other forms of smart automation have the potential to bring great economic benefits, contributing up to $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030 according to this analysis. This extra wealth will also generate the demand for many jobs, but there are also concerns that it could displace many existing jobs.

The fourth industrial age rolling out across the globe is creating a digitally-enabled environment that will affect every company. Digital innovation has the capacity to transform practices, raise performance and increase growth across all industry sectors. The pace of change in digital technologies continues to increase and become more embedded in the economy.

This discussion paper argues that public policy should seek to accelerate automation to reap the productivity benefits, while building new institutions to ensure the dividends of technological change are broadly shared.

The technology, media and entertainment, and telecommunications ecosystem remains as fascinating as ever in 2018. Will augmented reality become mainstream? How will machine learning affect the enterprise? What's the future of the smartphone? This predictions report provides insight into transformation and growth opportunities over the next one to five years.

The mission of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems is to ensure every stakeholder involved in the design and development of autonomous and intelligent systems is educated, trained, and empowered to prioritize ethical considerations so that these technologies are advanced for the benefit of humanity.