Technology is changing life as we know it. It’s quite explosive what we are saying. Artificial intelligence, big data and connecting physical things to the digital world through the internet of things have implications for the wealthy as well as for developing countries.

AI on the dangerous side of it, it can widen the gap. It can widen the gap so big that the poor countries can be left out. However this is also the chance for poor countries and developing countries to skip the industrial revolution and make up for the lost time. The benefits of this technology will be seen across industries. We can save lives. We can identify illnesses in a predictive way. We can use fitness health data to be able to detect issues long before they occur. But along with the benefits are the dangers that come from a connected world.

There are very serious concerns that we need to be aware of as it relates to the aggregation of all these data. A lot of this is personal identifiable data, economic data, health history data, human genomic data. Artificial intelligence could also threaten existing jobs. When we have autonomous vehicles, what are the taxi drivers in New Your City going to do? This idea that we’re going to retrain them to be data scientists, this is crazy.

What’s happening in the corporate world is corporations are facing a mass extinction event. So since 2000, since then, so far in the beginning of this century, 52 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared from the planet. In their place new types of companies such as Uber and AirBnB that exists because of artificial intelligence and big data. These technologies are not only affecting the corporate world, they may also be a threat to national security. As the most developed country in the world, we are at the most risk. We are connected the most, and our grid can be hacked. When the physical world gets connected to the internet, it’s not about stealing data, and IP. It’s also about causing a lot of damage. A turbine can be turned into a bomb, and a pump can be turned into something explosive. So, a lot of physical damage can also happen with cyber warfare.

But not moving forward with technology can be just as dangerous. Today, the challenge with AI is if we don’t do it, somebody else can do it, so it’s become a race. If we don’t do it, China could do it. Russia could do it. Iran could do it. For super powers the next revolution will be about the race for technological dominance.

Elizabeth Lee VOA News Los Angeles.