Cryptocurrencies and personal AI: technologies to be wary of in 2025

Even AI can’t predict the future (yet), yet two of our tech editors take a look at what’s going to be big in 2025.

As 2022 approached, the outlook for the cryptocurrency business was bleak.

One of its best known firms, FTX, Collapsed with $8 billion (£6.3 billion) No account of customer funds.

In March 2024, company co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 years in prison To defraud customers and investors.

The scandal shook confidence in the entire region.

It seemed as if cryptocurrencies would remain a niche product, with an enthusiastic but relatively limited following.

But just a few months later, the industry was again filled with optimism. Behind this enthusiasm – Donald Trump’s success in the November 5 presidential election.

It seemed like he would be more suited to the cryptocurrency sector and so far that seems to be the case.

In early December, Trump said he will nominate Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Paul Atkins will take over the role of top chairman at the Wall Street regulator.

Mr Atkins is seen as far more pro-cryptocurrency than outgoing chief Gary Gensler.

That announcement helped push the value of a bitcoin, the largest of many cryptocurrencies, to $100,000.

“With Trump winning, you can imagine that you will have proactive regulation in 2025,” says Jeffrey Kendrick, global head of digital asset research. “You will have some negative regulation removed, which will make it easier for banks and other institutions to enter this space.” will allow.” standard Chartered.

Specifically, Mr. Kendrick points to a guidance issued by the SEC called sab 121It has made it harder for banks and other financial firms to provide cryptocurrency services since it took effect in 2022.

Such a move could help Trump fulfill his promise in July to make America Cryptocurrency capital of the world,

If he follows through on that pledge, it would be a marked change from Trump’s tenure in 2021 Called Bitcoin a “scam”,

As AI tools are coming into our phones – Apple, Google and Samsung have launched services that can edit photos, translate languages ​​and perform web searches – we are at the beginning of an era where in which AI has become an intrinsic part of our digital lives and is increasingly helpful on a personal level.

If we allow it, it’s because it requires a bit of a leap of faith.

Let’s take diary management as an example. An AI tool can efficiently manage your diary for you if you allow it access. But how far should it go?

To be truly useful, does this mean that it is also necessary to know who you would like to avoid meeting, or relationships you would like to keep secret, and from whom?

Do you want it to provide you with summaries of counseling sessions, or therapy appointments?

This is extremely personal information, and potentially both extremely embarrassing and extremely valuable if something went wrong and was shared. Do you trust big tech companies with that kind of data?

Microsoft is working hard on this particular door. It ran into trouble in 2024 due to a demo of a tool called Recall, which took snapshots of laptop desktops every few seconds to help users locate content they viewed but couldn’t remember. Where from.

It has now made several changes to the product – which was never launched – but it endures.

“I think we’re moving into a fundamentally new era where you’ll have an always-present, persistent, very capable co-pilot companion in your everyday life,” Mustafa Suleiman, the company’s AI chief, recently told me. “

Despite the challenges, Ben Wood, chief analyst at technology research company CCS Insight, expects more personalized AI services to emerge in 2025.

“The output will be continuously updated based on evolving data sources such as emails, messages, documents and social media interactions.

“This will allow the AI ​​service to be tailored specifically to an individual’s communication style, needs and preferences,” he says.

But Mr Wood admits that leaving your personal information open to AI would be a big step.

“Trust will be essential,” says Mr Wood.

The more money poured into AI, the more datacenters will need to be built.

AI requires a lot of computing power to train and run, and it works best with the latest computer chips and servers.

Up to $1tn could be invested in datacenters by the biggest data users including Google, Microsoft and Meta over the next five years. According to CCS Insight,

In Europe alone, data center capacity is expected to grow by an average of 9% annually between 2024 and 2028, according to property services company Savills.

But those new facilities are unlikely to be built in existing datacenter hubs like London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Higher property prices in those cities – Savills says land prices in London could be higher As much as £17 million per acre – Also tight power supply means developers will look elsewhere.

Cities like Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham in the UK could be home to the next wave of datacenter construction.

Elsewhere in Europe, Prague, Genoa, Munich, Dusseldorf and Milan are likely to be considered.

At the heart of some of those new datacenters will be the latest computer chips from Nvidia, the company that dominates the market for chips used for AI.

Unveiled in March 2024The Blackwell chip is expected to begin shipping in large numbers in 2025.

The new chip should allow tech companies to train AI four times faster and operate AI 30 times faster than current computer chips, according to Vivek Arya, senior semiconductor analyst at Bank of America Securities.

Nvidia’s biggest customers, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Coreview, are likely to get the technology first, According to reports,

But according to Mr Arya, other customers may struggle to get their hands on the super chip, due to “disruption in supply into 2025”.