6 scary predictions for artificial intelligence in 2026

When OpenAI Declare “Code Red” As it seeks this month to refocus its teams on competing with Google, I can’t help but think of December three years ago when the companies’ roles were reversed. Google was one Sirens sounding for OpenAI to catch up. What followed the next month, in January 2023, were the first large-scale layoffs in Google’s history. “A difficult decision to prepare us for the future,” as the company described it at the time.

I wonder if the ChatGPT developer could make similar workforce cuts early next year. These speculations have inspired me to come up with a whole bunch of predictions about what might come next year. Here’s a look at six of the ideas, fine-tuned with the real intelligence of WIRED colleagues.

Data center misinformation

Communities around the world They are fighting the construction of data centers. In the United States, many activists organize themselves on social media using tools such as Facebook groups. the Chinese and Russian Governments continue to exploit social media to spread misinformation disguised as real news and real opinions. A slowdown in data center development in the United States will be a boon for China and Russia Both seek to surpass the United States In industrial and military artificial intelligence capabilities.

Austin Wang, a researcher at the nonprofit RAND Corporation who has studied Chinese-controlled propaganda farms, says there are no signs of troubling activity at the moment. “Many of the newly created anti-data center pages seem to be controlled by real American citizens so far,” says Wang.

But as anti-data center fervor grows, China and Russia could try to boost grassroots organizing. The work became easier Thanks to artificial intelligence that can quickly create photos and videos To excite people on social media.

Robot demos are everywhere

In 2026, tech conferences, from the Consumer Electronics Show to Amazon’s hardware event, will likely be full of talk about AI-powered robots. Google and other big tech companies have spent years trying to train robots to handle household tasks through repeated practice. But now there is A new round of hype. The type of AI models used in services like ChatGPT and Gemini It is integrated into robots Hoping they can handle the household chores, Like folding clothesWith less training and more accuracy.

Last September, Google Video released The robot sorts trash, compost and recycling in response to the user’s voice commands. When Google executives take the stage at the company’s next conference I/O conferenceI expect them to prompt the robot to do tasks like, for example, inserting a pizza into it A type of oven never seen before While cooking, retrieve a half cup of Diet Coke from the back of a crowded refrigerator.

Barak Turovsky, the recently departed chief AI officer at General Motors and a former AI leader at Google, says advances in robotics capabilities are possible because large language models can understand a dishwasher manual, learn how to operate a dishwasher by watching a video, and understand how to grab a particular part by decoding a drawing. “The next frontier for large language models is the physical world,” he says.