Beyond The Hype What Will Actually Happen To Earth In 2026

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 27, 2025, 9:17 AM

beyond the hype what will actually happen to earth in 2026

For Americans who felt 2025 was a ceaseless storm of norm-challenging change, there may be balm in the celebrations of the republic’s 250th birthday on July 4. But more soberly, 2026 will also be marked by Supreme Court decisions that could upend the very foundation of our democracy. Will work insecurity grow as AI matures from loud infancy into a tricky “technolescence”? What will memes have to teach us? And what about that new musical genre bubbling out of Asia? Bruin experts cast a light on the path ahead.

UCLA Anderson School of Management macroeconomist Clement Bohr predicts the economy will remain largely “frozen” out of the gate but will see improvements as the year progresses on the back of fiscal and monetary... His overall general outlook is “rosy, with stimulations from the Big Beautiful Bill working through, if — and it’s a big if — administration polices remain stable and predictable.” Bohr, an adjunct professor of global economics and management, is monitoring talk of an artificial intelligence bubble — just seven AI-fueled companies account for a third of all Wall Street wealth. But Bohr believes the tech giants are so flush with cash that even if some spending is kept off balance sheets through “special vehicles” created by often-veiled private credit concerns, the companies “can ride... “Right now, these giants generate about $60 billion a year in AI-related revenue,” Bohr says. “But by 2030, to keep up with rising chip power and costs, that will have to be between half a trillion and a trillion dollars.”

A leading researcher behind the internationally cited UCLA Anderson Forecast, Bohr is most concerned about the forthcoming Supreme Court decision as to whether a president can replace board members of the long-independent Federal Reserve... “Economics is a social science, not a hard science, but one certainty that unites all economists is that subjecting federal money policy to political rather than business cycles, typically lowering interest rates for election... (Turkey’s hastily lowered interest rates resulted in 87% inflation; its interest rates are now around 38%.) “We have not hit the Fed’s inflation target for five years, and even a slight signal about loss... 2026 will see AI boost research across many areas, especially biomedicine. But there will be a price to pay and a need to consider the toxic side effects as it grows from loud infant into hungry teen, says Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at... It’s not just land, water, electricity and overexcited marketing that are key factors, but also AI’s social justice and social-psychological effects.

Can we keep up with the rapid changes, with governments willing or capable of shielding us from the dark side of this new wave of technology? Says Srinivasan: “We may start to find out in 2026.” 2026 won’t be another year of incremental progress. It will be the year technology crosses thresholds we’ve been nervously approaching for decades—some exhilarating, some terrifying, all transformative. These aren’t safe, comfortable predictions. They’re the uncomfortable breakthroughs that force us to confront what we’re actually building.

Let me walk you through twelve predictions for 2026 that sound impossible until you realize the technology already exists and we’re just waiting for someone bold—or reckless—enough to deploy it. This is the prediction nobody wants to make, but ignoring it doesn’t make it less likely. Micro drones weighing ounces, equipped with facial recognition, explosive payloads, and self-destruct mechanisms are technically feasible today. The components cost under $1,000. The software is open-source derivatives of existing AI systems. 2026 will see the first confirmed assassination by autonomous micro drone that identifies its target, executes an attack, and self-destructs to eliminate evidence.

This won’t be state-sponsored initially—it will be terrorist organizations, cartels, or extremist groups demonstrating that targeted killing has been democratized. The implications are staggering: no public figure is safe, security details become obsolete overnight, and we face a weapons technology we have no defense against. Welcome to the era where assassination becomes a software problem, not a human one. India’s Aditya-L1 spacecraft launched in 2023. Next year, it will observe the Sun during its peak activity phase.Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation via AP/Alamy Research powered by artificial intelligence made leaps this year, and it is here to stay.

AI ‘agents’ that integrate several large language models (LLMs) to carry out complex, multi-step processes are likely to be used more widely, some with little human oversight. The coming year might even bring the first consequential scientific advances made by AI. But heavier use could also expose serious failures in some systems. Researchers have already reported errors that AI agents are prone to, such as the deletion of data. Next year will also bring techniques that move beyond LLMs, which are expensive to train. Newer approaches focus on designing small-scale AI models that learn from a limited pool of data and can specialize in solving specific reasoning puzzles.

These systems do not generate text, but process mathematical representations of information. This year, one such tiny AI model beat massive LLMs at a logic test. Next year could see the launch of two clinical trials to develop personalized gene therapies for children with rare genetic disorders. The efforts expand on the treatment of KJ Muldoon, a baby boy with a rare metabolic disorder who received a CRIPSR therapy tailored to correct his specific disease-causing mutation. The team that treated Muldoon plans to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to run a clinical trial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that will test gene-editing therapies in more children with... These conditions are caused by variants in seven genes that can be addressed with the same type of gene editing as was used in Muldoon’s therapy.

Another team hopes to begin a similar trial for genetic disorders of the immune system next year. Read 41 predictions for 2026, a year that will see the world transform in big and small ways; this includes disruptions throughout our culture, technology, science, health and business sectors. It’s your future, discover what you’re in for. Quantumrun Foresight prepared this list; A trend intelligence consulting firm that uses strategic foresight to help companies thrive from future trends in foresight. This is just one of many possible futures society may experience. Read forecasts about 2026 specific to a range of countries, including:

Technology related predictions due to make an impact in 2026 include: Business related predictions due to make an impact in 2026 include: The era of AI evangelism is giving way to evaluation. Stanford faculty see a coming year defined by rigor, transparency, and a long-overdue focus on actual utility over speculative promise. Readers wanted to know if their therapy chatbot could be trusted, whether their boss was automating the wrong job, and if their private conversations were training tomorrow's models. Readers wanted to know if their therapy chatbot could be trusted, whether their boss was automating the wrong job, and if their private conversations were training tomorrow's models.

Using AI to analyze Google Street View images of damaged buildings across 16 states, Stanford researchers found that destroyed buildings in poor areas often remained empty lots for years, while those in wealthy areas... Using AI to analyze Google Street View images of damaged buildings across 16 states, Stanford researchers found that destroyed buildings in poor areas often remained empty lots for years, while those in wealthy areas... The year 2026 will come sooner than we think. I mean, it’s always like that, especially as we get older — the years seem to pass faster than ever before. However, this time it really feels like we are kind of standing at the edge of a cliff, because it seems the world could change dramatically any day now. And of course, history also teaches us that change often arrives not gradually, but in sudden bursts that reshape everything we thought we knew.

Consider how the iPhone transformed our world in 2007, or how the pandemic changed everything, both for the worse, perhaps? Well, now imagine that pace of change compressed into a single year. That could easily be 2026, because so many things are happening right now.

Beyond The Hype What Will Actually Happen To Earth In 2026

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