2019 to be the year of deepfake content & 5G islands

Telenor Group’s research arm, Telenor Research, has identified seven tech trends to study up on for 2019. Here are the 7 trends Telenor Research understands will make a big impact in 2019.

1. Deepfake: Too good to be true?

2019 will bring the world more deepfake content because a large amount of work is going into algorithms.

GIt is these algorithms that will enable the creation of deepfake content so advanced that we could have a difficult time differentiating between what’s real and what’s fake in the digital world.

If people had trouble telling fake news posts apart from real news on social media between 2016 and 2018, it’s very possible that the boundaries will be blurred even more in 2019. 2019 will see internet service providers, operators and regulators look seriously into mitigating deepfake content, and widespread public awareness campaigns against deepfake.

2. An eye on AI

As people increasingly tune in to how technology affects their lives, AI is one of those technologies that will receive more public scrutiny in 2019.

In the coming year, the world will see public and private bodies setting AI governance frameworks and adopting new codes of conduct to ensure that they operate with high ethical standards.

This will be done in order to ensure that AI systems are non-discriminatory, transparent, traceable and secure.

3. 5G islands emerge

In 2017, it was all about 5G testing: could a computer a few meters away connect to a signal station running a 5G frequency.

In 2018, there was the pioneering uses of 5G – like the 5G drone coverage of the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

And coming in 2019, the world will be able to see “5G islands” emerge across the world as large-scale pilots and trials – from Europe to North America and northeast Asia.

Though 2020 is the year that 5G’s global standard will release, 2019 will see commercial advances in 5G, which we see in the United States and areas of Asia already.

Telenor Group has also predicted that we will also see some of the first marketing campaigns based on 5G.

4. Chatbots join the family 

Telenor Group also predicts that chatbots will be helping people in homes more than ever.

It is also predicted that 2019 will see huge growth of voice-controlled chatbots, leading to smarter voice-recognition applications, since they will be limited to a narrow skill-set in which they will perform well.​

It’s possible that by this time next year, domestic chatbots will be at the top of 2019’s holiday wish lists in many markets around the world.

5. Screening screen time, flipping to flip phones

Awareness of screen time and its effects on users is becoming widespread. People will increasingly use screen time tracking apps, night-time and do-not-disturb modes on phones, as developers tune the smartphone experience to enable us to manage our use of these devices.

Developments in the marketplace as a result of increased screen time awareness and discipline will snowball in 2019.

Moreover, people concerned with their own personal screen time but don’t want to disconnect altogether could opt for simpler connectivity.

We could see this in the form of wearables, other small connected devices and even flip phones.

6. Greentech catches fire

A virtuous cycle in green consumption, awareness and green tech development will take shape in 2019, given a boost in large part by mobile technology.

7. Industrial Age 2.0

Telenor Group believes that 2019 will be the year when industrial IoT customers crack the transition from proof-of-concepts, which we’ve seen in recent years and months, to large scale commercial deployments in low-power wide-area (LPWA) ecosystems.

It is expected that industries will soon be rolling out large scale IoT, particularly within the arenas of smart cities, industrial manufacturing and process industries, such as shipping, traffic and transport monitoring and fisheries.