Dear Reader,

If you read my notes in Thoughts from The Frontline each week, you know I spend much of my time considering potential risks. In fairness, there’s no shortage of those at the moment.

But despite being lumped in with the “perma-bears” (unfairly, I’d add), I’m also outspoken about how hopeful I am for the future long-term.

In the next 20 years, I expect new technologies will be developed which will make the world far more exciting and wonderful than it is today.

(We’re going to be diving deep into both the risks and opportunities at this year’s Strategic Investment Conference. We’re starting on Monday, so grab your virtual pass here if you haven’t already.)

We’re in the early days of one such transformation with artificial technology (AI). You’re probably familiar with OpenAI’s ChatGPT by now, but this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

We’re just now getting access to this technology ourselves, but the biggest corporations have had this technology at the heart of their operations for years.

As businesses small and large continue to leverage AI, we return to our theme of “thinking the unthinkable.”

With a new technology that’s able to improve productivity, automate tasks, and streamline processes, the potential implications for the economy are significant.

To prepare ourselves for a future with AI at the helm, we need to ask difficult questions.

How will this affect the labor markets? In what ways will this disrupt major industries like healthcare, finance, and education? What will this mean for the balance between developed and emerging markets?

This is a short list to start. But hopefully, you can start to see how AI will cause dominoes to fall in new directions most can’t even begin to imagine.

If we’re to prepare ourselves for previously unthinkable scenarios, we need to understand at least the basic applications of these transformative technologies.

To that end, I’m excited to announce we’ll be welcoming Dr. Stephen Wolfram to this year’s Strategic Investment Conference.

Dr. Wolfram is a pioneer in the field of computational thinking, and he’s the genius behind Wolfram’s Mathematica, one of the most critical pieces of computing software of the last 50 years.

He’s written multiple books on AI, and I can’t think of anybody with a firmer grasp on what’s happening in that realm today.

At the SIC, we’ll have a chance to hear from Dr. Wolfram on what’s happening now with AI, what advances he expects moving forward, and how these will affect industries both in the short term and beyond.

AI is becoming a core part of how businesses operate across industries. That makes understanding the technology at even a basic level of critical importance.

Of course, the short-term economic and geopolitical risks we face will also play a significant role in the days ahead. But we need to understand both sides if we’re to truly prepare for the future by “thinking the unthinkable.”

The Strategic Investment Conference is just days away. You won’t want to miss it. Click here to get all the details and secure your virtual pass today.

Your hopeful for the future while realistic about the risks analyst,
 

John Mauldin
Co-Founder, Mauldin Economics