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and share information to figure out the most efficient routes for
each car, saving time and energy. The United States is working
on overhauling its electrical grid with sensors and other technol-
ogy to help make the system more aware of how energy is being
used. Then power can be distributed more efficiently. Buildings
and even entire cities could use smart systems to help improve
energy efficiency, water usage, waste management, and more.
Predicting the Future
Some smart systems use AI to make decisions automatically.
David Clark, a research scientist at MIT, says, “More and more,
humans will be in a world in which decisions are being made by
an active set of cooperating devices.”
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These systems can antici-
pate people’s needs. Algorithms already
suggest new friends on Facebook; come
up with books, movies, music, and other
products people might enjoy; and even
diagnose cancer and suggest treatment
plans. Eventually, algorithms with access
to enough data about a person’s body
could predict a medical condition before
it occurs. Similarly, data on social interac-
tions and behavior could someday feed into an algorithm that
predicts future crimes or conflicts.
Connecting the world together via the IoT into smart systems
improves productivity and efficiency but compromises privacy
and safety. “The IoT reality represents both huge opportunity and
huge vulnerability. They go hand in hand,”
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says Barry Chuda-
kov, founder of Sertain Research, a marketing technology com-
pany. The IoT is vulnerable to a targeted attack or to a natural
disaster that damages its ability to gather data or communicate
that data. In addition, governments or organizations with the
power to tap into a smart system’s data could use that informa-
tion for surveillance or population control. “In the future, intelli-
gence services might use the [IoT] for identification, surveillance,
“More and more, humans
will be in a world in which
decisions are being made
by an active set of coop-
erating devices.”
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—David Clark, research scientist,
MIT
