AI's Big Challenges for 2026: Environment, Phones, and Truth

In 2025, AI made huge strides in research, coding, and creating videos and images. It could now handle complex tasks and even plan things like vacations or order food online. But despite these advancements, we're still far from having AI that thinks like humans, known as artificial general intelligence or AGI. Right now, AI doesn't truly understand the world; it just mimics intelligence. Big tech companies are spending trillions on AI, hoping it will change how we live and work. However, AI often makes mistakes and creates low-quality content that floods the internet. With so much at stake, AI should be more helpful than just writing essays or generating images. One major concern is how AI data centers affect the environment. These centers use massive amounts of energy, often relying on fossil fuels like methane gas. While companies promise to reduce emissions, they lack clear plans. Nuclear energy could be a cleaner solution, but building new plants takes years.Smartphones could also benefit from better AI. Current AI features, like editing photos or cleaning up texts, aren't impressive enough. AI can do much more, like transcribing speech or translating languages, but it needs to work faster and more accurately. Local AI models on phones could help, but they still make mistakes. Imagine if your phone could automatically add directions to a text or pull up flight information without any hassle. Another issue is identifying AI-generated content. On social media, it's hard to tell if a video is real or made by AI. Platforms like Meta and TikTok need to label AI-generated videos clearly. Currently, they have systems to detect AI content, but they aren't consistent. AI watermarks exist, but people find ways to remove them. It's time for social media platforms to be transparent about AI content.