As AI "improves", people will realize that everything "online" is likely to be either fake, manipulated, centrally controlled, a scam, and generally garbage.
The other thing I can see is the greenlights that AI products will get in the next decade. AI already shows a lot of potentials and legislation already turns a blind eye about potential copyright issues. I believe every player in the theatre is going to slum dunk on this and give green light all the way.
My reasoning is built on 1) The Pax Americana is rotting away as the core is rotting away -> 2) Local dukes are going to try to grab whatever they wanted to grab but could not because Pax Americana had a hand on them (I use a feudal model because it is more accurate) -> 3) We will see more competition, which pushes all states to increase efficiency including the US -> 4) Since AI has the potential to 10x productivity, no one dares to say no to it.
Good luck and have fun! I’m very pessimistic about the next 50 years so I’m very biased.
My opinion on how things could progress in 5-10 years is it depends on how much the average people push back. It could be pushing back on AI data centers, loss of freedoms, CEO pay ratios, etc. The intensity of the push back could impact events.
Each industry created a new way to do same things, things moved faster and more faster. And now we are at the inertial momentum that is accelerating so fast in overall turn of events in the world that all this happening was faster than world war 1's duration
If I may suggest some books for you that can help you get answers on some of these themes:
"Was it always like this"?
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. About 14th-century Europe: plague, schism, war, economic collapse, social breakdown. Tuchman wrote it partly to show her own generation that calamitous centuries are a recurring feature.
"Meaning"
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Written by a Holocaust survivor. The core insight is that meaning is something you construct, not something the world owes you. Can land hard if you are feeling crushed by macro forces.