T6 Digital doubles T6 Digital doubles We could soon see our online behaviors and data reflected in digital doubles that we control. What’s going on? The aggregation of some personal information centrally is not a new idea: Microsoft’s .NET My Services was an attempt in 2001 to allow access to contacts, calendar and email which never fully materialized due to privacy and anti-competitive concerns. Google’s suite of products based on Gmail is arguably an up-to-date realization of this. What’s coming next, however, goes way beyond a central access point for static data, because it unleashes the power of metaphor in our understanding of what’s possible, which in turn will inspire acceptance of innovative services. In essence a digital double of me is easy to understand. Now we need to make it useful, secure and easy to interact with. Right now, we think of a digital twin as a virtual model of a physical process, product or service. The pairing of virtual and physical allows data analysis and systems monitoring that make it possible to head off problems before they happen. As they can self-optimize over the course of a product or system’s life cycle, they’re increasingly being used by a diverse array of organizations and industries as virtual prototypes or test beds. For instance, UK start-up SenSat uses Artificial Intelligence to digitize real-world places for infrastructure projects, and recently attracted multimillion-dollar investment from Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent. Gartner recently predicted that half of large industrial companies will use digital twin technologies by 2021, and according to Juniper Research, digital twin revenues will Eternime preserves people’s rise from US$9.8 billion this year to US$13 billion in 2023. memories for their loved ones Grand View Research predicts the global digital twin market to access long after they have passed away, allowing them will reach US$26.07 billion by 2025. to exist as an avatar forever. 77 78