Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.
At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos earlier this year, Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun said that a “new paradigm of AI architectures” will emerge in the next three to five years, going far beyond the capabilities of existing global AI systems.
“I think the shelf life of the current (LLM) paradigm is fairly short, probably three to five years,” LeCun proclaimed to the Davos audience. “I think within five years, nobody in their right mind would use them anymore, at least not as the central component of an AI system. I think we’re going to see the emergence of a new paradigm for AI architectures, which may not have the limitations of current AI systems.”
These “limitations” inhibit truly intelligent behavior in machines, LeCun adds. This is down to four key reasons: a lack of understanding of the physical world; a lack of persistent memory; a lack of reasoning; and a lack of complex planning capabilities.
“LLMs really are not capable of any of this,” LeCun continued. “LLMs are good at manipulating language, but not at thinking,” LeCun said in his talk at Davos in January. “So that’s what we’re working on — having systems build mental models of the world. If the plan that we’re working on succeeds, with the timetable that we hope, within three to five years we’ll have systems that are a completely different paradigm. They may have some level of common sense. They may be able to learn how the world works from observing the world and maybe interacting with it. So there’s going to be another revolution of AI over the next few years. We may have to change the name of it, because it’s probably not going to be generative in the sense that we understand it today.”
The Large Terrestrial Model (LTM)
That other revolution which is now taking shape is a Large Terrestrial Model (LTM).
A LTM is a comprehensive data source of all terrestrial features, activity, status and behaviours. It includes all sea and terrain viewed through all spectra, the built environment and its associated digital performance characteristics and all viewable living entities and their associated correlated meta data (sourced through (IoT merged with real-time satellite imagery in all spectra.)
Coined by serial space tech investor and former RAF boss, Andrew Turner, the LTM is set to become the primary data source for all terrestrial activity, status and behaviours. Turner explains: “The LTM will be the new primary data source for how we live, think, work and socialise on the Earth. It will show where everything is, everywhere, all the time. Even more powerful will be the application of HPC/quantum processing to it which will derive patterns, generate insights and predict future activity — a global live digital twin. Whilst the LLM is front and centre now, the LTM will soon drive business and opportunity everywhere.”
The LTM is enabled by Space Aye, whose CEO, Chris Newlands believes this new data set will become a global gamechanger: “When you consider that Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data — a pin on a map — has generated over $1trillion dollars to the US economy since its launch, the significance of GPS with live satellite imagery has caused a tsunami of excitement,” said Newlands.
“AI can analyse real-time satellite imagery, it counts and classifies people, assets and vehicles. The LTM unequivocally identifies, using its unique capabilities, it’s not an exclusivity any AI company can currently boast. By merging real-time satellite imagery and IoT data, creating a new and unique training data set to power AI, which increases accuracy and reduces risks significantly, Large Terrestrial Model (LTM) when combined with Large Language Models (LLM) creates an advantage which we are primed to enable. “
Technology investors take note
There can be no disputing that 2025 has been a rollercoaster year for technology investors — and we are only in the first quarter (Q1).
First came Nvidia’s share price gyrations, and then the spectacular launch of China’s own open source artificial intelligence (AI) version, Deep Seek, which demonstrated simplicity at its core, immediately wiping out billions in share prices in the AI industry and had US investors scratching their heads on just what they had bet on. The Chinese AI startup made headlines worldwide after it topped app download charts with its latest model, DeepSeek R1, rivalling the technology developed by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in its capabilities.
“The world is changing so quickly, and the stakes are high. Take, for example, Nvidia’s stock price fluctuations,” explains Mary Campbell OBE, an International Corporate Finance Strategist.
“The dramatic swings that we have seen in Nvidia’s share price might be viewed as being extreme today, but shortly it could become the new norm. The technology giants have repeatedly stated that developing cutting-edge models such as AI is expensive, and then along comes Deep Seek, claiming to have been developed for a fraction of the investment made by the other global players and overnight it disrupts the market. Investors must now be asking themselves, are we investing in the future, or have we simply been swept up in the hype,” questioned Campbell.
“Most will know how dependent we have become on space-services’ data, but investors should note the growing opportunity from merged Earth observation and IOT data. This will be a fast-moving market with benefits in nearly every sector and one to get on early” summarised Turner.
