What things in the world are increasing at the fastest rate?

Suicide rates increased 30% from 2000 to 2016 [1]

Depression among teenagers increased 59% from 2007 to 2017 [2]

Income inequality in the US is at its highest point in 50 years. [3]

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db309.htm

[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/12/a-growing-n...

[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-abo...

It probably peaked now, but smartphone adoption rate must have been enormous in the last 15 years.

Available CPU/GPU power increased a lot - mostly following Moore's law.

For extremely high growth percentages super-popular apps like TikTok might win.

Tropospheric R-134a has grown faster than the S&P 500. (It's a early-stage startup pollutant, which IPO'd relatively recently, after the Montreal Protocol).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane

People coming to grips that drastic things actually need to be done now to fight climate count.

At the meta level there has been science and policy activity around these "positive tipping points towards sustainability" as well.

Smartphone use: https://leftronic.com/blog/smartphone-usage-statistics/

More and more people being useless attention seekers? :D

But seriously and on topic, we kind of forgot a lot of real-life meat-space skills so I'd say "ignorance of the physical world". I am willing to work a bit harder so I don't worry about money and then work on regaining those skills.

Amount of energy or power storage obtainable (which are not the same) per unit of currency.

- Militarisation. Countries are spending a lot of defence.

- The move towards reverting globalisation(with rising unemployment, countries are looking inwards)

- Inflation (this is not going to end in the near future; inflation is the result of quantitative easing that was done multiple times. Here is a good explanation of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_nGEj8wIP0)

- Differences among citizens of different countries are becoming prominent (the reason is the same as point #2 above)

USD money supply

Average world wide temperature.

Quantum Computers are still early but rapidly improving.

Progress also seems to be steady in the pursuit of room temperature super conductors. The temperature at which we're able to achieve superconductivity keeps getting higher.

You mentioned AI. That's probably the best bet.

* Used bicycle prices. Seriously people, a barely functioning bike from the 90 (vintage) is not worth $300.

* Skiing related cost (lodging, traveling, food).

Internet adoption/availability.

Information exchange per second.

Addiction to digital content, video games, television, or apps.

Depression in teens and young adults.

Inflation.

ADHD diagnosis in adulthood.

SEO spam.

Total copies of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequence in existence.

Data transmission and creation

Delivery of consumer goods