We are already two months into 2024, and the AI revolution roars on unabated. What can we expect from AI in 2024?
Every country has an AI strategy
We are starting to see how different countries respond to AI, with strategies emerging from each nation. Examples inclide the United States, whose government has initiated strategy on multiple fronts from the AI Bill of Rights to specific efforts to combat misinformation. Another notable example comes from Singapore, which engaged this week in lively debate about how to invest for the AI future. Across the board, we should expect to see large investments in AI from governments as they seek to prepare their citizenry to become competitive for an AI-infused future.
Multi-Modal
This one may come across as more technical than others, but it is a critical development in AI that will affect every job and use case. While AI has always been data-dependent, AI solutions have historically been quite unimodal. What does this mean? It means that the type of AI depends a lot on the type of data – for example, AIs that dealt with tables of data were very different from the AIs that dealt with images. These technologies are now merging. For example – I can ask ChatGPT to read documents or tables of data and provide written analysis coupled with images – merging several modalities into a single seamless conversation. We can expect this trend to continue into 2024.
AI infuses Education
The impact of AI is possibly greatest in education. All aspects of education have been impacted, from how teachers conduct lessons to how students learn and how they may be evaluated in the future. While 2023 was possibly a year of shock for education, as schools scrambled to ban ChatGPT and other tools, in 2024 we will see schools, districts, and governments begin to define their strategy for educating students for an AI-powered future.
AI for Science
While much of the world’s attention has been focused on ChatGPT, Large Language Models, and the impact they have had on everyday tasks, massive advances have also been made in other domains, often by the same underlying technologies (such as transformers). For example – the same core technology that drives language models has demonstrated efficacy in AI for Science, encompassing drug discovery, climate science, agriculture, and more. In 2024, I expect to see examples of AI for Science become more prevalent and visible as more people realize the power of foundation models beyond chat applications.
Workforce changes hit home
While it was known in 2023 that AI would cause massive workforce changes, we are starting to see these changes come about in 2024. From companies claiming that a single AI chatbot can replace 700 workers, to AI-related strategy changes being used as reasoning for workforce cuts, we are seeing a change in hiring and workforce practices. This is likely to continue through 2024.
In summary
2024 promises to be another year dominated by AI. While 2023 was perhaps the first time many people started thinking about AI, 2024 will likely be the year when people realize AI and its changes are here to stay.
