🫢 You didn't miss the AI wave

🥳 AI Yearly Recap: Everything important

Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes

No, you didn’t miss the AI wave. Things are just getting started, so there’s no better time to jump into the world of AI than right now. Let’s catch up on all the major news from this year!

• 🔥 The Biggest AI Stories of 2024

• 🚁 The Drone Problem

• 🤦 A Wonderfully Controversial AI Ad

🗓️ Yearly AI Recap: The Biggest Stories

What happened: AI is just getting started. You haven’t missed out on the wave. If anything it’s just getting started. We’ve selected the biggest and best stories to showcase the changes this year.

The details: 

• OpenAI released GPT-o1, their reasoning model that blew away most other AI models. The ability to reason made the AI way smarter and less frustrating to use. Google quickly followed suit with their own reasoning model, only to be outdone by OpenAI’s GPT-o3 model, which was recently announced. It’ll be available to the public soon (though it might be expensive). However rumors say that OpenAI’s had numerous unexpected delays to their models, including the rumored GPT-5.

• I’m sure you’ve seen videos like this. AI video generation is officially a real thing. While there’s been limited generation and video editing before, OpenAI’s Sora is available for use right now. And it’s a game changer. If you have ChatGPT Plus, you get a limited number of videos per month. A more expensive membership gives you unlimited videos.

• Nvidia’s market value increased by over $2 Trillion, reaching a peak over $3 Trillion. They are one of the fastest growing stocks in history. The entire AI industry runs off of Nvidia’s GPUs. They’re heavily demanded by every AI player, even right now.

• The EU’s AI Act officially passed into law. This stands as a landmark for other countries, like the US, to follow. California has also been trying to pass numerous AI laws into effect. The Act promises to protect public privacy and security against dangerous AIs, but it’s unclear how well this will be executed.

• Apple integrated AI into IOS and MacOS, bringing AI features like a smarter Siri and writing assistants to the masses. While the feature list is currently limited, this marks a turning point for AI in popular culture. It is, however, a reminder that AI doesn’t magically change everyone’s life. A lot of people found the features exciting on paper, but disappointing in reality.

• AI was integrated into search engines. While OpenAI released SearchGPT to compete with Google, the search giant themselves integrated AI answers into common search results. Even for free users. I’m sure you’ve seen these already. The problem? The answers are still sometimes inaccurate or are stealing content from actual websites who need the clicks to generate revenue. Meaning small info blogs have gotten the big stick.

• The copyright battle wages on. AI vs literally everything. The music industry, film industry, and even games industry are all grappling with AI use. Writers in Hollywood went on strike, hoping to dissuade companies from replacing them with AI. They won for the moment (we’ll talk about why these strikes are doomed to fail in tomorrow’s newsletter). Big Tech likes to train their AI on a variety of sources whether they have the license to or not. Other companies like OpenAI made deals with publishers like The Financial Times and Vox Media to gain legal access to their library for training purposes, while Adobe was paying photographers money for as many photographs as they could get. Companies like Reddit make millions through AI licensing deals. Data is currency.

• But Copyright gets more complicated when artists ban together to protest AI’s use while simultaneously using AI in their songs (such as Drake using AI to resurrect Tupac in “Taylor Made Freestyle”. Tupac’s estate is suing Drake now.

• AI is unraveling our DNA, could lead to further breakthroughs. Short story: AI is helping decode our DNA and find new solutions to diseases and find new cures. Some examples: DeepMind’s AlphaFold has transformed the prediction of protein structures from amino acid sequences, aiding in the identification of genetic diseases and the development of targeted therapies. And another novel AI model, CpGPT, has been developed to analyze DNA methylation patterns, which are crucial in regulating gene expression.

• Most sectors have started to use AI, though often in limited ways. Whether it be agriculture (we’ll talk more about it soon) or Medical, everyone is starting to use AI a little bit. It’s a slow start. Most private companies are slow to pick up AI because using AI in large systemized processes would require completely re-integrating the whole system. And since AI is changing so rapidly, nobody wants to pour endless resources into that project only for the new process to be outdated within the year. But companies can’t just do nothing, they have other use AI a little bit to stay competitive. It’s a tough position to be in. The biggest leaps have been in the medical field.

• Everything is using AI as a marketing gimmick without actually improving the user experience. From IOS’s largely unsubstantial AI features, to AI features in e-readers like Kobo and Kindle. It’s even gotten a term, “AI Washing”. Basically companies all over are cashing in on the AI craze and including the terminology even if nothing special is being done with AI. Others like IOS’s features were clearly rushed out the door early to capitalize on the marketing hype. AI has serious potential, but the use cases are still expanding. Not everything needs or wants AI (yet). Hell, there’s even AI powered beauty supplies. Wow.

• Robots are still on the way, but they’re closer than ever. This year Tesla, Figure AI, and more showed off their latest robotics models. They’re currently racing to become the robot of choice for warehouses such as Amazon. Blue collar workers are, of course, scared of this. Nobody wants to get replaced. Figure AI recently tested their own machine in BWM’s factory. 

• AI is going to need nuclear power to continue advancement. The bottleneck is electricity, not GPUs or money. Microsoft is specifically trying to create partnerships with power companies to power their own AI data centers. In September 2024, Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy to purchase the entire output of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. AI data centers take an enormous amount of energy to run. Nuclear energy might be the only solution.

That should catch you up on the most important AI topics this year.

Here’s a quick glimpse at the performance of some top AI/Tech companies last year.

Credit: Google Finance

The current state of the biggest AI-related stocks throughout last year.

As of market close Jan 03, 2025.

🚁 The Drone Problem Spreads

What happened: You know those drones flying over New Jersey? They’ve been spotted in more places now. And given the recent terrorist attacks on New Years, these drones are getting people increasingly worked up.

The details:

• Drone Sightings in New Jersey: Unidentified drones were reported near sensitive sites like the Picatinny Arsenal. While these drones are obvious safety hazards for people on the ground, it also prompted FAA-imposed flight restrictions in New Jersey since November 2024.

• It Spread to Other States: Similar sightings were reported in neighboring states like New York and Pennsylvania, leading to expanded flight restrictions in 29 areas across New York.

• The Federal “Investigation”: Agencies including DHS, FBI, FAA, and DoD are “investigating”. They claim the drones are no immediate threat, while also stating they have no idea why the drones are there or who put them there.

• The lack of proper explanation has led to more conspiracy theories floating around. Combined with the recent terrorist activities and you have a melting pot for outrageous claims and public distrust.

• More towns in New Jersey have been banning drones.

Why it matters: When you combine this with the recent terror attacks, it gives conspiracy theorists a lot to work with. Who knows what the real purpose is. But these drones showcase the real potential for AI and robotics to power frightening surveillance technology. Who knows why those drones are there.

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And as expected, this created a massive shit-storm on social media.

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