by It’s been a little over a year since OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit the web, sparking an explosion of interest in generative AI. In the months since, tech giants including Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and others have announced or announced they are working on their own chatbots and AI generation products.
But so is 2023.
We’re interested in what we can expect from generational AI in the coming year. What kind of surprises does 2024 have in store for the tech industry – and how will generational AI affect them?
“2024 is the year it will really explode, because people will use it every day [AI],” president of technology Bob O’Donnell told Yahoo Finance.
Think PCs and smartphones running AI generation programs, and AI-powered video and audio generation platforms.
That’s not all, though. According to experts, AI generation will be more targeted. Systems like ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Copilot – formerly known as Bing Chat – are multi-functional platforms. They are basically designed to answer everyone’s questions. But they are not experts in individual fields.
In the coming year, companies will start releasing models tailored to specific tasks, rather than those intended for broad uses.
The idea is to make AI generation less of a jack of all trades and more of a master of one. Add to that the continued proliferation of more generalized AI models, and 2024 is shaping up to be another AI-dominated year.
AI generation for consumers
Although generational AI was the talk of the town in 2023, there are still many around the world who haven’t used the technology. But as generational AI continues to permeate more of the services and products we use, you can expect more people to gain access to those platforms, said Daniela Rus, director of Computer Science Labs and MIT Artificial Intelligence.
“With the big underlying models getting better, we’re really seeing the democratization of AI and machine learning,” Rus told Yahoo Finance.
“We really see that a lot of people who have access to a phone or a computer now are able to take advantage of what the technologies can do for them. And so, I see more people using the tools for their own personal purposes,” she said.
One way humans will gain access to AI’s generative capabilities is through new consumer hardware equipped with AI chips.
“PCs with AI equipment will be launched in 2024; Personal computers can do some of the work that we have traditionally had to do in the cloud, on a device, and that will do very interesting things,” explained Ó Domhnaill.
Google is already taking such steps. In October, the company launched its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones. The devices, which run on Google’s custom Tensor G3 chip, have powerful AI capabilities, including the ability to transform photos, remove background audio from videos, and generate wallpapers.
In the coming year, companies from HP and Dell to Lenovo and maybe even Apple should start integrating new AI functionalities into their devices.
AI gets more specialized
AI platforms like ChatGPT are designed to be multi-purpose systems. Ask him a question about the 1997 New York Jets, and he’ll blurt out an answer. Want to write a poem about leftover lasagna? He will do that too.
But 2024 will bring more specialized AI generation platforms focused on specific subjects and projects.
“I think we’ll see … things that are less general,” explained University of Maryland computer science professor Hal Daumé III.
“My nose would say go where the details are, because all these models are super hungry. So… if I had to make a prediction, I would start thinking about what other places we have a huge amount of data,” Daumé added.
The types of specialized AI generation applications designed to help improve weather forecasts, cyber security services and medical research could include platforms.
Meanwhile, chip competition heats up
Nvidia (NVDA) is currently the most important chip company in the world. Not only does it develop the AI accelerators that power some of the world’s largest AI systems, the firm also provides the software needed to develop them.
But Nvidia doesn’t have enough chips to go around, so tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and others are developing and using their own custom AI chips. And while that might not eat into Nvidia’s bottom line, increased competition from rivals AMD ( AMD ) and Intel ( INTC ) could.
“We’re seeing a lot of other semiconductor companies… going after Nvidia,” O’Donnell said. “And the truth is, the market is looking for more competition. He always does, right?”
AMD and Intel aren’t the only ones setting their sights on Nvidia, however. Qualcomm (QCOM), known for its mobile chips, is also angling to become a bigger presence in the AI space.
Simply put: if you thought generational AI was huge in 2023, generational AI in 2024 could blow you away.
Daniel Hawley He is the technology editor at Yahoo Finance. He has been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @Daniel Howley.
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