2024 wasn’t an earth-shaking yr for brand spanking new tech merchandise, nevertheless it was important relating to the tech business’s affect on society and vice versa.
Tech titans had a big effect on the 2024 election, beginning with Elon Musk, whose internet value exceeds $400 billion because of his work and investments at a number of tech firms, together with Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity and Neurolink. He’s additionally the proprietor of Twitter, however that subtracted from his monetary internet value whereas rising his political clout. Though you possibly can’t level to at least one factor that turned the election, Musk’s endorsement and monetary assist had been a serious boon to the Trump marketing campaign.
Musk wasn’t the one tech billionaire to endorse the president-elect. Regardless of Silicon Valley’s liberal custom, a lot of different tech moguls did their share, together with Oracle founder Larry Ellison, PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, and Netscape creator and enterprise capitalist Marc Andreessen. Tech’s cozy relationship with the brand new administration didn’t finish on Nov. 5. Since then, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. Vice President-elect JD Vance, along with being a best-selling creator, headed up a enterprise capital agency that invested in tech firms. On multiple event, Vance visited Silicon Valley to lift funds for the Trump-Vance ticket.
Australian legislation
There has additionally been laws round tech, together with a lately handed Australian legislation that may ban social media for anybody beneath 16. There have been quite a few state legal guidelines launched within the U.S. round regulating synthetic intelligence. Although it’s nonetheless not a legislation, the bipartisan Youngsters On-line Security Act handed the Senate 91-3. The European Union handed an act regulating AI.
Product bulletins
Although it’s not clear when it’ll ship, Meta introduced its Orion AR Glasses, the corporate’s first true augmented actuality glasses that characteristic holographic shows that may superimpose computer-generated photos over what you’re seeing within the bodily world. Utilizing AI, they’ll additionally interpret and clarify what you’re seeing. These glasses are in all probability nonetheless just a few years away, however Meta has had success this yr with its present era Ray-Ban | Meta Sensible Glasses. The glasses don’t have a wise show, however they play music, allow telephone calls, learn out textual content messages and describe what you’re taking a look at, which they see via a digital camera on the frames. It’s too early to say for positive, nevertheless it’s fairly attainable that future iterations of sensible glasses will substitute smartphones for many individuals, placing Meta in place to finally compete with Apple, which dominates the U.S. smartphone market.
We’re additionally seeing development within the sensible ring class. Oura Ring, which popularized the class, got here out with its new Oura Ring 4 in 2024. Ringconn, one other smart-ring maker, additionally up to date its providing, however 2024 can be the yr {that a} main firm, Samsung, entered the market. It’s too early to inform whether or not sensible rings will get as a lot traction as sensible watches, however they do a number of the identical duties, particularly for well being and health, equivalent to coronary heart fee and blood oxygen sensing.
Meta additionally has its Quest VR headset, however now Apple is in that house with its 2024 introduction of the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, a really costly VR/AR headset that Apple payments as “spatial computing.”
Generative AI
Generative AI was the massive story final yr, however there have been numerous new developments in 2024,
Each Apple and Google made their annual smartphone and watch bulletins this fall. Apple’s new iPhone 16 Sequence contains superior AI-powered options equivalent to Picture Playground for picture and video modifying and options that, in line with Apple, assist you “write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly.” Apple does the processing on the telephone itself, and never the cloud, which is fairly superb contemplating that telephones have restricted reminiscence, storage and processing energy in contrast with cloud-based programs.
Google’s 2024 Sequence 9 telephones have the corporate’s Gemini AI in-built. Now you can interact in a dialog along with your telephone with it understanding context. For instance, you can say “how old is Tom Cruise,” and after you get the reply ask, “where was he born.” This contextual dialog mode is exhibiting up in lots of AI merchandise, together with fashionable Generative AI providers equivalent to ChatGPT.
Microsoft has additionally built-in AI into its Home windows working system, and Apple Intelligence is now constructed into MacOS. Google, along with constructing AI into its {hardware}, launched Google Gemini Superior, which, once you ask it what’s does, says it’s “designed to excel at complex tasks like logical reasoning, coding, following intricate instructions, and creative collaboration.”
The information isn’t solely good for tech. There was backlash in 2024 that features layoffs at many tech firms (together with some rehiring after the 2023 layoffs), international anti-trust actions in opposition to massive tech, together with Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, and elevated considerations about psychological well being and well-being on social media and different tech merchandise.
Glad New 12 months
I’m not a fortune teller, however I’m fairly positive 2025 will deliver numerous new developments to tech, together with additional integration of AI into on a regular basis merchandise. It is going to even be a tumultuous yr as the brand new administration takes over with numerous seemingly tech bulletins, particularly given the connection between the incoming president and tech billionaires together with Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and others. We’ll see an elevated curiosity in cryptocurrency, AI regulation and a revisiting of rebates and subsidies of energy-saving tech.
No matter comes, I’m wishing you a contented, wholesome and calm new yr.
Larry Magid is a tech journalist and web security activist. Contact him at larry@larrymagid.com.
Initially Printed:
