Generative AI became ubiquitous in 2024, becoming a fixture in laptops, smartphones and everyday technology. With the rise of multimodal models, generative AI has broken new ground by processing text, video, images and audio and even providing output that seamlessly combines these formats.
As 2024 approaches, TechRepublic is revisiting the year’s biggest generative AI stories.
1. NVIDIA AI architecture sold out
NVIDIA was a clear winner in AI this year. The Blackwell chip, introduced in March, became the gold standard in GPU microarchitecture for processing large amounts of information. Blackwell powers AI training, research and computing for Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and xAI, among others. As of October, Blackwell chips sold out the following year, as these processors were popular purchases among companies.
In March, sales of NVIDIA’s Hopper chips helped the company reach a market cap of $2 trillion. NVIDIA became one of the three most valuable companies in the world, alongside Microsoft and Apple. AMD and Intel also provide AI accelerator chips, although their businesses have not seen the same explosive growth as NVIDIA’s.
Within the broader generative AI industry, the success of these powerful processors is just one of many ripple effects caused by the growing demand for larger, higher-density data centers.
2. OpenAI showed off its mysterious o1
Many major AI companies have moved on this year with enterprise offerings and more powerful models, as well as experimenting with new hardware. For OpenAI, rumors circulated about a ‘Strawberry’ model that would take the next step towards human intelligence. Strawberry turned out to be OpenAI o1, a “reasoning model” intended to take more time to solve thornier problems than its predecessors in the GPT-4 family.
3. The AI PC went mainstream
Technology enthusiasts can think about 2024, the year when AI became a standard feature on almost every new PC. From Apple Intelligence to Microsoft Copilot, built-in AI was present everywhere. In September 2024, Gartner predicted that AI PCs would account for 43% of all PC shipments by 2025.
However, a November article in Reuters showed that demand for PCs remained low overall – although NVIDIA’s AI processors on backorder may have limited the availability of AI PCs.
4. Has AI brought a new way of thinking about UI?
Since the debut of the Apple Store in 2008, apps have been the primary way consumers interact with smart devices. Voice assistants like Siri have added another layer of convenience, allowing users to control certain applications via voice commands. The AI industry wants the next phase to be seamless control over all aspects of a PC or phone through AI, as evidenced by Microsoft Copilot’s Computer Use feature and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Computing with Claude allows AI to translate natural language instructions into actionable commands, such as moving cursors, typing, and interacting with a computer as a human would. However, this functionality can be resource intensive. For example, performing a simple task such as opening a URL and extracting information from a website can cost as much as $0.31 in tokens.
5. Microsoft Recall was repeatedly postponed
Microsoft Recall sparked controversy from the start due to its unrestricted access between Copilot and the rest of the PC, raising security concerns. Once scheduled for a public preview in June, early access to Recall was pushed back to October and then to December. Recall was intended to be the cornerstone of Microsoft AI PCs, but Microsoft’s delays in pursuing “a secure and trusted experience” show that Recall pushed the boundaries of what consumers are willing to share with AI.
6. ChatGPT adds ‘search’ option
In October, OpenAI expanded ChatGPT with Google-like search engine functionality. ChatGPT search provides generative answers with links to external sites. Adding current information such as weather reports could give OpenAI a competitive advantage over Google Search. OpenAI has signed deals with several media outlets to license their content to appear in ChatGPT searches.
Initially, only ChatGPT Plus and Team users had access to ChatGPT searches. However, in December, the tech giant made it available to all users.
7. Apple Intelligence launched
Apple kept quiet during much of the AI race, waiting until 2024 to reveal its plans. Apple Intelligence was announced in June for newer devices. Working with OpenAI, Apple has added many standard AI capabilities, such as summarizing and rewriting. It also involves limited image creation, mostly in cartoonish styles to avoid the possibility of users creating deepfakes.
Apple Intelligence uses the technology giant’s M-series chips or the A17 Pro chip or higher. Starting in iOS 18.2, Apple devices can connect to ChatGPT to answer more complex questions to Apple Intelligence or Siri.
8. Google explored Gemini enterprise use cases
Google Gemini wasn’t a new development for 2024. However, its launch in December 2023 and the release of a smaller model, Gemma, in February, mean that most of Gemini’s public life took place this year. Google has replaced its Bard brand with the more powerful model, making Gemini available for search, mobile apps, Chromebooks and the Vertex AI cloud platform. Following the ‘agentic’ AI trend, Google released custom ‘Gems’ in August.
9. AI regulation continued to evolve
By 2024, governments have been working to regulate the use of AI. In Europe, the European Union AI law came into effect in August, outlining banned applications while attempting to provide guidance to promote innovation.
Britain created an AI insurance market to do business in the generative AI sector, and more legislation is expected next year. Britain joined the US and others in several international initiatives to standardize AI safety.
In the US:
SEE: Seven new AI research and development facilities will open across Europe from 2026 thanks to the High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking.
10. Video generation technology has come of age
Generative AI video remains imperfect, often producing creepy results with inconsistent scenes and oddly proportioned or distorted limbs. However, that hasn’t stopped companies from releasing AI video generators.
OpenAI’s Sora, first demonstrated in February, was released to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users in December. Google’s Veo is available to select Google Cloud customers. Even Canva offers AI video generation.
