The Year So Far in AI: The Biggest Stories from ChatGPT to Gemini and What’s Next
The generative AI explosion of recent years has shown no signs of abating in 2024. A flood of new products using large language models has hit the market, and a new feature or tool for existing services appears almost daily.
ChatGPT is more powerful and has a new voice mode, Google Gemini is popping up everywhere from Gmail to Google Drive, and even Apple has finally entered the AI (or Apple Intelligence) realm.
And then there are startups from Suno to Rabbit, who are finding innovative ways to experiment with AI models, both their own and those of the big players in the market. And many more are expected throughout the rest of the year.
Since we’re halfway through 2024, we’ve rounded up some of the most impressive, notable, and potentially infamous AI releases of the year for you to play with today. Among them, we’ve also picked out a few AI innovations that haven’t been released yet, but should be available before the end of the year…
AI in 2024: Which launches have been the most important so far this year?
ChatGPT is the standard term for the wave of generative AI products that use large language models. OpenAI hasn’t relied on that to stay ahead of the competition, however, and has been expanding its AI chatbot and associated services regularly this year.
In 2024, ChatGPT gained a Memory feature that allows it to adapt its behavior based on past interactions, plus a Read Aloud feature to convert those responses into an audio performance in 37 languages and five voices. Customization is also central to the GPT Store, launched in January, where users can build and play customized versions of ChatGPT focused on specific tasks.
Less good news was that OpenAI became embroiled in a public feud with Scarlett Johansson over the similarity of ‘Sky’s’ voice to that of the actress in the film Herand has since had to delay its planned voice mode upgrade until sometime in “the fall.” ChatGPT also had a couple of major outages in June.
Earlier this year, Google referred to Gemini only as the family of models built by Google. It wasn’t until February that Google ditched the Bard branding it had been using and collapsed all of its generative AI projects under the Gemini umbrella.
Some of these new and improved features seem aimed at catching up to ChatGPT, with image generation tools (which briefly went offline after some bizarre hallucinations) and the Gems store offering custom chatbots à la the GPT Store.
Otherwise, you’ve probably seen Gemini in all the other Google products you’ve used in recent months: it helps you write emails, annotate photos, and acts as an assistant on Android phones.
The Rabbit R1 took CES 2024 by storm in January when the pocket-sized, $200 generative AI device debuted, and the company won plaudits when it showed off what it could do with a miniature touchscreen, 360-degree camera, and an assistant powered by Perplexity AI’s large language models for real-time responses. No monthly subscription fee made it more accessible, and sales have been overwhelming.
The reality of the Rabbit R1, including variable battery life, sometimes sluggish performance, still limited features and other shortcomings, may make it more of a warning sign for future hardware, but it remains an important one and potentially worth buying for the right user.
Like the Rabbit R1, the Humane AI Pin is a wearable device that attracted a lot of attention at CES 2024. The always-on, generative AI assistant clips to your clothing and promises to provide real-time information via voice commands, as well as record and analyze your interactions and meetings throughout the day.
As might seem obvious, there were a lot of immediate concerns about privacy given the constant listening capabilities, not to mention reliability issues with speech recognition in noisy environments. Despite these drawbacks, it also sold quickly, but Humane is now reportedly looking for a buyer.
One of the biggest AI stories of the year could end up being AI music generators like Suno and Udio. Not only because both have an impressive ability to generate an acceptable melody—complete with lyrics, vocals, and instrumentation—from a simple text prompt, but also because the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is now suing both for copyright infringement.
This lawsuit could have major implications for both AI music generators and generative AI in general. It’s created a firestorm between copyright holders and startups training new AI tools on massive amounts of data – and it’ll be fascinating to see where this legal battle goes. It could accelerate the creation of a regulatory framework and associated laws to support it, but until then, Suno and Udio can keep making AI-generated music – for now.
AI in 2024: What launches can we expect for the rest of the year?
Apple Intelligence is absolutely the most anticipated set of AI features for the rest of the year. Apple’s WWDC 2024 event revealed that this “personal intelligence” system is coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Combining Apple’s own models with ChatGPT and other AI platforms (with your approval), Apple Intelligence will supercharge Siri as an assistant, with better guidance and contextual understanding.
That comes with on-screen awareness, allowing it to perform actions related to information on the screen, such as adding an address from Messages to a contact card and hundreds of other actions. The same AI helps you compose emails and messages, summarize audio files, and create and edit images with the Image Playground feature. You can even create your own original emojis with the Genmoji feature.
To use it when it launches in the US later in 2024, you’ll need an M-Series iPad or Mac, or an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max or later. That means you may need to upgrade.
Amazon has been busy on the enterprise side of generative AI, but Alexa, long the byword for voice AI assistants, has only gotten bits and pieces of the sort of AI upgrades associated with ChatGPT and others. That could change this year, but it might cost you extra.
Rumor has it that something called “Remarkable Alexa” will be released this year. It could feature generative AI capabilities, handle multiple tasks with a single command, and even place food orders.
The prospects
Generative AI is still a developing space, especially when it comes to consumer-facing products. There may be a more mature commercial ecosystem next year, but for now the race is for new features for the bigger names, while others explore new ways to use the available models. That means software subscriptions and questionable hardware – at least for now.