Rewind 2023: From chatbots to deepfakes, AI was THE defining tech. How will it shape up in 2024?

In a year marked by political challenges and economic uncertainties, one technological force emerged as a focal point, capturing attention and evoking both wonder and concern: Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI made a notable entrance onto the global stage in 2022, it truly became mainstream in 2023, pushing the boundaries of reality and prompting essential discussions about its future. The rise of AI generators and chatbots ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that launched in late 2022, truly exploded in 2023. Its wit, humour, and ability to create different creative formats catapulted it into the limelight, making “AI” a household term. Rivals like Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chatbot entered the fray, igniting a global race to develop the most powerful language AI. But AI’s talents weren’t limited to words. Tools like DALL-E 2 and Midjourney blurred the lines between reality and digital creation, conjuring photorealistic images from mere text descriptions. While these visuals dazzled the world, they also raised concerns about the authenticity of everything that we see and the potential for deepfakes to wreak havoc. Both, text-based AI bots like ChatGPT and image generators like DALL-E 2 gave us a glimpse of what it means to be employed in the times of AI. How can one forget the two worker strikes that left an indelible mark on the world? The two strikes, one by the SAG-AFTRA and one by the writers’ body, Writers Guild of America — not only did these two protests bring the world’s largest entertainment industry to a grinding halt — but also showed us what the future looks for people in the creative industries, as corporations focus more and more on profits, over originality. AI in the real world: Pushing humanity to its doomsday Some of the most prominent experts of AI, distinguished engineers and scientists, issued cautionary alerts, expressing apprehensions about the unbridled advancement of technology potentially surpassing human intelligence and posing a threat to human existence. Simultaneously, other scientists dismissed these concerns as exaggerated and redirected attention to more pressing immediate risks like misinformation and deepfakes. Beyond the hype, hysteria and everything in between, AI made significant strides in practical applications. Microsoft’s Bing Chat and Copilot showcased advancements in AI assistants, seamlessly integrating with search and productivity tools. In healthcare, AI models surpassed human performance in analyzing medical scans and answering complex medical questions, paving the way for personalized medicine and improved diagnostics. Even cybersecurity benefited with AI-powered tools becoming adept at thwarting sophisticated ransomware attacks. Concerns about bias, misinformation, AI models hallucinating, and the potential misuse of these powerful models led to calls for responsible AI development and stricter regulations. The year ended with a double whammy of AI crises: the near-collapse of OpenAI, ChatGPT’s creator, due to the turmoil surrounding its CEO, Sam Altman, and the European Union’s arduous struggle to craft the world’s first major AI legal safeguards. It all started with the fiasco over deepfakes. If bias in AI and misinformation was a major concern, deepfakes exasperated the problem, manifold. While several AI-generated photos, like the one with Pope Francis as a fashionista were made for fun, deepfake images and videos, in general, caused a lot of trouble. The year started with fake photos of former US President Donald Trump fleeing the police and getting arrested. Then, the world moved on to creating deepfake images of women, clothed scantily, or in very compromising positions. Revenge porn took on a whole new dimension. While fake images and videos have always been a problem, especially in a country like India, the deepfakes of Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt, and Kajol took things to a whole new level. Even industrialists like Ratan Tata, and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi weren’t spared, whose deepfakes were used in massive financial scams and charged political campaigns. Deepfakes further complicated the task of distinguishing between authentic and manipulated war footage, particularly in war zones like Ukraine and Gaza, and more evidently in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The business side of AI: more than money-minting devices There is big money in AI. After all, it was because of AI that NVIDIA transformed from a GPU-making company to an AI chip-making one, and abandoned gamers in the process. Because of AI, NVIDIA was valued at over $1 trillion, back in May. And although the valuation has slipped since then, NVIDIA has recorded a staggering 230% growth in value this year, according to an analysis by The Motley Fool, and has a very good chance of hitting the $1000-a-share mark in 2024. However, things weren’t all rosy. As the year drew to a close, the crises in the field of AI took a turn, directly impacting ChatGPT’s creator, the San Francisco startup OpenAI. The company faced imminent peril due to an internal conflict surrounding its charismatic CEO, Sam Altman, and the OpenAI board. Although that situation ended pretty amicably and did not turn into another Twitter-esque fiasco, it showed just how easy it was to dishevel the world’s most prominent AI company, and in fact the entire industry. Legislation, or rather to attempt to legislate AI also saw some developments. In the EU, political leaders from various European Union nations took days of intense negotiations to unveil a groundbreaking deal — the world’s first significant legal safeguards for AI. Although the new AI law is slated to take effect in 2025, other legislative bodies, including the likes of India and the US, remain far from enacting their own measures. An AI future, foreseen As 2023 solidified AI’s transformative role, attention turns to 2024. Integration with other technologies like IoT, blockchain, and Web 4.0 is likely to create powerful new ecosystems. There is also an emphasis on ethics and responsibility aims to address bias, ensure transparency, and prevent misuse for the benefit of everyone. As we move forward, democratizing AI to make powerful tools accessible to smaller businesses and individuals will foster broader innovation and applications. The year 2023 taught crucial lessons about the need for responsible development and ethical considerations in AI. In 2024, the focus will be on living with AI, developing it meaningfully, and ensuring its benevolent use. The journey of AI is just beginning, and the lessons learned in 2023 will guide us through the exciting yet challenging path ahead. One thing is clear: the future belongs to those who can harness the power of AI responsibly and wisely. 2023 has solidified AI’s place as a transformative force, but it also served as a stark reminder of the need for responsible development and ethical guardrails.