Super Intelligence

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) got more intelligent and smarter in 2024 even as the war in the generative AI space got shriller with key players not only competing with one another with new offer­ings but also trading charges in widely covered public spats. The year also saw adoption of AI by corpora­tions accelerating dramatically compared with 2023, driven by both technological improvements and economic pressures. While many corporations were experimenting with AI in 2023, this year witnessed a shift towards enterprise-wide integration. Key industries—such as finance, manufacturing, and retail—have adopted AI not just as a tool for automation but as a strategic asset for decision-making and growth.

Sam Altman-led OpenAI, which made waves in the AI space since the launch in November 2022 of its ChatGPT generative AI app, took multiple strides ahead this year with the launch in May of its new app called GPT-4o (where o stands for omni). Others tirelessly competed to either outrun or keep pace with OpenAI— and that includes Elon Musk-owned xAI which recently made its Grok generative AI chatbot available for free for X users.

When this writer checked out the latest version of GPT-4o and compared it with ChatGPT-4 Turbo, the app that the San Fran­cisco, California-based AI company launched in 2023, there were striking improvements in content generation. According to an OpenAI blog, as measured on traditional benchmarks, GPT-4o achieves GPT-4 Turbo-level performance on text, reasoning, and coding intelligence, while setting new high standards on multi­lingual, audio and visual capabilities.

Besides text and images, Open AI has now moved aggressively into the video space in the face of rivalry from tech majors. It an­nounced as recently as December 10 on X (formerly Twitter), “Since previewing Sora in February, we’ve been building Sora Turbo—a significantly faster version of the model to put in your hands. We’re releasing it today as a standalone product to Plus and Pro users.” ‘Plus’ and ‘Pro’ here stand for ChatGPT Plus and Chat­GPT Pro users. According to OpenAI, Sora Turbo is an improve­ment on the original Sora app as it allows for faster video creation, higher quality videos and a host of video-editing features, which enable users to clip and create video sequences, and to change ele­ments in a video while preserving other parts of the video.

It is not that OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, had a cake­walk to fame and glory in the generative AI segment since Novem­ber 2022. Musk, Altman’s former mentor of sorts and co-founder, had revived a legal case against the former for going back on the original intent of founding OpenAI and instead “prioritising prof­it over safety”. Musk had also attacked Altman for monopolising the generative AI sector and for allowing leftwing propaganda on ChatGPT. Altman, for his part, hit out against Musk by sharing screenshots of answers for prompts for who should be the next US president by ChatGPT and Grok. While ChatGPT did not pick a name, Grok chose Kamala Harris, the opponent of President-elect Donald Trump backed by Musk. Altman asked on November 16 in a post on X, mocking Musk, “Which one is supposed to be the leftwing propaganda machine again?”

Indeed, several reports point to massive investment this year by businesses in AI adoption, especially generative AI. A mid-year PwC report titled ‘Productivity or pioneering? Your industry’s GenAI adoption play’ suggests varying levels of impact potential for industries from GenAI adoption. “There will, of course, also be plenty of variability among organisations, which is reflected in the range of potential operating margin uplift per sector.” It adds, “Unsurprisingly, we expect organisations in the tech industry to see the highest gains in the form of a potential 19 percentage-point uplift in operating margin on average. Within these organisations, GenAI can expand margins by, for example, speeding software de­velopment—responsible for as much as 20% of their costs—in numerous ways, including by assisting developers with coding, creating technical documentation, and extracting data features.”

The PwC study done worldwide maintains that CEOs recog­nise both the threat and opportunity, with 70 per cent saying they see generative AI impacting their business model in the next three years—a number that increases to 89 per cent among those at organisations who’ve already put the technology to work. “This suggests that seeing GenAI in action clearly demonstrates its transformative potential,” the report adds.

It is this transformative potential of generative AI that has attracted IT behemoths to it, especially after OpenAI took the world by storm in late-2022. AI has further undergone trans­formative developments in 2024, reshaping industries, redefining corporate strategies, and acceler­ating adoption on a scale previ­ously unseen. Compared to 2023, the advancements in technology, regulatory frameworks and corpo­rate use cases have established AI as a cornerstone of innovation and operational efficiency.

Which is why we saw large lan­guage models (LLMs) or automated chatbots, which were already influ­ential in 2023, becoming even more powerful, versatile and integrated this year. Innovations in multi­modal models—which can process text, images, video, and audio seam­lessly—have broadened the scope of AI applications. According to a few pundits, these models now achieve near-human levels of understand­ing and creativity, enabling them to perform tasks that were once the domain of specialised experts. In fact, a study sponsored by Micro­soft that surveyed more than 4,000 business leaders across the world said generative AI usage jumped from 55 per cent in 2023 to 75 per cent in 2024. It added that for every $1 a company invests in genera­tive AI, the return on investment (RoI) is $3.7, and top leaders using generative AI are realising an RoI of $10.3. According to the report, on average, AI deployments are taking less than eight months and organisations are realising value within 13 months.

Which explains why none other than Google, which missed out being the leader of the generative AI era and had been sluggish in its response to the boom initially, launched its Gemini 1.5 in February 2024, an updated version of its Gemini LLM. Similarly, Nvidia, IBM, Amazon and several others do not want to miss the bus. New launches highlight a trend of models being tailored for specific applications, such as enterprise tasks, multimodal func­tionality and language translation, pushing AI into broader, more specialised corporate use cases.

Perovskite solar cells have proved to be a likely boon. Perovskites are a family of materials that have shown potential for high-performance and low-production costs in solar cells

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I N 2023, CONCERNS around ethical AI use, data privacy and transparency were growing, but 2024 marked a turn­ing point with the implementation of certain regulations. Governments and international bodies introduced policies that balance innovation with accountability. The European Union’s AI Act, for instance, set strict guidelines on high-risk AI applica­tions while encouraging ethical innovation. In parallel, industry consortia established standards for AI deployment, promoting interoperability and fairness.

In 2023, AI applications in finance focused on fraud detection and customer support. By 2024, the use of AI has expanded to pre­dictive analytics, dynamic portfolio management and regulatory compliance. Generative AI models are now used to draft complex financial reports, accelerating workflows and reducing errors.

Let’s take a look at manufacturing: AI-powered robots and pre­dictive maintenance systems have become standard in manufac­turing plants. Compared with 2023, these systems are now more autonomous and capable of adapting to changing production re­quirements without human intervention. This has, according to reports, led to significant cost savings and enhanced productivity. Again, retailers have leveraged AI to enhance personalisation and supply-chain management. In 2024, real-time demand forecast­ing and hyper-targeted marketing campaigns driven by AI have become more precise, increasing customer satisfaction and sales.

In fact, one notable aspect of corporate AI adoption in 2024 is its impact on the workforce. In 2023, concerns about job displace­ment were prominent. However, by 2024, corporations claim they have increasingly focused on reskilling and upskilling initiatives to prepare employees for AI-enhanced roles. In that sense, AI is now viewed less as a threat and more as a collaborator that augments human capabilities. For example, customer-service representatives use AI-driven chatbots as support tools, allowing them to handle more complex queries while routine tasks are automated.

Despite these advancements, challenges remain, say analysts. Issues such as algorithmic bias, data security and the digital divide continue to require attention. In 2024, corporations are under greater scrutiny to ensure their AI deployments are fair, transpar­ent and inclusive. Moreover, the rapid pace of AI development has highlighted the need for ongoing ethical dialogue and governance.

As many technology insiders predicted, the overall evolu­tion of AI in 2024 represents a quantum leap from its status in 2023. Technological breakthroughs, coupled with enhanced regulatory frameworks, have enabled corporations to adopt AI at unprecedented levels. As businesses continue to integrate AI into their core operations, the focus has shifted from experimenta­tion to optimisation. While challenges persist, the transformative potential of AI to drive innovation, efficiency and ethical progress is undeniable. The year 2024 stands as a landmark moment in the journey of AI, reshaping industries and societies alike.

Alongside this, the world of technology witnessed rapid advances in electric vehicles steered by Tesla and several Chinese companies. In the field of energy efficiency, much to the delight of countries with high populations, Perovskite solar cells have proved to be a likely boon. Perovskites are a family of materials that have shown potential for high-performance and low-produc­tion costs in solar cells, according to the official website of the US Department of Energy.

Now, on the flipside, there have been greater challenges in cyber safety, and in battling AI-generated deepfakes and environ­mental damage. In total however, as the year draws to a close, it appears there is a lot to cheer about new trends in technology notwithstanding worries as the world braces for Agentic AI, the new generation of AI that can apparently perform com­plex tasks autonomously, adapt and learn from its experiences.

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