December 30, 2024 7:00 AM EST
In 2024, both cutting-edge technology and the companies controlling it grew increasingly powerful, provoking euphoric wonderment and existential dread. Companies like Nvidia and Alphabet soared in value, fueled by expectations that artificial intelligence (AI) will become a cornerstone of modern life. While those grand visions are still far into the future, tech undeniably shaped markets, warfare, elections, climate, and daily life this year.
Perhaps technology’s biggest impact this year was on the global economy. The so-called Magnificent Seven—the stocks of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—thrived in large part because of the AI boom, propelling the S&P 500 to new highs. Nvidia, which designs the computer chips powering many AI systems, led the way, with its stock nearly tripling in price. These profits spurred an arms race in AI infrastructure, with companies constructing enormous factories and data centers—which in turn drew criticism from environmentalists about their energy consumption. Some market watchers also expressed concern about the increasing dependence of the global economy on a handful of companies, and the potential impacts if they prove unable to fulfill their massive promises. But as of early December, the value of these companies showed no sign of letting up.
Though not with the explosive novelty of ChatGPT’s 2023 breakthrough, generative AI systems advanced over the past 12 months: Google’s DeepMind achieved silver-medal results at a prestigious math competition; Google’s NotebookLM impressed users with its ability to turn written notes into succinct podcasts; ChatGPT passed a Stanford-administered Turing test; Apple integrated new artificial intelligence tools into its newest iPhone. Beyond personal devices, AI played a pivotal role in forecasting hurricanes and powering growing fleets of driverless cars across China and San Francisco.
A more dangerous side of AI, however, also came into view. AI tools, created by companies like Palantir and Clearview, proved central to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in their ability to identify foreign troops and targets to bomb. AI was integrated into drones, surveillance systems, and cybersecurity. Generative AI also infiltrated 2024’s many elections. South Asian candidates flooded social media with AI-generated content. Russian state actors used deepfaked text, images, audio, and video to spread disinformation in the U.S. and amplify fears around immigration. After President-elect Donald Trump reposted an AI-generated image of Taylor Swift endorsing him on the campaign trail, the pop star responded with an Instagram post about her “fears around AI” and an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris instead.
Read More: How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War Lab
Swift’s fears were shared by many of her young fans, who are coming of age in a generation that seems to be bearing the brunt of technology’s harms. This year, hand-wringing about the impact of social media on mental health came to a head with Jonathan Haidt’s best seller The Anxious Generation, which drew a direct link between smartphones and a rise in teen depression. (Some scientists have disputed this correlation.) Social media platforms scrambled to address the issue with their own fixes: Instagram, for instance, set new guardrails for teen users.
But many parents, lawmakers, and regulators argued that these platforms weren’t doing enough on their own to protect children, and took action. New Mexico’s attorney general sued Snap Inc., accusing Snapchat of facilitating child sexual exploitation through its algorithm. Dozens of states moved forward with a lawsuit against Meta, accusing it of inducing young children and teenagers into addictive social media use. In July, the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which puts the onus on social media companies to prevent harm. Most tech companies are fighting the bill, which has yet to pass the House.
The potential harms around generative AI and children are mostly still unknown. But in February, a teenager died by suicide after becoming obsessed with a Character.AI chatbot modeled after Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. (The company called the situation "tragic" and told the New York Times that it was adding safety features.) Regulators were also wary of the centralization that comes with tech, arguing that its concentration can lead to health crises, rampant misinformation, and vulnerable points of global failure. They point to the Crowdstrike outage—which grounded airplanes and shut down banks across the world—and the Ticketmaster breach, in which the data of over 500 million users was compromised.
President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring its Chinese owner to sell TikTok or be banned in the U.S. French authorities arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, accusing him of refusing to cooperate in their efforts to stop the spread of child porn, drugs, and money laundering on the platform. Antitrust actions also increased worldwide. In the U.S., Biden officials embarked on several aggressive lawsuits to break up Google’s and Apple’s empires. A U.K. watchdog accused Google of wielding anticompetitive practices to dominate the online ad market. India also proposed an antitrust law, drawing fierce rebukes from tech lobbyists.
But the tech industry may face less pressure next year, thanks in part to the effort of the world’s richest man: Elon Musk, whose net worth ballooned by more than $100 billion over the past year. Musk weathered many battles on many frontiers. Tesla failed to deliver its long-awaited self-driving cars, agitating investors. X was briefly banned in Brazil after a judge accused the platform of allowing disinformation to flourish. In the U.S., watchdogs accused Musk of facilitating hate speech and disinformation on X, and of blatantly using a major public platform to put his finger on the scale for his preferred candidate, Donald Trump. Musk’s companies face at least 20 investigations, from all corners of government.
Read More: How Elon Musk Became a Kingmaker
But Musk scored victories by launching and catching a SpaceX rocket and implanting the first Neuralink chip into a paralyzed patient’s brain. And in the November election, his alliance with Trump paid off. Musk is now a prominent figure in Trump’s transition team, and tipped to head up a new government agency that aims to slash government spending by $2 trillion. And while the owner of Tesla must navigate Trump’s stated opposition to EVs, he is positioned to use his new perch to influence the future of AI. While Musk warns the public about AI’s existential risk, he is also racing to build a more powerful chatbot than ChatGPT, which was built by his rival Sam Altman. Altman’s OpenAI endured many criticisms over safety this year but nevertheless raised a massive $6.6 billion in October.
Is the growing power of tech titans like Musk and Altman good for the world? In 2024, they spent much of their time furiously building while criticizing regulators for standing in their way. Their creations, as well as those of other tech gurus, provided plenty of evidence both of the good that can arise from their projects, and the overwhelming risks and harms.
