2024 RECAP

The biggest developments in AI this year

Read Time: Under 4 Minutes

It’s been two years since ChatGPT made waves and sparked the AI revolution. While the first year centered around OpenAI's dominance, 2024 marked the rise of competitors catching up—and even surpassing OpenAI in certain areas.

This year saw AI audio gain mainstream traction, video technology reach new heights, and open-source emerge as a formidable alternative. There’s much to recap, so today’s focus is a roundup of the most significant AI milestones of 2024. Plus, check out our list of the Top AI Apps of the year in today’s email.

BIGGEST DEVELOPMENTS:

OpenAI Faces Growing Competition
The days of OpenAI dominating the AI scene are behind us. Challengers like Anthropic and Alphabet are catching up fast, with Alphabet’s Gemini model outperforming OpenAI on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude has built a strong user base, favored for its capabilities in writing and coding tasks.

OpenAI Fights Back with New Advances
Despite the competition, OpenAI remains a formidable force. In 2024, it unveiled two groundbreaking reasoning models. The o1 model, launched in September, excels at solving intricate scientific and mathematical problems. But it’s the o3 model, introduced just days ago, that truly stands out. It dominates benchmarks, achieving a remarkable 96.7% on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), reinforcing reasoning as the next frontier in AI development.

Open-Source Models Close the Gap
This year marked significant progress for open-source AI. Models like Meta’s Llama series and Mistral have narrowed the performance gap with proprietary systems. Llama 3.1 demonstrated major improvements over GPT-4, and the upcoming Llama 4 promises to bring open-source even closer to parity with closed models.

xAI Emerges as a Major Contender
Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, has made waves with its rapid progress. Musk secured billions in funding and built a 100,000-GPU cluster in just 19 days—a remarkable engineering feat. xAI is gearing up to release a cutting-edge model that could rival OpenAI’s best, leveraging data from Musk’s other companies. With deep pockets and bold strategies, xAI is quickly establishing itself as a key player.

AI Video and Audio Go Mainstream
Just two years ago, AI struggled to create convincing images. In 2024, high-quality video and audio generation are now reality. OpenAI’s Sora enables users to create realistic videos from text prompts, while Alphabet’s Veo-2 pushes the envelope with 4K resolution and smoother motion. On the audio front, ElevenLabs and NotebookLM are making waves with innovations like realistic voice synthesis and AI-generated podcasts, winning over users with practical applications.

AI Revolutionizes Coding and Marketing
This year, coding and marketing became the standout applications for AI. In coding, Cursor emerged as a breakout favorite among developers and engineers, with Vercel’s v0 following closely behind. On the marketing front, tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Canva AI solidified their roles as must-haves in tech stacks.

AI Shakes Up Search
Alphabet’s Search, long the dominant force online, now faces a serious challenge from AI. Perplexity has become a consumer favorite since ChatGPT, replacing endless links with concise, accurate answers. Not to be left behind, OpenAI launched Search in ChatGPT, integrating live search results directly into the chat experience.

AI Integrates Seamlessly with Devices
AI is becoming more user-friendly than ever. OpenAI and Anthropic released desktop apps for ChatGPT and Claude, bringing these chatbots to Windows and Mac. Meanwhile, Meta introduced AI features to WhatsApp and Instagram, and Apple and Samsung upgraded their mobile devices with advanced AI capabilities. New features like Artifacts have also been a hit in the Claude web app.

Agents Begin to Deliver on Their Potential
Agents—autonomous software powered by large language models—are starting to fulfill their promise. These programs can perform complex tasks, like ordering food or sending emails, on behalf of users. Early demonstrations from OpenAI, Alphabet, and Anthropic show great potential, and agentic tools like Lindy are quickly gaining popularity.

PRODUCTIVITY

The Best AI Apps of 2024

• Perplexity: A smart AI search assistant that simplifies research by summarizing information from multiple sources into concise, insightful answers.

• Claude: A versatile conversational AI that excels in context understanding, delivering detailed responses and assisting with tasks like email drafting and code review.

• ChatGPT: A cutting-edge AI chatbot designed to generate human-like text, boosting creativity and productivity across various applications.

• Cursor: An intelligent coding assistant that streamlines development by providing smart suggestions and real-time debugging support.

• ElevenLabs: A voice synthesis platform that creates lifelike speech from text, ideal for audiobooks, virtual assistants, and more.

• HeyGen: A tool for generating personalized video content from text prompts, enabling users to craft engaging videos without advanced editing skills.

• Gamma: An AI-powered platform for creating eye-catching presentations and visuals, turning ideas into polished content with ease.

• Suno: A music generation AI that composes unique tracks tailored to user preferences, accommodating a variety of musical genres.

• Midjourney: An AI art generator that converts text descriptions into breathtaking digital artwork, redefining creative possibilities.

• NotebookLM: A smart note-taking app that organizes and summarizes information, enhancing knowledge retention and study efficiency.

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