Unveiling the Future: Must-See AI Innovations of 2024, from ChatGPT to Google’s Gemini!

If 2023 revolved around the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its incorporation into mainstream technology discussions, 2024 transitioned into a year where AI began revealing its revolutionary capabilities. What initially started as a trend of text-based chatbots that could engage with users in a human-like manner has evolved into a driving force behind numerous significant tech products and platforms presenting practical applications. Fresh implementations of the technology were also observed in music and video creation, along with agentic abilities. Contrary to the assertions of skeptics, the AI bubble did not burst this year.

The year 2024 signified the arrival of large language models (LLMs) concentrating on enhanced reasoning, heralding the age of AI PCs (referred to as Copilot+ PCs based on Microsoft’s statements), along with the rapid expansion of the open-source AI sector. Nevertheless, these are merely a few of the principal occurrences that dominated the headlines in 2024. Let us examine the prime and most significant moments that molded the AI landscape in 2024.

OpenAI’s Year of High-Performance AI Models

OpenAI may have originated the generative AI phenomenon with its Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) architecture in late 2022, but by the conclusion of 2023, it became evident that the technology titans would not remain idle in the competition for long. Google, Microsoft, Meta, and even Amazon unveiled numerous AI models, all vying for supremacy in benchmark assessments.

OpenAI commenced the year with a significant launch of its advanced reasoning-oriented GPT-4o AI model in May, subsequently followed by the GPT-4o Mini in July. The AI organization further capped the year triumphantly with the debut of the full version of the o1 model and the highly anticipated unveiling of its text-to-video model, Sora.

Moreover, the company introduced its Advanced Voice Mode with Vision to the ChatGPT application, providing innovative avenues for user interaction with the chatbot. OpenAI also introduced its own search engine, named ChatGPT Search, which was incorporated into the chatbot platform.

However, the crowning achievement for the AI company came in the form of an alliance with Apple, resulting in the integration of ChatGPT with Apple Intelligence tools. Following this collaboration, OpenAI also rolled out a standalone application for macOS and Windows for ChatGPT.

Google’s Diverse Set of AI Offerings

Google too operated vigorously with its numerous model launches. In February, the company presented the Gemini 1.5 series of AI models, comprising the Gemini 1.5 Pro with one trillion parameters. By December, it concluded the year with the introduction of the Gemini 2.0 series, featuring the Flash model available for preview to all, along with a larger model reserved for paying subscribers.

But that was not the entirety of what the Mountain View-based tech behemoth accomplished. Google DeepMind, the AI branch of the company, rolled out the Imagen 3 image generation model, along with the Veo 2 video generation model, and offered a preview of the music generation AI model MusicLM. In addition, the tech titan presented NotebookLM, an AI utility aimed at processing extensive documents capable of creating engaging podcasts with two AI hosts.

The company also unveiled new functionalities in Gemini. It incorporated a two-way voice communication feature known as Gemini Live and embedded the Gemini AI assistant across most Google Workspace applications such as Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

Before 2024, Meta was primarily recognized for its social media platforms, but this year, the company demonstrated its capabilities by developing and launching various small language models (SLMs), many of which found their way into open-source availability.

The tech giant revealed several of its Large Language Model Meta AI (Llama) series models including 70B and 30B coding-focused models, the largest open-source model Llama 3.1 405B, alongside numerous instruct models. Nonetheless, the company’s most significant announcement was linked to the global expansion of its native chatbot Meta AI.

Meta AI was incorporated into Facebook’s Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp and was expanded to multiple regions, including India in April 2024, before becoming globally accessible by September. The AI-driven chatbot was also integrated with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, featuring real-time vision processing capabilities.

Microsoft and the Era of Copilot+ PCs

While utilizing OpenAI’s models, Microsoft successfully established a niche for AI in the PC domain. The Redmond-based tech giant swiftly expressed its ambitions when it formed a partnership with Snapdragon (and later with Intel and AMD) to introduce the AI PC category, which had a mandatory requirement — the inclusion of a physical Copilot button on the keyboard. This marked the dawn of the Copilot+ PC era, wherein the company’s native chatbot became integrated into desktops and laptops via the Windows operating system.

Extending its AI chatbot access to millions of users would generally signify success in any business strategy; however, the tech giant was not satisfied yet. In 2024, it also incorporated Copilot tools into Microsoft 365 products, adding voice and vision capabilities to the chatbot. Furthermore, it launched the AI-powered Recall feature (currently in beta) that allows PC users to pose questions to the AI regarding past device activities.

Amazon’s Role as AI Aggregator

Numerous industry analysts claimed that Amazon was tardy in joining the AI realm, and while that assessment may have merit, the company pursued a distinctive approach in 2024 to maintain relevance in the AI sphere. In relation to AI-related launches, the company did not have many conspicuous highlights. It did introduce the Rufus AI tool within the Amazon app, functioning as a shopping assistant. Additionally, it released the Titan series of AI models and an enterprise-focused video generation model.

Nonetheless, the company also discreetly took on the role of an aggregator, commencing the integration of AI models from numerous third-party sources onto its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. It also invested in unveiling AI utilities designed to enhance response efficiency and mitigate hallucinations. Amazon further upgraded its servers to manage a higher volume of AI processing.

Other Notable AI Announcements

While the spotlight shone on the major AI entities in 2024, smaller AI companies also delivered impressive advancements. Anthropic built upon its success with Claude by launching the Claude 3 series early in the year, followed by the Claude 3.5 series towards the end. The company also introduced a desktop application for Mac and Windows in beta, along with standalone apps for Android and iOS. Furthermore, its Tool Use and PDF comprehension capabilities rendered Claude a more adept chatbot in 2024.

Perplexity, the AI-driven search engine, debuted a Pro mode that offers detailed responses for intricate queries. It also launched a standalone Mac app this year. However, while there were positives, the firm’s choice to include ads even for premium subscribers faced some backlash.

Mistral consistently released fully open-source AI models even in 2024. It commenced with the rollout of the 8x22B Mixture of Experts (MoE) AI models and followed it up with the Mixtral Open 2 LLM. The company also astonished developers with the release of the Pixtral 12B AI model, which features computer vision capabilities.

AI in 2025: A Brief Outlook

While we have endeavored to encompass all the significant announcements in the AI sector in 2024, it is quite a challenge to cite every notable release given the frenzied enthusiasm for AI within the tech industry. As the year comes to a close, we anticipate 2025 to be equally eventful for this technology.

In the upcoming year, we foresee the emergence of agentic AI and its integration into various platforms and devices. Imagine requesting your chatbot to purchase a movie ticket or acquire a product at the lowest possible price, completing the task without necessitating any human intervention. That is the potential of AI agents.

Additionally, we believe the forthcoming year will witness improved execution of memory functions within chatbots, moving beyond the basic retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework. This advancement will transform chatbots into more effective assistants and companions for users. Real-time video processing may also gain broader accessibility in the upcoming year. Lastly, we anticipate that India will make significant strides in the adoption of AI by 2025.