Analysis of Five Major Trends in the AI Field for 2024: What Developments Will Artificial Intelligence See Next Year?
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In recent years, global artificial intelligence technology has developed rapidly, with increasingly widespread applications. Particularly, generative AI represented by ChatGPT has spurred innovative applications across many fields, bringing more opportunities to various industries.
As 2023 draws to a close, what developments can we expect in artificial intelligence in the new year? The Forbes biweekly website recently listed five major trends in the AI field for 2024.
Analysis of Five Major Trends in the AI Field for 2024
1. Generative AI Opens New Frontiers
Generative AI will move beyond simple chatbots and parody videos. AI systems will be capable of writing complex narratives, composing symphonies, and potentially co-authoring best-selling books. A key innovation in this field is multimodal generative AI, which can process various input information such as text, sound, melody, and visual signals, integrating them for comprehensive understanding.
In 2024, with the continuous development of multimodal technology, AI models will encounter more complex and diverse interactive scenarios, potentially opening new application spaces in areas such as smart homes, smart cities, medical diagnosis, and autonomous driving.
2. AI Becomes Humanity's "Right-Hand Man"
With the continuous advancement of technology, AI is no longer just a tool but humanity's "right-hand man." Surgeons can perform operations with the assistance of AI diagnostic results; lawyers can receive reference cases provided by AI during trials; software developers can get synchronous help from AI while writing code.
Additionally, with the surge in remote work and online education, AI will revolutionize course design and optimize virtual team dynamics. In 2024, people will enter an era of human-AI collaboration, significantly enhancing productivity and production levels.
3. Increased Focus on AI Ethics
As AI's involvement in daily life continues to rise, a series of ethical issues emerge. Ensuring the healthy, sustainable, and responsible development of AI has become a major challenge for society today.
As AI increasingly informs decision-making processes, its operations must be highly transparent and fair. The current challenge lies not only in designing fair algorithms but also in establishing rigorous standards to ensure these systems and their designers are accountable for their actions.
With 2024 approaching, experts predict a growing interest in AI ethics education and prioritizing moral considerations in AI research and development.
4. AI Legislation
While empowering socio-economic development, AI's rapid advancement also brings security risks and challenges. The impact of AI technology on legal, ethical, and humanitarian aspects, along with its complex effects on international politics, economy, military, and society, has drawn global attention. Cross-border collaboration and normative governance of AI have become particularly urgent.
AI's unprecedented development and widespread adoption across various fields have captivated tech enthusiasts and garnered close attention from global policymakers.
This year, multiple countries and regions, including the U.S., U.K., and EU, have initiated AI governance efforts and proposed their respective frameworks.
Earlier this month, 28 countries and regions, including China, the U.S., U.K., and EU, signed the Bletchley Declaration at the inaugural AI Safety Summit, agreeing to collaborate on creating an "internationally inclusive" network for frontier AI safety research to better understand AI risks and capabilities.
In October, China proposed the Global AI Governance Initiative during the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, outlining a Chinese approach to AI governance across development, safety, and regulation, offering constructive solutions for global AI governance.
As 2024 nears, major economies, including those in Europe and America, are working to develop comprehensive AI policies. For instance, the European Parliament aims to finalize the EU's AI Act by year-end or by June 2024 at the latest. On October 30, U.S. President Biden signed the country's first executive order on AI, while Senate Majority Leader Schumer hopes to prepare AI legislation within months.
These policies aim to achieve three goals: driving technological breakthroughs, attracting global investment, and protecting the public from the unchecked growth of AI. Industry discussions suggest that global collaboration on AI benchmarks and norms may soon become a reality.
5. Quantum Computing Gives Wings to AI
Entering 2024, the rise of quantum AI, born from the powerful collaboration between quantum computing and AI, will be witnessed. Quantum AI leverages the unique properties of quantum computers, such as quantum superposition and entanglement, to accelerate machine learning and optimization algorithms, enabling more efficient and accurate AI applications. It will also become a crucial direction for future AI development.
The global distribution of AI enterprises is highly uneven, primarily concentrated in a few countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, and China. The top three cities—San Francisco/Bay Area in the U.S., New York, and Beijing in China—account for 16.9%, 4.8%, and 4.0% of the global total, respectively. In terms of growth rates, the overall trend has remained upward, with a slight decline in 2015. In Europe, AI enterprises are mostly concentrated in the capitals of their respective countries. Among European cities, London has the highest number of enterprises, 3.1 times that of Paris (second place), accounting for 3.69% of the global total. The number of enterprises in Japan and South Korea is significantly lower than in China, with Tokyo comparable to Hangzhou and Seoul comparable to Chengdu. The top three cities in East Asia—Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen—account for 7.4% of the global total. Although still far behind the U.S., their global importance will become increasingly evident.
China is a major player in AI. Data shows that the core AI industry in China has reached a scale of 500 billion yuan, with over 4,300 enterprises and continuous innovation. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Chinese companies and institutions filed nearly 30,000 AI-related patents in 2022, accounting for over 40% of global AI patent applications.
As the core driving force of the new round of industrial transformation, AI has become a new focus of international competition and a new engine for economic development. Currently, AI is accelerating its deep integration with the real economy, aiding industrial transformation and upgrading. After years of sustained accumulation, China has made significant progress in the field of AI, with theories and technologies becoming increasingly mature, applications expanding, and corresponding business models evolving. AI is now rapidly integrating with various sectors of the real economy, helping industries transform, upgrade, and improve efficiency.
In the coming year, AI technology will see broader application and development across various fields. At the same time, we should closely monitor the developments in AI and take effective measures to address potential challenges. Only in this way can we ensure that AI brings greater benefits to us.