It’s safe to say that 2023 has been the year of artificial intelligence (AI). The hype shows no signs of slowing down, and CSIRO, Australia’s leading scientific body, thinks the same.
Top experts from CSIRO’s National Artificial Intelligence Centre (“NAIC”) revealed their top predictions for AI in the next year, and to summarise: they’re cautiously optimistic.
Here are their top AI predictions for 2024.
1. The hype dies down
Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was introduced to the world, it does seem that an overwhelming number of tech firms are pivoting to AI with breakneck speed. Think about Google’s Bard and Gemini, Microsoft’s Bing, and Meta’s slew of AI-powered products for its social media platforms.
Kedra Vant, CSIRO NAIC member, says 2024 will bring a “reality check” for AI “as businesses move from experimentation to implementation.” Toby Walsh, Chief AI Scientist at UNSW, agrees: “… we’re at the peak of inflated expectations with generative AI. Therefore, there is bound to be some deflation in 2024 as it fails to live up to all the hype.”
So, with huge computational power comes huge responsibility – which brings us to our next prediction.
2. AI’s responsible governance
AI-generated deepfakes have existed for years. However, with the widespread use of AI-powered tools, 2023 has become the year where you really have to be sceptical about everything you see online.
Thus, Keith Strier, NAIC member and Vice President of Worldwide AI Initiatives at NVIDIA, predicts that calls for responsible AI governance and AI transparency will “grow teeth”.
“… the rising adoption of large-scale AI models will lead to a shift. We’ll go from talking about global AI governance to forming dedicated bodies focused on it. This might include new agencies or institutes within and across nations,” Strier explains.
Merriam Webster’s 2023 ‘Word Of The Year’ was ‘authentic’. Close contenders included the words ‘deepfake’ and ‘dystopian’. Much to think about!
3. “New AI normal”
CSIRO projects that AI will be “everywhere, all at once”, ushering in what it describes as a “new AI normal”. In other words, AI will be present in every nook and cranny in society. It would become so deeply embedded in our everyday lives that we wouldn’t even realise.
NAIC’s Judy Slatyer has a bold prediction with regards to AI’s prevalence in our daily lives: “In 2024, hundreds of millions of people will be using the increasingly advanced features of AI in their everyday work and life. Already some 54 percent of global consumers are using AI every day and we’ll see this increase significantly next year,” she said.
“By [the] end of 2024 many of us will have an AI-enabled assistant. This will be either personalised to our individual needs or leveraging the increasingly ‘intelligent’ embedded assistants in the products and services we use every day,” she adds.
