2024 RECAP: We Were There For It

What a year. It’s truly been a wild ride for us all, and for my part I’ve throughly enjoyed being smacked every day by the barrage of AI news constantly assaulting us from all directions. I hope these breakdowns have been useful to you all in the perpetual battle to sift through all the noise and clickbait to keep a finger on the under current of this industry.

In addition to the usual headlines, this special edition simply recaps the top stories we saw in 2024…in case you needed proof of how crazy a year it has been.

In this age of short stories and shorter attention spans, it helps to know where we’ve been to have a sense of where we are going.

See you next year!

⚡️ Headlines

🤖 AI

Nvidia Completes Acquisition of Run:AI - Nvidia has finalized its acquisition of Run:AI, an Israeli startup specializing in AI workload management software, aiming to enhance its AI capabilities. [The Information]

AI Educators Are Coming to This School, and It's Part of a Trend - Schools are increasingly integrating AI educators into classrooms to assist teachers and personalize student learning experiences. [TechRadar]

Google CEO Pichai Tells Employees 'The Stakes Are High' for 2025 - Sundar Pichai emphasizes the critical importance of 2025 for Google's future, urging employees to focus on innovation and execution. [CNBC]

🦾 Emerging Tech

Banks Want In on Tether's Billions in Stablecoin Profits - Traditional banks are seeking opportunities to tap into the lucrative profits generated by Tether's stablecoin operations. [Bloomberg]

🤳 Social Media

Venezuela Fines TikTok $10 Million Over Viral Challenge Deaths - Venezuela's Supreme Court has fined TikTok $10 million, accusing the platform of failing to prevent dangerous viral challenges that allegedly led to the deaths of three children. [VOA News]

Trump Administration's Speech Policy - The Trump administration has implemented new policies affecting free speech on social media platforms, raising concerns about censorship and regulation. [The New York Times]

🔬 Research

Preference Discerning with LLM-Enhanced Generative Retrieval - Researchers propose a new paradigm for sequential recommendation systems by explicitly conditioning on user preferences, utilizing large language models to enhance personalization. [arXiv]

Unifying Generative and Dense Retrieval for Sequential Recommendation - This study introduces LIGER, a hybrid model that combines generative and dense retrieval approaches to improve efficiency and effectiveness in recommendation systems. [arXiv]

QVQ: To See the World with Wisdom - The Qwen team presents QVQ, an open-weight model for multimodal reasoning, demonstrating enhanced capabilities in visual understanding and complex problem-solving. [Qwen Blog]

ARMOR: Egocentric Perception for Humanoid Robot Collision Avoidance and Motion Planning - Introducing ARMOR, a novel egocentric perception system for humanoid robots that integrates wearable-like depth sensors to enhance spatial awareness and motion planning. [arXiv]

⚖ Legal

US Treasury Says China Stole Documents in Major Cyberattack - The U.S. Treasury Department reports that Chinese hackers accessed non-classified documents in a significant cyberattack, raising concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities. [TechCrunch]

CFTC Trial with Gemini Trust Delayed One Week - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's trial against Gemini Trust has been postponed by one week, with proceedings now set to begin on January 21. [Cointelegraph]

🎱 Random

7 Charts That Explain 2024 - An analysis of seven charts that provide insights into the key trends and events that shaped 2024. [The Information]

Robot That Watched Surgery Videos Performs with Skill of Human Doctor, Researchers Report - A robot trained by watching surgical videos has demonstrated the ability to perform procedures with the skill of a human surgeon, marking a significant advancement in medical robotics. [ScienceDaily]

🔌 We Were There For It

We Were There For It — Top AI Stories of 2024

Google’s Gemini Debacle

Google faced backlash after its Gemini AI chatbot produced racially inaccurate results, raising concerns over AI bias and product readiness.

Microsoft and Inflection's Acquihire Boom

Microsoft’s $650 million acquisition of Inflection AI set the stage for similar strategic moves in the AI industry.

Elon Musk’s Colossus Cluster

Musk’s xAI constructed a groundbreaking GPU cluster in record time, sparking industry-wide competition.

Trump’s Re-Election Impact on AI

The re-election of Donald Trump signaled potential shifts in AI regulation (to say the least), particularly around open-source initiatives and federal oversight.

Advances in Reasoning Models

OpenAI’s launch of advanced reasoning models improved AI capabilities in areas like mathematics and coding benchmarks, sparking a trend as competitors aim to keep pace.

Massive AI Funding Rounds

AI firms, led by OpenAI, secured billions in funding, showcasing investor confidence in the sector’s growth.

China’s Rapid AI Progress

Chinese research labs made impressive advances, narrowing the gap with U.S. AI development through innovative techniques.

AI Coding Assistants Gain Traction

AI-powered coding tools transformed software development, significantly enhancing developer productivity.

Revival of Robotics via AI

Breakthroughs in AI technology reignited interest and investment in robotics, driving innovation in intelligent machines.

AI-Powered Devices Disappoint

AI gadgets like Humane’s AI Pin and Rabbit’s R1 underperformed in 2024, failing to meet high consumer expectations.

 🆕 Updates

📽️ Daily Demo

🗣️ Discourse