Increasing regulation, the rise of Dark AI, GenAI “Instagrams” and more big things are expected from artificial intelligence this year.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was unquestionably the biggest trend in tech last year, but 2024 could be even more significant as the hype (hopefully) dies down and the rubber finally meets the road, so to speak. DataStax, which makes tools for AI development, has made five predictions for generative AI this year based on the company’s unique position within the industry.
1. More AI regulation
Given the speed with which governments around the world moved to regulate AI—especially compared with the typically languid pace of legislation—it’s a safe bet that there will be more regulation around AI in 2024. DataStax points to regulatory moves by both the European Union and President Biden’s executive order on AI as presaging future directives, in addition to raising the possibility for grassroots demands for further regulations coming from workers displaced by AI.
2. The rise of Dark AI
While the term might conjure up visions of evil AI overlords, ‘Dark AI’ is more analogous to the dark web, i.e., benign technology being used with specifically malicious or harmful intent. DataStax points out that large language models (LLMs) could be used for anything from financial fraud to terrorism, producing highly realistic phishing emails as well as “deepfake” images and videos, not to mention all the possibilities for distributing harmful or misleading information. Interestingly, the company also takes this as evidence that LLMs will see broader adoption within cybersecurity—no doubt part of a fight-fire-with-fire strategy.
3. More major players in AI
The Sam Altman fiasco aside, OpenAI is clearly the best positioned company to be for AI what Google is for search or SAP is for enterprise software. But despite their enormous influence, these companies are not (technically) monopolies. Even if it stays on top, OpenAI will likely follow a similar path with smaller, ambitious rivals challenging its dominance in the market. DataStax predicts one to three new major players in the AI space that will be built to thrive amidst increasing regulations. The high costs of AI infrastructure suggest that these won’t come from a start-up in someone’s garage—more likely, we’ll see spinouts from already established ventures.
4. GenAI driving disruption in SMBs
It’s a safe bet that generative AI will have a disruptive effect across multiple sectors and industries this year, but this prediction takes that a step further by focusing on the disparate effects of generative AI depending on an organization’s size and development cycles. Larger enterprises are likely to experiment with AI tools in proof-of-concept projects, delaying their deployment to production. In contrast, small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are more agile by nature, and hence more likely to start using generative AI in production right away.
5. “Instagrams” of GenAI
ChatGPT is certainly popular, but it’s still too early to call it the “killer app” for AI like Instagram was for smartphones. We’re still in the early stages of separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to AI, and we’ll likely need to sort through many more applications and solutions before we determine where best to use it. For engineers, that could mean AI assistants in design software or even a new approach to engineering itself. Whatever the case, the speed at which AI adoption seems to be moving suggests that it won’t take long for generative AI’s killer app to spread quickly once it takes hold.
Some of these predictions may be more certain than others, but if even only a few come true, the impact from generative AI will be felt across the entire global supply chain.
Share your predictions for generative AI in 2024 in the comments below.
