"State of AI Report 2024" - The current state of AI and its future impact

A couple of days ago, a good friend sent me the State of AI report. I started reading it today, and it is packed with valuable content. You can download the report from https://www.stateof.ai/. This report was created by AI investor Nathan Benaich and Air Street Capital.

of the "State of AI Report 2024" being released, covering several dimensions:

  1. : Technological breakthroughs and their capabilities.
  2. : Business applications of AI and its impact on operations.
  3. : Regulation of AI, its economic impact, and the evolving geopolitical landscape.
  4. : Identifying and mitigating catastrophic risks that future high-capability AI systems may pose to us.
  5. : Looking ahead to the future and conducting performance evaluations to ensure the accuracy of predictions.

Today, I will first share a summary of their report. Since the entire report is quite lengthy, starting tomorrow, I will select some valuable sections for in-depth interpretation.

The main conclusions of the 2024 report are as follows:

  1. : The gap between GPT-4 and other models is narrowing. OpenAI's GPT-4 once helped the lab regain the top spot on the leaderboard, but how long this lead will last remains uncertain.

  2. : Companies are exploring ways to combine large language models (LLMs) with reinforcement learning, evolutionary algorithms, and self-improvement to unlock future autonomous intelligent applications.

  3. : These models have demonstrated potential in multi-modal research, spanning mathematics, biology, genomics, physical sciences, and neuroscience.

  4. : Despite U.S. sanctions, Chinese labs continue to build high-performance ultra-large language models (VLLMs) through stockpiles, approved hardware, smuggling, and cloud access. Meanwhile, China’s efforts to develop its domestic semiconductor industry remain chaotic.

  5. : Publicly listed companies experienced a bull market due to the AI craze, and investments in private AI companies also increased, though to a much smaller extent compared to public markets. However, there were some significant financings for generative AI companies in the U.S.

  6. : Including foundation model-building companies and startups focused on video and audio generation. However, questions about long-term sustainability remain unresolved as model costs decrease and competition intensifies.

  7. : Some AI companies, struggling to find sustainable business models and facing high costs in competing at the cutting edge, opt for pseudo-acquisitions as an exit strategy. My understanding is mainly Acqui-hiring—returning 💰 to investors and acquiring the team.

  8. : Especially after internal turmoil at OpenAI. Nevertheless, researchers continue to delve into potential vulnerabilities and misuse of models, proposing possible fixes and safety measures. (Last month, I heard some gossip about OpenAI in Silicon Valley, but it was all very peripheral and second-hand information.)

Starting tomorrow, I will share more key content.