Five key questions that will define the technology’s trajectory from here

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What will next year hold for AI? In a new story, Atlantic staff writer Ross Andersen looks ahead, outlining five key questions that will define the technology’s trajectory from here. A big one: How will it affect the election? “Many blamed the spread of lies through social media for enabling [Donald] Trump’s victory in 2016, and for helping him gin up a conspiratorial insurrection following his 2020 defeat,” Andersen writes. “But the tools of misinformation that were used in those elections were crude compared with those that will be available next year.”

Thank you for reading Atlantic Intelligence. This is the final edition of our initial eight-week series. But keep an eye out for new entries later in 2024—we’re sure there will be much more to explore.

— Damon Beres, senior editor

The Big Questions About AI in 2024

By Ross Andersen

Let us be thankful for the AI industry. Its leaders may be nudging humans closer to extinction, but this year, they provided us with a gloriously messy spectacle of progress. When I say “year,” I mean the long year that began late last November, when OpenAI released ChatGPT and, in doing so, launched generative AI into the cultural mainstream. In the months that followed, politicians, teachers, Hollywood screenwriters, and just about everyone else tried to understand what this means for their future. Cash fire-hosed into AI companies, and their executives, now glowed up into international celebrities, fell into Succession-style infighting. The year to come could be just as tumultuous, as the technology continues to evolve and its implications become clearer. Here are five of the most important questions about AI that might be answered in 2024.

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P.S.

The Atlantic’s Science desk just published its annual list of things that blew our minds this year. Readers of this newsletter will not be surprised to find that AI pops up a few different times. For example, item 47: “AI models can analyze the brain scans of somebody listening to a story and then reproduce the gist of every sentence.”

— Damon