2024 wasn’t a huge year for new tech products, but it was a big one when it came to the tech industry’s impact on society and vice versa.
Tech giants have had a major impact on the 2024 election, starting with Elon Musk, whose net worth has exceeded $400 billion thanks to his work and investments in several technology companies, including Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity, and Neurolink. He is also the owner of Twitter, but that detracts from his financial net worth while increasing his political influence. Although you can’t point to a single thing that changed the course of the election, Musk’s endorsement and financial support has been a huge boon to the Trump campaign.
Musk was not the only tech billionaire to support the president-elect. Despite Silicon Valley’s liberal traditions, a number of other tech moguls have done their share, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, and Netscape author and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Technology’s cozy relationship with the new administration did not end on November 5th. Since then, Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, in addition to being a best-selling author, headed a venture capital firm that invested in technology companies. On more than one occasion, Vance has visited Silicon Valley to raise money for the Trump-Vance ticket.
Australian law
There has also been legislation around technology, including the recently passed Australian law banning social media for anyone under 16. Several state laws have been introduced in the United States about regulating artificial intelligence. Although still not a law, the bipartisan Children’s Online Safety Act was approved by the Senate by a vote of 91 to 3. The European Union passed a law regulating artificial intelligence.
Product ads
Although it’s not clear when they will ship, Meta announced the Orion AR glasses, the company’s first true augmented reality glasses that feature 3D displays that can superimpose computer-generated images over what you see in the physical world. Using artificial intelligence, they can also interpret and explain what you see. These glasses may still be a few years away, but Mita has had success this year with their current generation Ray-Ban | Meta smart glasses. The glasses don’t have a smart display, but they play music, enable phone calls, read text messages and describe what you’re looking at, which you see through the camera on the frames. It’s too early to say for sure, but it’s very likely that future versions of smart glasses will replace smartphones for many people, putting Meta in a good position to eventually compete with Apple, which dominates the U.S. smartphone market.
We are also seeing growth in the smart ring category. Oura Ring, which popularized the category, debuted with its new Oura Ring 4 in 2024. Ringconn, another smart ring maker, has also updated its offerings, but 2024 is also the year a major company, Samsung, enters the market. It’s too early to tell if smart rings will get as much traction as smartwatches, but they perform some of the same tasks, especially when it comes to health and fitness, like heart rate and blood oxygen sensing.
Meta also has the Quest VR headset, but Apple is now in on this space with the 2024 introduction of the Apple Vision Pro, a very expensive VR/AR headset that Apple describes as “spatial computing.”
Generative artificial intelligence
Generative AI was the big story last year, but there are a lot of new developments in 2024.
Apple and Google both made their annual smartphone and watch announcements this fall. Apple’s new iPhone 16 series includes advanced AI-powered features like Image Playground for photo and video editing and features that, according to Apple, help you “write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly.” Apple does the processing on the phone itself, not the cloud, which is pretty surprising considering that phones have limited memory, storage, and processing capacity compared to cloud-based systems.
Google’s 2024 Series 9 phones have the company’s Gemini AI technology built-in. And you can now engage in a conversation with your phone by understanding the context. For example, you can say “How old is Tom Cruise”, and after you get the answer ask “Where was he born?” This contextual conversation mode appears in many AI products, including popular generative AI services like ChatGPT.
Microsoft has also integrated AI into its Windows operating system, and Apple Intelligence is now integrated into MacOS. In addition to incorporating AI into its devices, Google introduced Google Gemini Advanced, which when you ask what it does, says it’s “designed to excel at complex tasks like logical reasoning, programming, following complex instructions, and creative collaboration.”
The news isn’t all good for technology. There has been a backlash in 2024 that includes layoffs at several tech companies (along with the rehiring of some after layoffs in 2023), global antitrust actions against major tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple, and increasing concerns about… Mental health and wellbeing. Presence on social media and other technical products.
a happy new year
I’m no fortune teller, but I’m pretty sure that 2025 will bring a lot of new developments in technology, including more integration of artificial intelligence into everyday products. It will also be a turbulent year as the new administration takes office with a lot of potential technology announcements, especially given the relationship between the incoming president and tech billionaires including Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and others. We will see increased interest in cryptocurrencies, regulation of artificial intelligence, and rethinking of rebates and subsidies for energy-efficient technology.
Whatever the case may be, I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.
Larry Magid is a technology journalist and online safety activist. Contact him at larry@larrymagid.com.
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