As 2024 draws to a close, it’s tempting to think that nothing happened this year except for one shocking presidential election. But it has also been a year of technological transformation – and in unexpected ways.
The technological innovations that changed our lives this year were mostly not gadgets. Revolutionary software updates, including better AI assistantshas dominated the list of the most exciting announcements from big tech companies. On the political level, we have seen new incentives to invest in renewable energy products, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles, are starting to take effect, while nuclear energy returns to the forefront. In space, thousands of new satellites have launched spread cheaper internet connectivity even in remote areas.
Overall, the year in technological advancement proved to be more practical than fantastical.
You could call the rise of AI quite fantastic, but at least for now, the products Americans use every day amount to handy chatbots rather than paradigm-shifting superintelligences. What improves our lives are inventions that improve efficiency and productivity. This only seems boring if you overlook the fact that these improvements help save the planet.
Meanwhile, the more futuristic things released this year haven’t lived up to their promises. There was the Rabbit R1, a device meant to put the power of AI at your fingertips, but it just didn’t work. There was the Human Ai Pin which was supposed to replace your phone but this is not the case. Then there was the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. We’ll talk about that in a minute.
Before we get bogged down in bashing bad gadgets, let’s highlight the big advances. Here are five things that are changing our lives this year. And whoever didn’t.
5 things that have improved our lives
AI has started to do everything, everywhere, at the same time.
It’s only been two years since ChatGPT’s historic launch, but generative AI still seems to be the only thing tech companies want to talk about. OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, now offers a search enginea photorealistic video generator called Soraand a new model code name Strawberry it can reason. Google, arguably the original generative AI superpower, launched Gemini 2.0promising AI agents will soon carry out your orders. Apple too deployed Apple Intelligencea refined but more accessible set of AI tools for its millions of users.
Besides, all of this happened in the last six weeks. Suffice it to say, AI is here to stay and is improving at a remarkable rate. There is also evidence that the number of people using AI is growing rapidly – so fast that AI is surpassing adoption rates for personal computers and the Internet. At the same time, AI currently requires sufficient electricity to feed a small country and he will only need more as he becomes more advanced. Which brings us to number two on our list.
Nuclear energy is making a comeback.
The upside of AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity is that it drives innovation in the clean energy sector. And even if it is possible it makes you think of the 50snuclear power is the hot technology that everyone wants more of. Microsoft led the way in September, helping reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant by agreeing to buy all its electricity as part of its AI-powered future project. Google followed suit in October when it signed an agreement to purchase electricity from small modular reactors developed by Kairos Power. The same week, Amazon announced plans to invest in X Poweranother company working on small modular reactors.
Small modular reactors are exciting for several reasonsincluding how quick and easy it is to build them – at least in theory. No company has yet successfully commercialized the technology, but renewed interest in nuclear power is throwing a lot of money into the problem. The Department of Defense even announced its own mobile nuclear reactor project in September at the Idaho National Laboratory. So we don’t know exactly what the new nuclear age will look like, but it almost certainly will. smaller, cheaper and safer.
Satellite Internet has improved and become cheaper.
Speaking of space age inventions, satellites have had quite a year. Specifically, satellite constellations that beam Internet connectivity down to Earth have become widespread. THANKS partly because of the pandemicthe technology took off this year and you can access satellite internet in all 50 states, even if you live in the middle of nowhere. SpaceX’s Starlink, which began providing connectivity to soldiers in Ukraine last year, is probably the satellite internet company you’ve heard of. It uses satellite constellations in low Earth orbit to provide fast, low-latency Internet connections starting at $120 per month. HughesNet and ViaSat, known for their WiFi programs on planes, have slower service, but their plans start at around $50 per month.
The big news this year is that Amazon is entering the space Internet race with its Project Kuiper satellites. The company announced in November that it would begin deploy satellite constellations in low Earth orbit early 2025, in direct competition with Starlink. Some analysts believe that this renewed competition could drive down Starlink pricesand even boost the development of its new cellular service. All these new satellites open up a future in which you will never again have to worry about reception, even in case of disaster.
Gadgets become medical devices.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told Wired this year that he wants to democratize health. This year, Apple received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to two breakthroughs: Watches capable of detecting sleep apnea and AirPods Pro headphones that can be used as a hearing aid. This hearing aid feature didn’t even necessarily require you to buy new AirPods, since it arrived in a software update.
Apple isn’t the only tech company blurring the line between gadgets and health devices, either. The Oura Ring has exploded in popularity this year thanks in part to its innovative sleep tracking and cycle tracking features. Google released its Pixel Watch 3, which comes with a pulse detection feature, he says. can save lives. Withings even brought us closer to Star Trek inspired tricorder with a device called BeamO which functions as a thermometer, stethoscope, pulse oximeter and ECG, all in one device.
Teens Instagram accounts attempted to address a youth mental health crisis.
Although it has been growing for years, panic around young people’s mental health and social media reaches new heights in 2024. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for put warning labels on social media. The anxious generationa book about how smartphones are ruining childhood and especially adolescentsspent weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. And the biggest piece of legislation to protect children onlinenow known as KOSPA, has passed the Senate and is close to passage in the House.
Meta has introduced a solution of sorts to the youth mental health crisis. In September he introduced Instagram Teen accountswhich makes the accounts of users under 16 private by default, limits the number of people who can contact young people and introduces, among other things, certain anti-bullying features. While this isn’t the solution to the dangers of social media or the youth mental health crisis, it is action. One could also argue that this is how Instagram should have worked all along, but hey, it’s nice that Meta finally did something to try and quell the panic.
1 thing that wanted to improve our lives but unfortunately didn’t
The Apple Vision Pro was not the future we were promised.
Before its release in February, we could say that people were excited about the Apple Vision Pro. The long-rumored mixed reality headset was Apple’s first entirely new product in over a decade, and it was supposed to change computing as we knew it. The Vision Pro also costs $3,500required you to carry a battery in your pocket, and gave people black eyes. By the end of the year it had become clear that the Vision Pro was perhaps the most useful as a giant screen for your Mac.
The future is hard. It’s hard to predict, and as our planet warms continues to remind usit is difficult to live there. The Apple Vision Pro certainly looks like an impressive device, one that will get better and cheaper over time.
But for a year like 2024, the technologies that have truly improved our lives are those that have made us healthier, more connected, and less dependent on fossil fuels. At first glance, these improvements don’t seem as exciting as the glasses that transform the world into a digital cinematic landscape. But they clearly offer a glimpse of a future in which we would all like to live.
A version of this story also appeared in the Vox Technology newsletter. Register here so as not to miss the next one!