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Artificial intelligence

The AI Hype Index: Robot pets, simulated humans, and Apple’s AI text summaries

MIT Technology Review’s highly subjective take on the latest buzz about AI.

December 31, 2024
Jan/ Feb Ai Index
MITTR | Cruise, iStock, Adobe Stock

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry.

More than 70 countries went to the polls in 2024. The good news is that this year of global elections turned out to be largely free from any major deepfake campaigns or AI manipulation. Instead we saw lots of AI slop: buff Trump, Elon as ultra-Chad, California as catastrophic wasteland. While some worry that development of large language models is slowing down, you wouldn’t know it from the steady drumbeat of new products, features, and services rolling out from itty-bitty startups and massive incumbents alike. So what’s for real and what’s just a lot of hallucinatory nonsense? 

Deep Dive

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Despite fewer clicks, copyright fights, and sometimes iffy answers, AI could unlock new ways to summon all the world’s knowledge.

How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions

With a new reasoning model that matches the performance of ChatGPT o1, DeepSeek managed to turn restrictions into innovation.

The second wave of AI coding is here

A string of startups are racing to build models that can produce better and better software. They claim it’s the shortest path to AGI.

What’s next for AI in 2025

You already know that agents and small language models are the next big things. Here are five other hot trends you should watch out for this year.

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