Agencies
Over two years since the introduction of ChatGPT by OpenAI – a quick and easy way to ask an AI model almost anything – artificial intelligence has continued to dominate talks, headlines and economic research and will likely continue to do so throughout the following year.
From algorithms powering search engines to sophisticated tools diagnosing medical conditions, artificial intelligence is reshaping industries, redefining work and challenging our understanding of intelligence itself.
AI is no longer a futuristic fantasy; it is rapidly becoming an integral part of life. But with breakneck innovation, the near future likely holds even more transformative change shaped by the key trends driving this revolution.
While generative AI and large language models (LLMs) have mainly shaped these trends until now, what appears to be the dawn of a new era is so-called agentic AI.
Described basically as "a combination of different AI techniques, models, and approaches,” it is seen as "a new breed of autonomous agents that can analyze data, set goals and take action to achieve them, all with minimal human supervision.”
According to many companies, experts and recent reports, this trend looks to be the dominant trend that could shape the artificial intelligence sector next year.
But what more to expect? Let’s break it down: Talking about AI means talking about the company, which some call "consequential” in the field – and yes, that’s OpenAI.
Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has just recently said surprise advancements could be in store next year.”I expect that in 2025 we will have systems that people look at, even people who are skeptical of current progress, and say, ‘Wow, I did not expect that,’” Altman said, speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit earlier this month.
Reflecting on the time when ChatGPT was launched, Altman also said, "My guess is we will hit AGI (artificial general intelligence) sooner than most people in the world think, and it will matter much less.”
His remarks came ahead of the announcement of the startup’s new o3 model and details on the transition from being a non-profit entity, as it has been classified so far.
Under the plan announced on Friday, OpenAI said it looks to revamp its structure, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to make it easier to "raise more capital than we’d imagined” and remove the restrictions imposed on the startup by its current non-profit parent.
"I don’t think anybody knows the truth. I’m sure there will be another explosion at some point where there’s a fundamental change in the architecture of the models.
Don’t know when and don’t know where,” Pascale Fung, director of the Center for AI Research (CAiRE) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told Anadolu Agency (AA) when asked about the future of AI.
AI systems capable of processing multiple data types simultaneously, such as text, images, audio and video, have become a driving force in the industry toward what has been called multimodality.
Fung, also a senior director of AI research at Meta-FAIR, a research initiative by Facebook’s parent company Meta, highlighted the significance of such a shift.
"That’s not just text. It’s not just a chatbot, but it can also see what you see and hear what you hear.” Multimodal systems, like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, already integrate vision and auditory perception with text-based capabilities.
These technologies analyze visual or auditory data in real-time, enabling applications like assisting visually impaired individuals by describing their surroundings or reading text aloud.
One step forward from chatbots, AI agents are redefining assistance by managing complex, multistep tasks.
Unlike chatbots that answer questions, AI agents can perform complex tasks, like booking a family vacation or managing executive schedules, Fung explained.
These agents function as "smart humans,” using tools to solve problems and create value.In a recent report, Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of business and industry at Microsoft Copilot, described agents as "the apps of the AI era.”
"Agents will begin to transform every business process, revolutionizing the way we work and manage our organizations,” he added.