VIDEO: My TV take on where AI is headed next year
Plus a super cool shoutout from The New African Magazine! A great way to end the year.
Last note to you for the year. Just, wow.
The year ended with my making the 100 Most Influential Africans list in the prestigious New African Magazine as an opinion shaper. It has truly captured what I have been aspiring to achieve as an entrepreneur over the last 10 years. Thank you to the editors for including me.
Of course I have the most amazing team behind me at The Rundown Studio to make it all happen and keep believing in our dreams. Here’s all the really cool stuff we did
We want to share some trends we are seeing at The Rundown Studio.
CGTN had asked me to offer some thoughts, and it was great to be back on the air! Below are some more detailed thoughts, as I could not articulate them all in the 3 allotted minutes.
CGTN Europe Business Show
Trend is your friend
Here are eight predictions for you to think about:
AI Agents
AI agent assistants will become more autonomous in 2025, capable of completing complex tasks like booking travel or managing calendars with minimal human oversight. These agents will begin to coordinate with each other, similar to how human assistants collaborate.
Small Language Models
Efficient, specialized AI models will gain prominence as companies prioritize cost-effectiveness and speed over raw power. These "AI lite" versions will run smoothly on phones and laptops, making AI more accessible to everyday users. The data costs will be significantly less as less compute is needed.
Generative Video
The AI image generator market is projected to grow from $8.7B in 2024 to $60.8B by 2030, showing a 441% year-on-year growth rate. Video creation technology is going to kill it next year. The year is ending with a wow factor on high-quality video that can be generated in seconds with detailed prompts. Veo 2, Kling 1.6, Sora. This will transform social media content creation and marketing while raising new and serious concerns about authenticity.
‘Ndoto’ which my friend Mat (Mirada Studios) and I created earlier this year w AI
AI Robotics
The combination of advanced language models with improved robotics will lead to more capable household robots that can understand natural language commands. Think of robots that can actually load your dishwasher by understanding "clean up the kitchen." I’m looking at Optimus, Unitree, and Figure to start.
Tech Acquisitions
Regulatory pressure and market competition will drive major tech companies to acquire AI leaders, reshaping the AI landscape. This consolidation will have significant implications for AI development and public access.
AI Glasses
Smart glasses with AI capabilities will start replacing phones for everyday tasks like navigation and information lookups. However, privacy concerns and social norms will initially limit their adoption to specific professional contexts.
NYT vs. OpenAI
This will be consequential The legal battle's outcome will establish crucial precedents for AI training on copyrighted content, fundamentally affecting how future AI models are developed and trained. This case will likely influence new legislation around AI and copyright.
The Embedded Podcast
We will keep building our product and podcast series and bringing you great conversations with knowledgeable people who will make AI easy. Please follow Embedded on Spotify. All our recent episodes are here.
Thank you to everyone who has supported The Rundown with a paid subscription to keep us all going. It is so appreciated. Asante Sana.
Happy New Year!
Zain, Thomas, Gill, and Zaqi @ The Rundown Team.