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The World Ahead | Artificial intelligence in 2024

Generative AI holds much promise for businesses

Just don’t expect its overnight adoption

Compass with AI instead of North, point is between AI and East.
image: Alberto Miranda

By Rachana Shanbhogue

When Chatgpt was first launched at the end of 2022 it quickly became a sensation. Within two months 100m users were posing all sorts of entertaining queries (“Write me a rap song using references to SpongeBob SquarePants”). The number of people Googling “artificial intelligence” surged, and the mania set off investors’ enthusiasm for all manner of AI projects. Yet the real promise, these investors and entrepreneurs are betting, lies with its use in business. Here, too, it could be more rapidly adopted than past innovations. But that does not mean it will happen overnight.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “The adoption decision”

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