By Prakash Narayan–
(Prakash Narayan is chief technology officer at 3K Technologies)
Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. We hope that 2024 brings all of you joy, peace, good health and all your desires.
The year began with almost everyone predicting a recession. The Federal Reserve kept raising interest rates at regular intervals. Nobody thought that 2023 would be a blockbuster year for stocks. The S&P 500 finished the year up 24% and the DJIA advanced 14% to top 37000 for the first time. In fact, the final days of 2023 saw seven record closes for the index. The Nasdaq composite soared 43%, its best year in over two decades – thanks to the mania surrounding Artificial Intelligence (more on this later).
We saw an entertainer being named Time Magazine’s (solo) Person of the Year for the first time ever. Taylor Swift not only earned over $4b for herself from the Eras Tour, but she also brought a significant boost to the economies of every city that the tour visited. When the Eras Tour was brought to the big screen, it saw the highest single-day ticket sale for a film in the U.S in the 103-year history of AMC Theaters.
There were two defining moments in Silicon Valley – the first was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March when deposits and the value of its bond portfolio fell sharply. This had a cascade effect on First Republic Bank. There was a fear of a repeat of the horrific global financial crisis of 2008. The Fed, however, quickly shored up confidence when it said that depositors would not lose their money with the lenders. This resulted in averting the risk of a deeper catastrophe. The second was the drama, in November, surrounding the leadership at OpenAI. Four board members, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Adam D’Angelo unexpectedly removed Sam Altman as CEO. They also ousted Greg Brockman from his position as Chairman of the Board. This move sent ripple effects in the tech world, as Altman was the public face of OpenAI and was a household name. The interim CEO, Emmett Shear, resigned in protest and over 90% of employees signed an open letter threatening to leave if Altman was not reinstated. After a tense few days of negotiation, Altman was restored as the CEO of OpenAI, and order was restored after one of the most chaotic weekends in Silicon Valley history.
Another significant moment was the arrest and trial of the founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried. A jury in New York found him guilty of defrauding FTX’s customers prior to its abrupt collapse in November 2022. All of this had an impact on the Crypto market. VC funding has dried up for Crypto based startups.
Over the course of 2023, we witnessed a significant transformation in Twitter. After Elon Musk acquired Twitter in Oct. 2022, he has not only changed its name to X, but also disengaged with advertisers and reinstated hatemongers and known liars. Alternatives to Twitter are emerging, including Meta’s Threads have been launched. Threads got off to a great start with 100 million downloads in its first five days. It has subsequently slowed down. However, it seems to be getting renewed momentum as new features like hashtags, web access and the ability to edit posts are rolling out. Elon Musk even proposed a cage fight with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. The fight, which was set to take place at Rome’s Coliseum, is yet to materialize. Zuckerberg has gone on record saying that Musk was not serious about it.
After demonstrating leadership in Data Privacy with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the European Union (EU) has once again led the way in providing comprehensive attempts to limit the use of a rapidly evolving technology in AI. While countries can continue to harness the benefits of AI, protection is offered against risks like spreading misinformation and endangering national security. The US has taken a major first step towards regulating the use of AI by stating four goals to serve as foundational targets: (1) Leverage Secure AI infrastructure (2) Foster a culture that embraces AI Technology (3) Ensure that AI is applied responsibly (4) Innovate. The hope is that there will be comprehensive regulations to restrict the use of AI shortly from the US Government.
There is certainly a lot to look forward to 2024. With elections both in India and the US (the last time this happened was in 1996 when Vajpayee / Deve Gowda / IK Gujaral were elected in India, while Bill Clinton won his second term in the US), it certainly promises to be whirlwind year. Elections are also likely to take place in the UK, Japan and EU in 2024. Elections always have consequences, but 2024’s elections may have more consequences than most. We must collectively brace ourselves. We can look forward to the best athletes in the world competing in the Paris Olympics in July/August 2024. The T20 Cricket World Cup will be played in US soils for the first time in June 2024.
