Another year, another 366 days of tech (with a healthy dose of AI)

While there was no shortage of interesting developments in a variety of emerging technologies, artificial intelligence seems to have taken over many of 2024’s headlines. Its prevalence in news coverage featured both its sometimes overblown capabilities and its suitability for important decision-making, including the analysis of health test results and surveillance databases. (A colleague’s auto insurance even used an AI app to estimate damages to their car.) Beyond AI, many noteworthy events this past year spawned stories on the tech industry’s influence on politics, journalism, misinformation and disinformation in the digital ecosystem, and the expansion of surveillance around the world.

Here are five noteworthy pieces from our 2024 coverage of disruptive technologies.

Is the reign of tech titans coming to an end? by Steven Feldstein

It’s hard to deny the influence and power that tech giants possess in the contemporary world, as exemplified by Elon Musk’s recent support of Donald Trump to help push him toward victory. (His PAC spent $200 million on the president elect’s campaign). Tech titans like Musk not only directly influence political outcomes but also control the digital information system and media companies, among other things. Humans are living in the age of what some call a broligarchy. But how long can the influence of these tech tycoons last? In this thoughtful piece, Steven Feldstein examines two opposing narratives on the subject and asks if, like the Greek myth, these titans will also fall.

A new military-industrial complex: How tech bros are hyping AI’s role in war by Paul Lushenko and Keith Carter

In another piece on the influence of the tech industry, Paul Lushenko and Keith Carter discuss entrepreneurs who stand to profit from the proliferation of AI applications in the military. While “tech bros” with virtually no military or operational experience seem to be gaining influence, the authors of this piece caution those in charge to weigh both the merits and limitations of AI before integrating it into the battlefield.

To protect democratic values, journalism must save itself by Sara Goudarzi

I recently read there’s been so much consolidation in journalism that “Around 1 in 7 newspaper journalists works at The New York Times, a publicly traded company worth around $9 billion and still run by the Sulzberger-Ochs family.” This contraction of journalism is scary, and it’s been happening across media outlets, not just in newspapers. In this piece, I wrote about how the journalism industry needs a rethinking of business models to save itself from dying when society needs vetted factual information most.

Global threats don’t happen in silos. They shouldn’t be managed separately, either. by Rumtin Sepasspour and Courtney Tee

Humans are living in a time of crises that range from pandemics to nuclear threats to potentially destructive technological innovations. Governments are often ill-equipped to deal with these intersecting potential calamities, playing what the authors of this piece call threat Whac-A-Mole. A better way to manage global threats, they assert, is risk governance that considers global hazards as a whole. Those in charge can then reduce risks strategically by establishing appropriate policies.

How AI surveillance threatens democracy everywhere by Abi Olvera

Written by Bulletin editorial fellow Abi Olvera, this piece examines how surveillance technologies, when supercharged by AI, can undermine democracies. While government surveillance is not new, generative AI can analyze huge datasets much faster than was previously possible. The result? Weak democracies are using AI-powered apps to better control their populations (or at least give the illusion that they are doing so). To counteract this trend, Olvera writes, the international community needs to “define clear limits and controls for these new, efficient tools of control and oppression.”