AI Giants Seek New Tactics Now That ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ Is Gone
Progress on the most advanced new AI systems has been slower than expected.
The two years since OpenAI supercharged the generative AI era with the introduction of ChatGPT have passed in a blur of technological one-upmanship. OpenAI and its primary competitors, Anthropic, Google and Meta, have released a flurry of cutting-edge artificial intelligence models, each more skillful than the last. It’s now Silicon Valley gospel that more computing power, more data and larger models will lead to such fundamental improvements in AI that the technology will transform entire industries within the next few years.
And yet, threats to the pace of development began emerging even before ChatGPT’s second birthday. In 2024, OpenAI and two other leading AI companies hit stumbling blocks. At OpenAI and Google, some software failed to live up to internal expectations, while the timetable of a long-awaited model from Anthropic, a competitor built by former OpenAI employees, slipped after it had already been announced. If progress in generative AI slows in some durable way, it will bring into question whether the technology can ever achieve the more expansive promises the industry’s top innovators have made for it. Identifying ways to propel the AI boom into its next stage will be the field’s primary challenge in 2025.