The AI Hype Index: Robot pets, simulated humans, and Apple’s AI text summaries

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry.

More than 70 countries went to the polls in 2024. The good news is that this year of global elections turned out to be largely free from any major deepfake campaigns or AI manipulation. Instead we saw lots of AI slop: buff Trump, Elon as ultra-Chad, California as catastrophic wasteland. While some worry that development of large language models is slowing down, you wouldn’t know it from the steady drumbeat of new products, features, and services rolling out from itty-bitty startups and massive incumbents alike. So what’s for real and what’s just a lot of hallucinatory nonsense?