This year, I am back with a new set of predictions for the year, across sports, politics, and tech.
1. The Ravens win the Super Bowl
I’ve made this prediction before, back in 2020 (incorrectly) but I feel even more confident now — their defense is setting records and their quarterback is going to win the MVP award — a scary combo.
2. Biden gets re-elected, but Democrats lose the Senate
Biden has surprisingly low approval ratings despite a strong economy, although the same polls tend to show that Trump is even more unpopular with likely voters. Even as Democrats win the popular vote, the nature of the landscape of Senate seats up for reelection makes it very likely that Republicans will gain at least the 1 seat required to flip the chamber, especially with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin retiring.
3. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses influence the influencers
Smart glasses aren’t a mainstream item (yet) but a decade after the release of google glass, I think this Ray-Ban/Meta collaboration will have significant purchase and by year’s end, be a common item for influencers and other social media power users. Their low price point ($300) and normal look should enable them to spread, even if I’m not sure exactly how or why people are going to utilize them.
4. A new kid on the block for generative AI
I don’t know that anyone can have the splash that OpenAI did with GPT4, but with so many interesting large language model efforts moving forward at the same time, I expect a different flavor of generative AI to have captured significant mindshare by the end of the year. I think this is more likely to be a specific use-case / application / service than a product like Humane’s AI Pin.
Looking at predictions 3 and 4, talking about new tech products (smart glasses and products incorporating large language models), it seems very likely that in the medium term we’re going to end up with a bunch of products that are some blend of these different product elements — ear buds + AI, video recording devices + AI, something else I haven’t thought of + AI etc… These new blends are probably a couple years away given product life cycles, but I am excited to keep track of all the interesting stuff happening in this space (and also impressed by how seemingly prescient the movie Her was).
So, for 2024, we’ve got the Ravens, the election, the smart glasses, and the generative AI — at the end of the year I’ll circle back to this post and evaluate how wrong I was!
