Here are our early predictions for what will be hot in 2024: Lavender mocktails, tube tops, middle-distance running, aaand rampant cybercrime. 

Driving the news: Per a new report from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the RCMP, organized cybercrime activity will “very likely” increase over the next two years, posing a threat to Canada’s national security, economic prosperity, and critical infrastructure.

Like Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon this year, Nvidia’s recent performance has launched it into household name status. 

What happened: Shares of chipmaker Nvidia are up almost 11% on the week, after reports the company had doubled its revenue from a year ago while riding the wave of the AI hype. Nvidia’s technology is an essential component of ChatGPT, and other similar chatbots. 

For anyone who tries to get by with only speaking English on vacation, Meta has introduced new technology that could help you keep the ball rolling.  

Driving the news: The company has launched an AI-powered translation tool that lets users communicate—through both text and speech—in nearly 100 languages. Over time, these tools will be introduced across all Meta platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Like vinyl records, lunar exploration is a 1960s fave that’s back in a big way. 

Driving the news: India’s lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 begins its descent to the Moon this morning. If successful, it would be the first spacecraft to land on the Moon’s south pole and give India a leg up in the global rush to harvest lunar resources and establish lunar bases. 

Big Tech may not have any interest in complying with Canada’s recent attempts to regulate them, but the European Union is having more luck.

Driving the news: The first wave of new European Union rules governing big tech platforms, part of one of the most significant expansions of digital regulations in Western history, will come into effect next week.

You’re probably already letting AI autocomplete your sentences or choose what you watch next on Netflix… but would you lean on a chatbot to give you life advice? 

Driving the news: Per The New York Times, Google is testing new tools that could turn generative AI—the technology that powers chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s own Bard—into a life coach that advises on everything from your dating life to your career. 

Nothing quite says romance in the year 2023 like sending sweet nothings to an AI chatbot.

Driving the news: A slew of new dating apps are adopting AI-powered avatars and chatbots that simulate intimate relationships, pitching their platforms as a way to practice dating in a risk-free environment. 

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… unless it's at this weekend’s AI hacking competition in the City of Sin.

Driving the news: A hacking competition supported by big tech companies including Meta, OpenAI, and Google—as well as the US government—will play host to thousands of hackers tasked with finding vulnerabilities in the biggest AI-powered chatbots on the market. 

If you’ve ever wanted to hear Iron Maiden sing Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off,” you may soon be in luck.

Driving the news: Google is in talks with Universal Music and Warner Brothers to license artists' voices and music for a tool that would allow fans to use AI to create songs. 

“Four-score and seven years ago, I snagged a great deal on Marketplace!” 

That’s our best guess at what Meta’s new AI Abraham Lincoln chatbot will say as we peruse for online deals. The company is rolling out a new suite of AI chatbots as soon as next month to retain, assist, and collect data on the ~3.9 billion users across its platforms.