Our thinking

The year ahead

5 January, 2024

For many, 2023 felt like a year where the world drifted further than ever from achieving the kind of progress we spend a lot of time talking about. But in his New Year message, Bill Gates describes why there are reasons to be optimistic about the year ahead, despite the many challenges it will undoubtedly bring. 

If 2023 was the year when the world woke up to the ways in which AI will change our lives, then 2024 will be the year in which its theoretical capabilities are tried and tested. There are countless ambitious and exciting questions currently being explored around how AI could be used to improve lives, particularly in low and middle-income countries – through drug discovery, combatting antibiotic resistance, assessing risk for HIV and much more. 2024 will also be important in the development of global regulation to ensure proper ethical boundaries for AI whilst not limiting its potential for good.  

Gates and The Guardian also give reasons to be optimistic about climate action in the year ahead. With a growing number of climate analysts believing that 2023 may be the year in which annual emissions reached a peak, 2024 could be the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel era, with developments in nuclear energy and a steady rise in wind and solar energy expected to displace the requirements for fossil fuels on a global scale. But this won’t happen without a concerted human endeavour. Experts reiterate that continued and concerted action is needed to ensure that global emissions decline from this point forward. 

To top that all off, 2024 will be the year in which more people than ever will have the opportunity to vote – which could have enormous implications on democracy across the world. One thing is for sure, 2024 will be a big one, and we hope, for all the right reasons.  

By Budd Nicholson