For much of 2024, experts sounded the alarm about the harm deepfakes and other AI threats pose to political contests, with many predicting that the US presidential race would be the first “AI election.”

But as the dust settles, it’s not entirely clear how much of a role the technology did end up playing. While there were certainly attempts to use deepfakes and AI-fueled misinformation to sway voter opinion, there’s not much clear-cut evidence it had an impact, though some experts caution we don’t yet know the full story.

There were, of course, a few widely reported instances of AI’s role in the election—a faked robocall that mimicked President Biden’s voice, rising tendencies to dismiss real campaign photos as AI-generated. And a report from OpenAI documented more than 20 election influence operations the company shut down, but noted that they hadn’t gained much traction.

Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies who studies digital communications and elections, said AI ended up being just one smaller piece in a wider flood of election-related misinformation.

“As it turns out, the concerns around AI and deepfakes in this election didn’t really come to pass,” Stromer-Galley told Tech Brew. “I think [AI] still is very much an issue. But there are really big issues in our electoral space right now, and AI is a red herring.”

Keep reading here.—PK

This year was one of uncertainty in the green tech industry: Climate action and tech have been gaining momentum for some time, but the results of the 2024 election could bring real implications for the sector. In the wake of a second Trump victory, states, municipalities, and companies are now developing strategies to push for green initiatives under a possibly less amenable administration.

Tech Brew talked with green tech experts about what they expect to see in 2025 in terms of industry trends, climate policy, and corporate sustainability.

State power: Despite the election of Donald Trump, voters in seven states backed climate and green tech-focused ballot measures. According to Michael Samuelian, the founding director of Cornell University’s Urban Tech Hub, such wins are a prophecy—and a callback to how city and state climate legislation responded to Trump’s first term.

“What happened the last time we had an administration that was not as focused on climate is that a lot of power, interest, and opportunity came at the local level,” Samuelian told Tech Brew.

Keep reading here.—TC

The last time CFO Brew wrote a recap of the year in finance and accounting tech (2023’s version), it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist (or member of the C-suite) to guess what it was about. Generative AI was the name of the game.

And when we polled CFOs about what tech trends they expected to see in 2024, everyone mentioned AI, but they were starting to see through the AI-hype glasses that fogged up in 2023.

“I hope that 2024 will get us beyond the current AI hype and closer to appropriate utilization of AI,” Ben Taylor, former CFO at Exscientia, told CFO Brew back in January 2024. “CFOs should be looking for areas where AI can optimize their operational goals.”

Proof of concept. CFOs were right about the changing tone of AI talk. In 2024, those two letters, AI, were greeted with three more: AI…and ROI.

By the end of 2024, it’s become clear that companies increasingly need to show proof of concept to justify their rampant AI spending.

Keep reading here.—NP