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Musk dominated world headlines in 2024 and is by far the technology sector’s most influential (and also its most outspoken) executive. To be juggling leadership roles at X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, the Boring Company and Neuralink was already unsustainable. Musk now has wormed his way into Trump’s inner circle, and will jointly lead the president-elect’s DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency – in a bid to slash billions in government expenditure. Musk has already found himself at loggerheads with MAGA diehards like Steve Bannon over immigration issues, and the inauguration is still weeks away. He’s also been at loggerheads with the justice system, after a US judge blocked Musk’s $US56 billion ($90 billion) pay package from Tesla.
Elon Musk has wormed his way into Donald Trump’s inner circle.Credit: AP
After constant controversies and distractions, it will all come to a head in 2025, and Musk will be forced to hand over the reins at Tesla, a company many mistakenly think he founded.
The ‘AI winter’ begins
The past year was a veritable gold rush for generative AI companies, as the likes of OpenAI, Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Apple all touted impressive new features and gushed about how consumers’ relationship with technology would never be the same. That’s been true but only to a point – ChatGPT for example is useful for generating recipes or travel ideas, but still regularly produces inaccurate responses and can’t be trusted with sensitive or personal data. Apple’s launch of new Apple Intelligence features has also been mixed, and consumers aren’t yet demanding an upgrade to a new iPhone as the company might have hoped. Tech stocks are notoriously fickle, and expect the rollercoaster to veer downwards in 2025, as innovation slows and questions start being asked about just how useful a lot of this tech really is.
Lift-off for flying cars
Flying cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction or the Jetsons, they’re (nearly) here. Chinese manufacturer Xpeng is leading the charge, and its X2 vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) “flying car” is already available to order in Australia for about $200,000.
The Chinese-made XPeng flying car on display in Melbourne earlier this year.Credit: Jason South
There are of course a ton of regulatory issues to work through, but the momentum has begun, and Morgan Stanley predicts the global flying-car market will be worth $US1 trillion by 2040. Expect a range of eVTOLs to be on show at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, which this masthead will be reporting on, and for 2025 to be the year that flying cars really do take off.
And a few stray predictions: Australia’s social media age ban is implemented effectively, and other countries follow suit; Trump’s tariffs wreak havoc on electronics prices; an AI deepfake makes waves in the next federal election.
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