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While AI continues to be the main character in the innovation conversation (and a magnet for VC cash), the honeymoon of everyone asking ChatGPT to write clever poems is over. Though AI bots linked up with many legacy tools this year, from Google Search to Slack, there were fewer mind-blowing product reveals in 2024 with some companies saying the pace at which AI gains sophistication might be slowing down.

But progress never sleeps, and plenty of funky gadgets, novel medical treatments, and concepts devised by people with PhDs in abstract subjects burst onto the scene this year.

Inventions and innovations

Whether it's a computer you wear on your face or a more sustainable material for clothes, these products are expanding humanity's toolkit:

Find out about some new apps that are out there in addition to the usual sources of endless scrolling:

These might not be hot new items you can snag at Best Buy, but it is the scientific know-how pushing human progress forward:

It's not just the OpenAIs, SpaceXs, and Waymos of the world pushing the envelope with new ideas -- but also upstarts that are staying out of the spotlight, and some legacy industry giants.