Welcome to ZDNET's Innovation Index, which identifies the most innovative developments in tech from the past week and ranks the top four, based on votes from our panel of editors and experts. Our mission is to help you identify the trends that will have the biggest impact on the future.
Topping the Index this week is Apple for releasing research that confirms what we maybe already suspected: AI models can't really reason, only pattern-match (for now). The company completed the research using GSM-Symbolic, its new benchmark dataset that "overcomes the limitations" of OpenAI's open-source equivalent, GSM8K, that tests LLM's reasoning, ZDNET Contributor David Gewirtz explained. Apple's solution asks more complex questions of a model, exposing weaker reasoning skills by not letting it get by with easy answers stored in its training data. This approach puts a credible reality check on AI's hype, even if the conclusion isn't new. Just because a machine can process patterns exponentially faster than we can doesn't mean it's thinking.
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Gewirtz admits Apple's motivations here may go beyond the love of science, calling the paper a potential "super-nerd competitive comparison beat-down" of OpenAI. Regardless, the insights validate suspicions about AIs despite big swings in their direction: autonomous and agentic systems are all the rage, and 95% of surveyed professionals say they'd let an AI avatar take action for them during a meeting. Maybe we should manage expectations.
In second place is Adobe, which launched its AI video generator ahead of competitors -- and for free. At Adobe Max this week, the company launched Firefly Video Model in public beta, beating OpenAI's much-anticipated Sora, Google's Veo, and Meta's MovieGen, despite comparatively quieter press in the lead-up to the release. By being free and accessible now, Firefly Video could gain a substantial lead as generative AI video tools become more commonplace, not to mention benefit from a healthy testing period while competitors play catch-up.
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At #3 are passkeys, which are quickly making passwords obsolete. The FIDO Alliance has made progress in boosting the security of passkeys relative to passwords. The results include increasing passkey use, reduced phishing, and fewer reused credentials (guilty), making for speedier sign-ins, ZDNET Senior Contributing Editor Adrian Kingsley-Hughes explained. Alongside other industry trends, this progress could mean big shifts in password management and better privacy options for users (bye, SMS OTP prompts).
Lastly, Apple teased the unthinkable this week: making an expensive product cheaper. Seeing Meta's more affordable VR products in the rearview, the company is reportedly toying with four new alternatives to its pricey Vision Pro (which starts at $3,500, otherwise known as two weeks of New York rent). If the price-drop trend continues -- and other companies join in -- AR and VR wearables could actually become more common. Maybe we'll end up having all-hands meetings in the metaverse after all.