From the great leaps in artificial intelligence to spectacular feats on display at the European football championships, here are five figures who have left an indelible mark on 2024:
Jensen Huang: chip magnate
In all the frenzied excitement — and anxiety — generated by Artificial Intelligence in 2024, one AI chip giant has broken away from the pack: Nvidia, led by CEO Jensen Huang.
In the course of the year Nvidia surpassed Apple to become the highest public valued company in the world as the artificial intelligence boom continued to excite Wall Street.
Cutting a distinctive figure in his signature black leather jacket, Taiwan-born Huang founded Nvidia three decades ago.
At the root of its newfound success are graphics processors or cards — chips with far greater computing capacity than conventional microprocessors.
Initially developed to improve the graphics quality of video games, Huang’s company figured out the technology was perfectly suited for developing the large language models underpinning generative AI.
Yulia Navalnaya: dogged Kremlin critic
“My political opponent is Vladimir Putin and I’m trying to do and I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible,” said Yulia Navalnaya, widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in October.
The 48-year-old Navalnaya, who is a trained economist, has remained in the public eye as part of her pledge to continue her husband’s work after he died in February in an Arctic prison.
She has lobbied against Putin’s government from abroad, including with her call for Russians on election day in March to form long queues outside voting stations in protest.
In July Navalnaya, who lives outside Russia, was added to Moscow’s “terrorists and extremists” blacklist.
Gisele Pelicot: feminist icon
Seventy-two-year-old Gisele Pelicot has been at the centre of one of France’s most high-profile trials, making headlines across the world.
Her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, has admitted to drugging his then-wife with sedatives so strangers could sexually abuse her in her own bed for almost a decade. He and another 50 men are on trial.
The case has shed a deeply disturbing light on male attitudes and violence towards women.
In a move that has sparked global support, Gisele Pelicot insisted the trial should be open to the public.
“I wanted all women who are rape victims to say to themselves ‘Mrs Pelicot did it, so we can do it too’,” she said.
Lamine Yamal: football whizz-kid
One of Spain’s kings of the wing, 17-year-old Lamine Yamal became a global football star after forming part of the most swashbuckling and explosive attack of this year’s Euro 2024 championship.
He and fellow teenage winger Nico Williams were hailed as the attacking wizards inspiring Spain’s record fourth men’s European Championship triumph.
Baby-faced Yamal who has braces on his teeth came through Barcelona FC’s youth team and is now one of the top team’s most exciting talents.
During Euro 2024 he became the youngest ever goal-scorer of the competition at 16 and celebrated his 17th birthday on the eve of the final.
“We have seen a genius, the product of a genius,” Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuente said of his player during the tournament.
Yamal was named young player of the championship.
Charli XCX: ‘Brat’ phenomenon
British pop sensation Charli XCX was already one of the top stars in 2024 with her hugely successful album “Brat”.
Then Kamala Harris was catapulted into the US presidential campaign with just 100 days to go.
The “brat summer” meme sparked by the 32-year-old pop star’s album with its lime-green cover and celebration of a relaxed, partying lifestyle became associated with Harris when fans began applying the coloured “brat” filter to the nominee’s images.
Then Charli XCX, real name Charlotte Emma Aitchison, voiced approval with a sign-off — “kamala IS brat” — swiftly embraced by the Harris campaign.
In November, just days before Harris’s presidency bid ended in defeat at the ballot box, Collins dictionary designated “brat” as the Word of the Year.
