Welcome to our annual checklist of the worst, least profitable, and easily dumbest applied sciences of the 12 months.
We prefer to suppose there’s a lesson in each technological misadventure. However when expertise turns into depending on energy, generally the takeaway is easier: it will have been higher to remain away.
Regrets—2025 had just a few. Listed below are among the extra notable ones.
—Antonio Regalado
A quick historical past of Sam Altman’s hype
Every time you’ve heard a borderline outlandish concept of what AI might be able to, it usually seems that Sam Altman was, if not the primary to articulate it, at the least essentially the most persuasive and influential voice behind it.
For greater than a decade he has been recognized in Silicon Valley as a world-class fundraiser and persuader. All through, Altman’s phrases have set the agenda. What he says about AI isn’t provable when he says it, but it surely persuades us of 1 factor: This highway we’re on with AI can go someplace both nice or terrifying, and OpenAI will want epic sums to steer it towards the suitable vacation spot. On this sense, he’s the last word hype man.
To grasp how his voice has formed our understanding of what AI can do, we learn nearly every thing he’s ever mentioned concerning the expertise. His personal phrases hint how we arrived right here. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is a part of our new Hype Correction bundle, a set of tales designed that can assist you reset your expectations about what AI makes attainable—and what it doesn’t. Try the remainder of the bundle right here.
Can AI actually assist us uncover new supplies?
One among my favourite tales within the Hype Correction bundle comes from my colleague David Rotman, who took a tough have a look at AI for supplies analysis. AI might rework the method of discovering new supplies—innovation that may very well be particularly helpful on the planet of local weather tech, which wants new batteries, semiconductors, magnets, and extra.
However the subject nonetheless must show it might probably make supplies which can be truly novel and helpful. Can AI actually supercharge supplies analysis? And what would that appear to be? Learn the total story.
