Welcome to our annual checklist of the worst, least profitable, and easily dumbest applied sciences of the yr.
We prefer to suppose there’s a lesson in each technological misadventure. However when know-how 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 here are among the extra notable ones.
—Antonio Regalado
A short historical past of Sam Altman’s hype
Every time you’ve heard a borderline outlandish thought of what AI might be able to, it usually seems that Sam Altman was, if not the primary to articulate it, not less than probably the most persuasive and influential voice behind it.
For greater than a decade he has been identified 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 final word hype man.
To know how his voice has formed our understanding of what AI can do, we learn nearly all the pieces he’s ever mentioned concerning the know-how. 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 doable—and what it doesn’t. Take a look at the remainder of the bundle right here.
Can AI actually assist us uncover new supplies?
One in all my favourite tales within the Hype Correction bundle comes from my colleague David Rotman, who took a tough take a look at AI for supplies analysis. AI might rework the method of discovering new supplies—innovation that might be particularly helpful on the planet of local weather tech, which wants new batteries, semiconductors, magnets, and extra.
However the area nonetheless must show it may 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.
