Welcome to our annual list of the worst, least successful, and simply dumbest technologies of the year. We like to think there's a lesson in every technological misadventure. But when technology becomes dependent on power, sometimes the takeaway is simpler: it would have been better to stay away. Here are some of the more notable ones . Each time you've heard a borderline outlandish idea of what AI will be capable of, it often turns out that Sam Altman was, if not the first to articulate it, at least the most persuasive and influential voice behind it. For more than a decade he has been known in Silicon Valley as a world-class fundraiser and persuader.

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into postsecondary education and many other sectors resulted in a global reckoning with this new technology. This paper contributes to the study of the multifaceted influence of generative AI, with a particular focus on OpenAI's ChatGPT within academic settings during the first six months after the release in three specific ways . First, it scrutinize s the rise of ChatGPT as a transformative event construed through a study of mainstream discourses exhibiting AI hype. Second, i t discusses the perceived implications of generative AI for writing, teaching, and learning t hrough the lens of critical discourse analysis and critical AI studies . Third, i t encourages the necessity for best practices in the adoption of generative AI technologies in education.

In this blog post, Dominik Vrabič Dežman provides a summary of his recent research article, 'Promising the future, encoding the past: AI hype and public media imagery'. Dominik also draws attention to the algorithms which perpetuate the dominance of familiar and sensationalist visuals and calls for movements which reshape media systems to make better images of AI more visible in public discourse. The full paper is published in the AI and Ethics Journal's special edition on'The Ethical Implications of AI Hype, a collection edited by We and AI. AI promises innovation, yet its imagery remains trapped in the past. Deep-blue, sci-fi-inflected visuals have flooded public media, saturating our collective imagination with glowing, retro-futuristic interfaces and humanoid robots.

OnePlus has been a bit up and down since it merged with Oppo back in 2021. It gained greater access to powerful components and partnerships with brands like Hasselblad, while its software and product lineup took a few steps back before finding its stride again. But now, three generations after the merger, OnePlus' latest flagship phone -- the OnePlus 13 -- feels like a fantastic return to form. In some areas, the company is even pushing the limits of hardware and gadget design in ways that rivals from Samsung and Google aren't. And with a starting price of 900, OnePlus has managed to undercut its closest competitor too, which makes this phone a great choice for anyone who cares more about getting hardware upgrades than fancy new AI tricks.

It's been a while since I felt a profound case of gadget lust at CES, the tech trade show that takes over Las Vegas every January, but that's what happened when I picked up Lenovo's Legion Go S gaming handheld. I'm already a satisfied Steam Deck owner, but the Legion Go S has a larger and sharper screen with 120Hz refresh rates, AMD's new Z2 chipset, and--to my hands, at least--perfect ergonomics. It also runs SteamOS, and Valve's plan to license its software for free to other handheld device makers (starting with Lenovo) was one of CES's biggest developments. Just like Windows on PCs, it could allow a new gaming hardware ecosystem to bloom. That's just one example of how CES stealthily became a window into the future of gaming hardware.

Technology does not exist in a vacuum; technological development, media representation, public perception, and governmental regulation cyclically influence each other to produce the collective understanding of a technology's capabilities, utilities, and risks. When these capabilities are overestimated, there is an enhanced risk of subjecting the public to dangerous or harmful technology, artificially restricting research and development directions, and enabling misguided or detrimental policy. The dangers of technological hype are particularly relevant in the rapidly evolving space of AI. Centering the research community as a key player in the development and proliferation of hype, we examine the origins and risks of AI hype to the research community and society more broadly and propose a set of measures that researchers, regulators, and the public can take to mitigate these risks and reduce the prevalence of unfounded claims about the technology.

Nvidia, the chipmaker at the center of an artificial intelligence boom, gained in late trading on Wednesday after a bullish sales forecast showed that AI computing spending remains strong. The company said its second-quarter revenue will be about 28 billion, topping the 26.8 billion predicted by analysts. Results in the fiscal first quarter, which ended April 28, also beat projections -- lifted by growth in its data center division. The big question heading into the earnings report was whether Nvidia's latest numbers could justify the dizzying run-up in its stock. The shares had gained 92% this year through Wednesday's close, fueled by investor hopes that the company would continue to shatter expectations.

Tech pundits are fond of using the term "inflection points" to describe those rare moments when new technology wipes the board clean, opening up new threats and opportunities. But one might argue that in the past few years what used to be called out as an inflection point might now just be called "Monday." Certainly that applied this week. OpenAI, denying rumors that it would unveil either an AI-powered search product or its next-generation model GPT-5, instead announced something different, but nonetheless eye-popping, on Monday. It was a new flagship model called GPT-4o, to be made available for free, which uses input and output in various modes--text, speech, vision--for disturbingly natural interaction with humans. What struck many observers about the demo was how playful and even provocative the emotionally expressive chatbot was--but also imbued with the encyclopedic knowledge of data sets encompassing much of the world's knowledge.

Fox News correspondent Grady Trimble has the latest on fears the technology will spiral out of control on'Special Report.' The use of artificial intelligence among Americans has skyrocketed since the release of platforms such as ChatGPT, and a new study found that residents of states out West are far more likely to use AI than Southern states. "The use of Artificial Intelligence in the US is on the rise, and it's clear to see why," a spokesperson for YACSS, an AI-driven company that builds websites and also conducted the study, said of the findings in a report provided to Fox News Digital. "It is frequently used to reduce time spent on tedious tasks as well as provide users with endless creative possibilities, and this is all available at the touch of a button." The study, released this month, examined Google data on keywords frequently searched by people interested in artificial intelligence over a 12-month span, and averaged each state's monthly search volume for such terms per 100,000 people.

The Friday AI hype firehose came right on schedule last week. Right before the weekend, the Financial Times reported that DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn creator Reid Hoffman were seeking up to $675 million in funding for their startup Inflection, even though they have yet to release a product. Then the publication reported that Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm, had led an investment of more than $200 million in generative AI company Character AI (which generates dialogue in the style of characters such as Elon Musk and Nintendo's Mario), launching the startup to a $1 billion valuation. The same day, Bloomberg reported that Stability AI, the parent company of the popular open-source Stable Diffusion, is already hunting for additional investment that would value the company at $4 billion. This is all in addition to my weighed-down email inbox, which by Friday was overflowing with subject lines like "Early Look at World's First Customer Support Platform Powered by OpenAI" and "Generative AI Content Creation App For Branded Enterprise Content" and "New ChatGPT-like Feature to Revolutionize Data-Driven Marketing."