Partway through 2023, I caught up with a respected, high-ranking tech writer at another publication. We gossiped and nattered, and, a bit exasperated, empathised with each other: we were run ragged. The last two years have raised the stakes for what tech journalists do from serving a small niche community to covering stories that have an impact on the wider world. It's also down to the characters involved and what's at stake. Tech journalists have lived on fast-forward since Elon Musk first lodged his bid to take over Twitter – now X – in April 2022.

China has 100,000 citizens' DNA records that can be accessed using their face in WeChat, the northern part of the country beats a green energy record, and Baidu's AI lab in Silicon Valley surpasses Harvard and MIT in tumor recognition accuracy. This Week In China Tech stays on top of the most important tech stories coming out of the second fastest growing economy in the world. This week, the Shenzhen Huada Forensic Science and Technology Company announced they are storing DNA from over 100,000 individuals from across China. The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huada Group which was established in 1999, is the world's leading genomics research and development institution. The new DNA database has lots of important applications like helping to identify lost or abandoned children, locating missing persons, identification after natural disasters and lifelong record creation (article in Chinese).

This was a wild and tumultuous year in tech, with game-changing scandals, staggering displays of incompetence, and chin-scratching revelations. And while we may prefer to forget the dumpster fire that was the last 12 months, it's worth taking a moment to sit back, kick your feet up, pour a tall glass of something strong, and stroll down this perfectly decrepit memory lane. After all, heck, you made it through. And so, without further ado, here are the top 10 tech stories of the year, ranked. The news may be fake but that smile just has to be real.

The biggest problem facing Silicon Valley is not undervalued unicorns. Nor is it sexual harassment, diversity, the high cost of housing, the congested highways or the battle for talent. All of these issues are certainly critical to people who live and work here. Silicon Valley has been steadily killing jobs, and the worst is yet to come. Venture capitalists like to fund ideas that can scale, which means new companies will grow by adding more technology than workers.

Last week, a Chinese AI powered by 11 servers, which engineers had worked on for three years, lagged behind many high schoolers in China who recently took the college entrance exam. It did OK, though, scoring a 105 -- just above the passing grade of 90. Perhaps "lagged behind" was a poor choice of words. The AI was wicked fast: "It took only 22 minutes for the first test, and 10 minutes for the second -- far ahead of the two-hour allotted time," Mashable reported. All the big platforms -- Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung -- have been massively investing in AI, which received a lot of attention during Google's and Apple's recent press conferences.

Science is moving faster than light at times and technology is only going to provide more wonders in the days to come. However, since technology is more and more becoming a matter of expertise, mainstream media coverage has been few and far between as general public would hardly understand the implications and intricacies of a revolutionary development. However, if you pay attention to the growth of technology even if you are not an engineer, then you will realize that some of the developments can even defy the science fiction stories of the 90s. Such has been the growth of technology that science fiction is fast becoming an impossible genre. From weapons that could remind you of Star Wars to robots that could only be possible in Blade Runner- science fiction is now palpable reality to an extent.

How long do Americans, on average, keep a phone before buying a new one? How long do Americans, on average, keep a phone before buying a new one? This year was one of record-setting hacks, exploding smartphones, months of debating encryption and the proliferation of augmented reality, VR, self-driving cars and fake news. But there were lots of other stories -- some of them off the beaten path -- that illustrated the constantly evolving and hugely influential relationship that we have with technology around us. Can you remember (or guess) some of the numbers and facts gleaned from 10 of NPR's tech stories of 2016?

Evolution inevitably involves the creation of new problems, and the big tech stories of the year show that this goes for IT just like anything else. While the internet has brought the world closer together, it also paved the way for fake news and new forms of espionage. The rise of AI has humans worried about being replaced. Chip makers are consolidating and scrambling to retool to meet the demands of virtual reality and the internet of things. And while Apple removed legacy ports on its new devices, a lot of users are grumbling about needing adapters for their favorite headphones and other peripherals.