The 8 worst technology failures of 2024

technologyreview.com

4 points·CharlesW··3 comments

Kind of an interesting list, and I think I have less to argue about than MIT's top tech breakthroughs of 2024:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/08/1085094/10-break...

Many of which are just speculative. I think they make that list too early, whether 2023 or 2024. Many energy technologies that "could" have an impact, for instance, and Threads as a X/Twitter killer?? Hmm..

Maybe put them on the 2025 list when the breakthrough tech actually gets traction or proves it has staying power. I know the list is purposefully speculative (futurist), but I think the list would be more relevant if it was more grounded.

Not good. Besides the modal dialogs and terrible web design, it doubles up ("woke ai" and "ai slop" are the same garbage) and lists the pager explosions as a "technology failure" when it was a deliberate supply chain attack, an entirely different thing.

Yes, I wasn't sure if the pagers were supposed to be an ironic sort of "technology failure" or what. For Hezzy and Iran, for sure - they made a strategic bet on this pager scheme to avoid compromised cell phones, and that was a huge tech failure.

A group bet big on the technology and lost big. As opposed to say, drones in warfare, where Ukraine bet big and it is a game changer in 2024, it was a success for Ukraine but can't be called a failure for anyone because no one (Russia) expected any wins of their own out of Ukrainian drone adoption only to be let down.

So one unique aspect of this item is that it's the only one on the list where the failure for one global group resulted in success for a different global group. Unless you count Boeing short-sellers, I guess.

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