The worst technology failures of 2023

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The worst technology failures of 2023

By Antonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review | December 22, 2023

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Welcome to MIT annual list of the worst technologies. This year, one technology disaster in particular holds lessons for the rest of us: the Titan submersible that imploded while diving to see the Titanic. 

Everyone had warned Stockton Rush, the sub’s creator, that it wasn’t safe. But he believed innovation meant tossing out the rule book and taking chances. He set aside good engineering in favor of wishful thinking. He and four others died. 

To us it shows how the spirit of innovation can pull ahead of reality, sometimes with unpleasant consequences. It was a phenomenon we saw time and again this year, like when GM’s Cruise division put robotaxis into circulation before they were ready. Was the company in such a hurry because it’s been losing $2 billion a year? Others find convoluted ways to keep hopes alive, like a company that is showing off its industrial equipment but is quietly still using bespoke methods to craft its lab-grown meat. The worst cringe, though, is when true believers can’t see the looming disaster, but we do. That’s the case for the new “Ai Pin,” developed at a cost of tens of millions, that’s meant to replace smartphones. It looks like a titanic failure.

2 key takeaway from the article

1. Welcome to MIT annual list of the worst technologies. This year, one technology disaster in particular holds lessons for the rest of us: the Titan submersible that imploded while diving to see the Titanic – the spirit of innovation can pull ahead of reality, sometimes with unpleasant consequences. 
2. It was a phenomenon we saw time and again this year, like when GM’s Cruise division put robotaxis into circulation before they were ready; a company that is showing off its industrial equipment but is quietly still using bespoke methods to craft its lab-grown meat;  the new “Ai Pin,” developed at a cost of tens of millions, that’s meant to replace smartphones. It looks like a titanic failure. Development of a new substance called LK-99.  And not the last idea of solar geoengineering to cool the planet by releasing reflective materials into the atmosphere. 

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Topics:  Technology, Innovation, Risk