5 Weirdest Tech Trends of 2024: From AI Lovers to Brain Hacking

Folks participating in poisonous romances with AI chatbots. A tech billionaire that injects his teenage son’s blood plasma into his veins whereas degens wager on his nighttime erections as a part of his quest for immortality. A 3D-printed sarcophagus that kills you for the low, low value of $20.

All this and far way more, in simply three hundred and sixty five days.

“Overlook synthetic intelligence—within the courageous new world of massive information, it is synthetic idiocy we must be searching for,” the tech thinker Tom Chatfield once said. The previous yr undoubtedly proved Tom’s level.

Both we’re lucky sufficient to be witnessing a technological renaissance that enhances human potential, or we’ve lastly gone off the deep finish of the silicon pool. It’s nonetheless too early to inform, however in 2024, the boundary between innovation and moral uncertainty has grown thinner than ever, and these 5 bizarre tech traits show how loopy this yr was.

1. The rise and dangers of poisonous AI companions

This isn’t completely new territory—we’ve had AI girlfriends and AI-powered lovers earlier than. However in 2024, the rise of AI companions for love, friendship, and even skilled use reached an unprecedented scale. Because of generative AI, interactions now go far past preprogrammed responses, with language fashions turning into so refined that distinguishing between human and AI-generated replies typically feels not possible.

The surge in AI companions has been fueled by an ideal storm: a society the place over 60% of the Gen Z persons are feeling lonely, mixed with the fast evolution of AI that feels extra human—and emotionally responsive—than ever. Collectively, these components have turned AI companionship right into a booming industry that’s closely influencing the best way we join.

The science behind these digital attachments is surprisingly organic. AI companions can stimulate the discharge of oxytocin, the “love hormone,” which explains why practically one-third of individuals both courting or in a relationship appear to be cool with their future accomplice having an AI squeeze on the side. As a result of apparently, if it isn’t human it isn’t technically dishonest, proper?

However issues will not be all the time good. When 14-year-old boy Sewell Setzer III took his personal life after creating romantic emotions for an AI chatbot again in October, the world was compelled to confront an uncomfortable fact: synthetic companions could be simply as poisonous as people.

Character.AI, the corporate behind Setzer’s digital girlfriend told Decrypt that it “improved detection, response, and intervention associated to person inputs that violate our Phrases or Group Tips,” after listening to the information.

Butterflies, one other profitable app that hosts an AI-powered social media platform akin to Instagram, additionally shared its ideas. “Many people flip to Butterflies as a approach to escape actuality and discover some consolation,” it stated on Discord. “In case you are scuffling with overwhelming or intrusive ideas, I wish to encourage you to achieve out for the assistance that you just deserve.”

As unhappy as that is, Setzer isn’t the one sufferer of poisonous AI-human relationships. Again in 2023, a Belgian man killed himself after chatting together with his AI girlfriend on an app named Chai, Belgian outlet La Libre reported. And there could also be extra unreported circumstances, contemplating over 100 million people had downloaded AI chatbot apps in early 2024.

2. The wearable revolution that wasn’t

This was presupposed to be the yr through which AI-powered wearables would rework our lives. As an alternative, we acquired a masterclass in easy methods to flip a $62.7 billion industry right into a comedy of errors.

Take the Humane AI Pin, positioned as the way forward for cell computing—please! Regardless of elevating important funding and producing appreciable media buzz, the system proved to be what tech reviewer MKBHD known as “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed“—and he’s been reviewing issues for over 16 years. The system’s poor efficiency, unreliable performance, and exorbitant price ticket led to such disappointing results that the corporate finally needed to seek a buyer.

The Rabbit R1, one other extremely anticipated system praised as the most impressive product presentation for the reason that iPhone by none apart from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, confronted comparable challenges. The preliminary critiques have been blended: Some loved it whereas others highlighted its elementary flaws, together with poor battery life, unreliable AI performance, and restricted sensible purposes.

Issues went down after smartphone corporations and chatbot builders proved you didn’t want extra {hardware} to profit from these functionalities. The AI wearable makers had did not provide you with a cool use case.

“If I’ve the selection between the ChatGPT GPT Retailer with 1000’s of ‘apps’ and this factor—why would I select the Rabbit 1? Perhaps for novelty and since it seems to be cool. Nah, sorry, I am simply not . However I’ll obtain the app for certain,” Olivio Sarias, a YouTuber who makes a speciality of generative AI, instructed Decrypt.

And it did not assist that an investigation by the YouTuber Coffeezilla confirmed that earlier than launching the Rabbit, the corporate raised tens of millions of {dollars} to develop a metaverse/NFT venture that over-promised and under-delivered—and even that assertion is arguably a stretch.

One other product that jumped into the deep finish of the pool was the Friend Necklace, an AI-powered companion designed to be worn across the neck. Priced at $99, it promised to recreate the intimate AI relationship depicted within the film “Her.” Nonetheless, it ended up channeling extra “1984” with its always-listening function.

And naturally there was some drama concerned with this one as effectively. Shortly after the launch of the Good friend necklace, the CEO of Based mostly {Hardware} shared a diss monitor mocking the wearable for copying his open-source product, launched months earlier than at a lower cost.

The Good friend CEO responded with an invite to a bodily combat, which sadly by no means occurred.

3. A billionaire’s quest for immortality takes a really sudden twist

Tech billionaire Bryan Johnson took YOLO manner too actually together with his “Project Blueprint,” which is aimed toward extending his life as a lot as doable with present know-how.

His day by day routine reads like a sci-fi comedy: pop 100+ tablets (sure, actually), persuade your teenage son to donate plasma for dad’s immortality quest (sure, actually), ship shockwaves to your penis (sure, actually), and monitor your nighttime erections. All in a day’s work for the person treating his physique like a dwelling experiment.

His analysis venture went so viral that individuals started betting thousands of dollars on how lengthy his dong stays arduous at night time—as a result of there’s cash to be made in every single place. When Decrypt first reported on it, 67% of degens trusted in Johnson’s capabilities, however now the numbers are even increased.

Johnson’s methodology is ruthlessly data-driven and principally open-source. A group of 30 medical doctors meticulously tracks a whole bunch of biomarkers, from organ operate to irritation ranges, treating his physique like a fancy system to be optimized.

His philosophy, which he calls “Zeroism,” facilities on aligning his physique’s 35+ trillion cells with the newest scientific analysis and technological developments. “Embrace methods over willpower, information over human opinion, (and) concord over dependancy,” Johnson explains in his protocol documentation.

He additionally calls to insurgent in opposition to addictive algorithms, firms that revenue from promoting unhealthy merchandise, social norms encouraging unhealthy habits, and self-aided destruction (SAD).

Past Johnson’s private quest, the broader discipline of anti-aging research has seen significant developments. Scientists are exploring all the things from epigenetic reprogramming to senescent cell elimination, whereas younger blood plasma therapies proceed to seize each scientific curiosity and public creativeness.

Nonetheless, a latest examine by Nature Aging means that with out main breakthroughs, radical life extension is unlikely to be achieved within the twenty first century.

If that’s true, then dwelling with nice lasting erections appears the following smartest thing—one step beneath reaching immortality.

4. The brain-computer-interface revolution

2024 was the yr through which researchers achieved the not possible in brain-computer interface know-how. Neuralink’s “N1” device sparked a brand new period the place ideas may management computer systems, after efficiently finishing its first human trial in January. Earlier makes an attempt have been profitable, however very restricted, with one experiment from 2006 giving an individual the flexibility to regulate a mouse cursor with the mind.

However this new wave of trials includes extra refined know-how able to giving sufferers a extra intensive vary of capabilities. The know-how has already proven exceptional potential, serving to a person with ALS talk by means of thought alone.

Neuralink isn’t alone. Synchron even managed to pair its mind implant with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, and a former Neuralink researcher left the team to found a competitor company, Precision Neuroscience, to develop an identical know-how with a safer, much less invasive method that ditches the needles for a type of coating materials.

“At Precision, the bodily interface with the mind is a skinny movie a few quarter of the width of a human eyelash that conforms to the undulating floor of the mind,” Dr. Benjamin Rapoport, the CEO of Precision Neuroscience said, as reported by Decrypt. “And inside that skinny movie are embedded tiny little platinum micro electrodes, each in regards to the measurement of a neuron.”

Only one month after Neuralink’s announcement, a group of Chinese language researchers printed the outcomes of its personal BCI trials, “showing higher safety than Musk’s Telepathy.” The group implanted two coin-sized BCI processors into the mind of a quadriplegic 54-year-old male, who was able to utilizing his mind to regulate a wi-fi glove to do totally different duties, like consuming water autonomously.

In December, the group introduced plans to increase their trials to incorporate at the very least 50 extra individuals subsequent yr.

5. The demise pod that kills you with model

Simply if you thought 2024 could not get extra dystopian, enter the Sarco Pod—a 3D-printed capsule for assisted suicide (solely out there in resurrection purple, up to now) that appears prefer it was designed by somebody who watched too many sci-fi motion pictures. Created by Dr Philip Nitschke, aka “Dr. Death” (as a result of subtlety is so final century), it guarantees a peaceable five-minute journey to the nice past through liquid nitrogen.

The pod made headlines when it claimed its first user again in September: a 64-year-old lady who paid for the service to die in peace. However issues acquired even darker when authorities found strangulation marks in the course of the post-mortem. The pod designer’s remaining phrases to its person, “Keep on breathing,” win the award for many satirically disturbing tech interplay of 2024.

Dr Nitschke was arrested after the information of the suicide unfold out in social media, and the post-mortem raised cheap questions. He was released in early December after the Swiss prosecution did not show he was a participant in a murder. “Based mostly on the newest investigation standing, there may be nonetheless robust suspicion of the crime of incitement and aiding and abetting suicide, however now not of intentional murder,” they stated in a press release.

“The demise of the American lady was simple. She entered the Sarco of her personal volition, closed the lid and pressed the button voluntarily,” the nice physician had argued.

Renting this can be very low cost, round 18 francs—round 20 bucks—in accordance with its creator. Switzerland has suspended its use, in all probability questioning if that is actually the tech they wished to be well-known for (moreover watches).

Imagine it or not, over 300 people signed up for the service.

Edited by Andrew Hayward