AI’s effect on our world will be dramatic, but nothing will ever be as dramatic as the collective freak-out we all had about the emerging technology in 2023. With billions of dollars on the table and the promise that AI will transform every corner of modern life, everyone from businesses, to regulators, to regular people spent the last year jockeying to get in on the action. Along the way, we’ve been dealt some class-A techno-stupidity.
Countless businesses pivoted to AI-focused models. Lonely men fell in love with AI sexbots. An entire generation of online grifters built an empire on boring AI art and courses promising that you, too, could use the technology to make easy money.
A comprehensive list of the most brain-dead AI events of 2023 would stretch from here to the end of the internet, but your old pals at Gizmodo put together some of the standouts. Here’s a look back at the dumbest AI news of 2023. Click through the slideshow above, or just scroll down if you’re on a mobile device.
