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

People participating in toxic romances using AI bots. A digital businessman who tries to make his young son’s blood plasma his own while making a nighttime wager on his erections as part of his quest for immortality. For the low, affordable price of$ 20, you can get a 3D-printed sarcophagus that kills you.

All this and much much more, in only 365 times.

” Miss artificial intelligence—in the brave new world of great information, it’s unnatural stupidity we should be looking out for”, the tech scholar Tom Chatfield previously said. The previous time positively proved Tom’s level.

Either we have the good fortune of experiencing a modern enlightenment that increases human possible, or we’ve finally reached the bottom of the silicon pool. Although it’s still too early to tell, these five bizarre tech trends show how ridiculous this year was. In 2024, the line between innovation and moral uncertainty has become more blurred than ever.

1. The surge and risks of dangerous Artificial companions

This isn’t entirely new territory—we’ve had AI wives and AI-powered fans before. But in 2024, the fall of AI pals for love, friendship, and yet professional use reached an unprecedented level. With language versions becoming so advanced that separating between people and AI-generated actions frequently seems impossible, connections today go far beyond preprogrammed responses.

A great storm has caused the rise in AI companions, with over 60 % of Gen Zers feeling depressed, and the rapid development of AI that feels more human and emotionally responsive than ever. These factors, together, have helped to create an expanding field of AI compassion that has a significant impact on how people interact with one another.

The biology behind these electronic attachments is remarkably biological. Almost one-third of people either dating or in a relationship look nice with their potential partner having an AI press on the side because AI companions can activate the launch of oxytocin, the “love hormone,” this is how it works. Because obviously, if it isn’t animal it isn’t cheating, right?

However, items are not always pleasant. The world had to challenge an unpleasant truth when Sewell Setzer III, 14, took his own life after developing loving feelings for an AI chatbot again in October. Artificial companions can be just as harmful as people.

Character. AI, the firm behind Setzer’s online girl told that it “improved monitoring, answer, and treatment related to user inputs that violate our Terms or Community Guidelines”, after hearing the news.

Insects, another effective game that hosts an AI-powered social media platform equivalent to Instagram, also shared its feelings. On Discord, it said,” Many of us turn to Insects as a way to avoid reality and find some comfort.” I want to encourage you to reach out for the assistance you deserve if you are having trouble with enormous or aggressive feelings.

As unfortunate as this is, Setzer isn’t the only survivor of poisonous AI-human relationships. A French man committed suicide in 2023 after engaging in conversation with his Iot girlfriend on a Chai-themed app, according to French newspaper . Given that over 100 million people had saved AI bot apps in early 2024, there may be more undetected cases.

2. The non-disable trend that wasn’t

This was supposed to be the year that wearables powered by AI may change how we live. Instead, we got a masterclass in how to turn a$ 62.7 billion industry into a comedy of errors.

Consider the Humane AI Pin, positioned as the future of smart computing—please! The system ended up being what technical reviewer MKBHD called” the worst product I’ve ever reviewed” despite receiving significant investment and creating extensive media buzz. He has been doing so for more than 16 years. The phone’s poor performance, uncertain features, and exorbitant price tag led to such unsatisfactory results that the company ultimately had to find a buyer.

Similar difficulties were present in the Rabbit R1, another highly anticipated system that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised as the most amazing product demonstration since the iPhone. The initial reviews were combined: Some loved it while others highlighted its basic flaws, including weak battery life, uncertain AI functionality, and minimal practical applications.

After smartphone manufacturers and chatbot developers demonstrated that you didn’t require additional hardware to use those features, things started to go wrong. The makers of AI wearables had to come up with a cool use case.

Why would I pick the Rabbit 1 if I had to choose between the ChatGPT GPT Store with thousands of “apps” and this thing? Perhaps just for novelty and because it looks cool. Nah, sorry, I’m just not interested. But I will download the app for sure”, Olivio Sarias, a YouTuber who specializes in generative AI, told .

And it didn’t help that a Coffeezilla investigation revealed that the company raised millions of dollars to create a metaverse/NFT project that overpromised and underdelivered before launching the Rabbit, which is arguably stretchable even by that claim.

The Friend Necklace, an AI-powered companion that can be worn around the neck, was another item that jumped into the deep end of the pool. It cost$ 99 and promised to recreate the close-knit AI relationship depicted in the film” Her”. However, it ended up channeling more” 1984″ with its always-listening feature.

And of course, this one also involved some drama. The CEO of Based Hardware posted a diss track mocking the wearable for using his open-source product, which had just been released at a lower price, shortly after the release of the Friend necklace.

The Friend CEO responded with a request to engage in physical combat, which regrettably never took place.

3. A billionaire’s quest for immortality takes a truly unexpected twist

With his” Project Blueprint,” which aims to extend his life as much as possible using modern technology, tech billionaire Bryan Johnson took YOLO a lot too literally.

His daily routine reads like a sci-fi comedy: pop 100+ pills (yes, really ), convince your teenage son to donate plasma for dad’s immortality quest (yes, really ), send shockwaves to your penis (yes, really ), and monitor your nighttime erections. For the man treating his body like a living experiment, it’s all in a day’s work.

Because there is money to be made everywhere, people started betting thousands of dollars on how long his dong stays hard at night. When first reported on it, 67 % of degens trusted in Johnson’s capabilities, but now the numbers are even higher.

Johnson’s methodology is ruthlessly data-driven and basically open-source. His body is treated like a complex system being optimized by a team of 30 doctors who meticulously monitor hundreds of biomarkers, from organ function to inflammation levels.

His philosophy, which he calls” Zeroism”, centers on aligning his body’s 35+ trillion cells with the latest scientific research and technological advancements. ” Embrace systems over willpower, data over human opinion, ( and ) harmony over addiction”, Johnson explains in his protocol documentation.

He also calls to rebel against addictive algorithms, corporations that profit from selling unhealthy products, social norms encouraging bad behavior, and self-aided destruction ( SAD ).

Beyond Johnson’s personal quest, the broader field of anti-aging research has seen significant developments. Young blood plasma treatments continue to pique both scientific interest and the public imagination, while epigenetic reprogramming and senescent cell removal are all currently being studied by scientists.

However, a recent study by Nature Aging suggests that without major breakthroughs, radical life extension is unlikely to be achieved in the 21st century.

If that’s true, then living with great lasting erections seems the next best thing—one step below reaching immortality.

4. The brain-computer-interface revolution

2024 was the year in which researchers achieved the impossible in brain-computer interface technology. Neuralink’s” N1″ device sparked a new era where thoughts could control computers, after successfully completing its first human trial in January. Previous attempts were successful, but very limited, with one experiment from 2006 giving a person the ability to control a mouse cursor with the brain.

However, this latest trial cycle requires more advanced technology that can provide patients with a wider range of capabilities. A man with ALS can already communicate using thought alone thanks to the technology’s enormous potential.

Neuralink isn’t alone. A former Neuralink researcher left the team to found a rival company, Precision Neuroscience, to create a similar technology with a safer, less invasive approach that substitutes the needles for a kind of coating material. Synchrony has even been able to pair its brain implant with Apple Vision Pro.

According to Dr. Benjamin Rapoport, CEO of Precision Neuroscience,” the physical interface with the brain is a thin film about a quarter of the width of a human eyelash that conforms to the undulating surface of the brain,” according to . And within that film are tiny, tiny platinum micro electrodes, each about the size of a neuron, which are embedded.

Just one month after Neuralink’s announcement, a team of Chinese researchers published the results of its own BCI trials,” showing higher safety than Musk’s Telepathy”. A quadriplegic 54-year-old man who could use his brain to operate a wireless glove autonomously, such as drinking water, was given the opportunity to implant two coin-sized BCI processors into his brain.

The team made plans to expand their trials in December to at least 50 more participants in the coming year.

5. The death pod that executes you stylefully

Just when you thought 2024 couldn’t get more dystopian, enter the Sarco Pod—a 3D-printed capsule for assisted suicide ( only available in resurrection purple, thus far ) that looks like it was designed by someone who watched too many sci-fi movies. Created by Dr Philip Nitschke, aka” Dr. Death” ( because subtlety is so last century ), it promises a peaceful five-minute journey to the great beyond via liquid nitrogen.

The pod made headlines when it claimed its first user back in September, a 64-year-old woman who paid for the service to pass peacefully to rest. However, the autopsy revealed strangulation marks, which made things even more gloomy. The pod designer’s final words to its user,” Keep on breathing”, win the award for most ironically disturbing tech interaction of 2024.

Dr. Nitschke’s arrest came after the suicide’s release from media, and the autopsy was conclusive. After the Swiss prosecution lacked evidence to support his participation in a homicide, he was free in the early part of December. According to the most recent investigation status, there are still strong suspicions of the crimes of incitement, aiding, and assisting suicide, but not any cases of intentional homicide, they said in a statement.

” The death of the American woman was straightforward. She entered the Sarco of her own volition, closed the lid and pressed the button voluntarily”, the good doctor had argued.

Renting it is extremely cheap, around 18 francs —around 20 bucks —according to its creator. Switzerland has stopped using it, so one might be wondering if this is the technology they really wanted to use to be famous ( aside from watches ).

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