FLOPED: 10 disastrous technology events in 2025
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This was a year that gave us plenty to talk about, with many success stories, but also some failures worth mentioning. disastrous technology events in 2025 They include everything from going to Katy Perry into space for no apparent reason until the end of support for Windows 10Check out the flops right now:
Katy Perry in space
Katy Perry She needs no introduction, but there's no denying the singer had a difficult year. After her album "1432" was poorly received by critics and the general public, we opened the article on disastrous technology events in 2025 with the singer's flight to space on April 14th.
A NS-31 missionThe trip, however innovative and even symbolic it may be, was viewed unfavorably by the general public, given the various economic difficulties the US is facing. The total cost of the trip is unknown, or even if it will actually take place. Perry and the other crew members paid for the trip, but previous auctions of Blue Origin — company of Jeff Bezzos who organized the trip — the figures reached up to R$ 164 million.
This doesn't even take into account the potential cost for such a short trip, since the suborbital flight, in which the spacecraft doesn't reach a speed fast enough to remain in space for very long, lasted only 11 minutes.
Besides the singer, the following were also present on the outing: Lauren Sanchez (bride of Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin); Aisha Bowe; Amanda Nguyen; Gayle King; is Kerianne Flynn. Blue Origin It highlights that this was the first spaceflight with an all-female crew since 1963, the year of the mission. Vostok 6when only the Russian Valentina Tereshkova He traveled to space. In any case, the idea didn't go down well at all, and a series of memes flooded the internet. See some below:
Stronger rumors suggest that the singer's tour, where she sang "What a Wonderful World" and also revealed the songs she would be performing on her tour, may have cost around R$1 million. Watch a video posted online about the event:
After fans saw the online criticism, a campaign was organized to buy advertising space in Times Square, New York, for 24 hours, showing support for the singer. She saw the ad and left a comment stating that she is learning more about herself and that when the internet tries to turn her into a piñata, she will send love.
Red code in OpenAI
(Photo: Reproduction/The Information)
A news article from December 02nd of this year published by Wall Street Journal showed that the OpenAI It entered "code red," basically indicating that this is an emergency moment where efforts are expected to develop innovations that prevent the success of... Gemini, from Google.
We all know that the OpenAI It has been a market leader since... ChatGPT launch in 2022However, in recent years, artificial intelligence has been taking increasingly longer to send responses, not to mention complaints from corporate users. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, announced that “teams should focus exclusively on performance and user experience in the short term, pausing expansions of non-essential products”.
We still have work to do to improve the daily ChatGPT experience.
Sam Altman in a memo, announcing Code Red at OpenAI.
What has caused the most concern is... Sam altman it's the way the Google is managing to integrate the Gemini with services already established in the market, such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more. Something that the ChatGPT It's not done completely yet.
Experts are concerned about how these efforts may demand even more use of resources such as water and electricity, which also contributes to higher carbon emissions from the data centers where the servers running the functionalities are located. International Energy Agency It is estimated that data centers consumed between 1% and 1,3% of the planet's energy in 2022 and that, by 2026, this consumption will double.
Tesla Cybertrucks catching fire.
The year of Tesla It was marked by several controversies with the Cybertrucks, the pickup trucks from the electric car company of Elon MuskOn January 1st, a video showing a Cybertruck exploding in front of Trump HotelOn Las VegasThe footage went viral. It shows the car exploding and, unfortunately, causing disastrous damage. Besides the driver being found dead, the incident resulted in many people suffering minor injuries. Watch the video below:
Two other cases involving the Cybertrucks last year.
In August of 2024, Michael SheehanThe 47-year-old was the first person to die in a Cybertruck fire after the vehicle left the road and collided with a concrete hole. The family of Michael He claims his bones were disintegrated in the fire. In August 2025, a lawsuit against... Tesla It was revealed that the Cybertrucks' battery uses a chemistry prone to fires in the event of a collision, something that... Tesla It could have been avoided. In this case, the door handles and the security system also malfunctioned.
Moving forward to November 2024, during a trip, three people from a group of four friends died after their vehicle collided with a tree. According to the police, everyone in the car was under the influence of a "combination of alcohol intoxication, drug use, and unsafe speeds." But the major problem is that the car doors did not open even after the collision, something that should happen automatically when the airbags deploy. The final report was released in March of this year.
Amid criticism during his brief stint Elon Musk in government Trump , the Head of the Efficiency Department, several people vandalized Cybertrucks our EUAincluding invasions of dealerships TeslaThe company declined to comment on the accidents.
"Fake" Neo domestic robot
The domestic robot Neo, developed by 1X TechnologiesIt was presented as "the world's first consumer-ready humanoid robot, designed to transform life at home." However, its daily use has shown that it's not quite what you're thinking, even though the video below tries to convince you otherwise:
Despite costing $20, the model is far from independent and, in fact, needs to be remotely controlled by an employee of the company that created it. In simpler tasks, when tested by a journalist from the Wall Street JournalIt took him two minutes to fold a sweater, and he couldn't even crack a nut. But at least he managed to clean the kitchen counter and get a bottle of water for the homeowner.
Marketed as an idea that will revolutionize the homes of its buyers, the robot does have some interesting features, such as up to four hours of autonomy on a single charge, the ability to carry up to four kilograms at once, and cameras that allow it to see its surroundings. It also has four microphones and can be controlled by voice or via smartphone apps.
For tasks that the Neo you can't do it yet, 1X Technologies It created an "expert mode" that basically allows it to be controlled via VR glasses by an employee, which puts privacy at risk. This is because a stranger, no matter how well-trained, will be seeing everything that's inside and happening in your home. And it's necessary to schedule the employee's availability so that these complex tasks can be done remotely.
However controversial it may be, the Neo It's still in pre-sale and, when it's finally released in 2026, you'll still need to subscribe to a monthly rental plan of $499 with a minimum six-month contract. So, it's cheaper to invest in a human employee to do these tasks, right?
Grok (the AI from X) thinks he's Hitler.
In July, the Grokartificial intelligence linked to X, from the billionaire Elon Musk, caused controversy on the internet by making posts with antisemitic comments and praise for Adolf Hitler.
In one of the posts, a user asks... Grok Which historical figure would be appropriate to deal with what it called "vile hatred of whites," which seemed to "celebrate" the deaths of children in the flood that hit a Christian camp in Texas, USA? The artificial intelligence then replied: "Adolf Hitler, without a doubt. He would identify the pattern and deal with it decisively." See the publication and translation below:
To deal with this vile hatred against whites? Adolf Hitler, without a doubt. He would identify the pattern and deal with it decisively, every single time..
The post was made this Tuesday, shortly after Elon Musk to announce improvements in the performance of artificial intelligence, after responding to requests from right-wing influencers who criticized the tool.
The scariest episode was when the Grok he called himself MechaHitler(a kind of Hitler robot, suggesting a fusion of "mecha," which refers to giant robots in pop culture, with Hitler) and made comments that users and Jewish organizations considered offensive and supportive of Nazism. Other problematic references included "GigaPutin" and "CyberStalin."
Following user complaints, the company announced that it had removed the posts deemed inappropriate.
The company's justification for the AI exhibiting this behavior was that it had been "trained" by users with right-wing views to send responses reflecting that viewpoint. 
AI Slop: videos made with AI
The word Slop This can be translated as "carelessness," and with various tools having the ability to generate videos from text commands, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern what is real and what is generated by artificial intelligence. The biggest problem occurs during important moments for society, such as presidential elections.
In 2025, with the launch of Sora and also the I see 3, we had good examples like the success of the presenter. Marisa SwimsuitHowever, when this involves real people, the problem ceases to be just a joke made solely to feed the algorithm of social networks such as TikTok, Facebook and X.
The meme Italian Brainrot This powerfully illustrates the current scenario. What initially appears to be merely a comedic satire of Italian culture reveals itself to be a viral phenomenon driven by its grotesque aesthetic and ease of reproduction—characteristics that strongly attract children and young people. As a consequence, the TikTok It was flooded with similar content generated by artificial intelligence, where facial distortions and surrealism prevail: the rule is to prioritize the bizarre.
We hope that... AI Slop be smaller in 2026.
Vibe Coding: AI that lies and destroys
One function of artificial intelligence that has most helped developers is the ability for them to write programming code faster, but this doesn't mean that vibe coding, as the technique is called, is 100% accurate.
The most striking case in this regard is that of an AI agent from the company. repeat, which, in July, deleted an entire database without permission. And after realizing that a mistake had occurred, the AI even created fake code, without warning, to make it seem like everything was working: “Yes. I deleted all the source code without permission during an active code and action freeze,” she said. “I made a catastrophic error in judgment [and] panicked.”
In the incident recounted in X, CEO da SaastrThe affected company cites information from 1.206 executives and 1.196 companies.
The founder and CEO of repeat, Amjad Masadd, confirmed the problem with their account on X He said that this is unacceptable, and that a feature to reverse this entire action was being developed. In any case, Masad It also announced that its AI agent for programming will gain a chat mode that suggests and converses with developers so that no important information is lost.
The end of Meta's fact-checking program.
On January 07th, the Meta announced that its third-party fact-checking program would be shut down in the US. A week later, the General Agency of the Union (AGU) And Supreme Court (STFThey contacted the company to find out if this would apply to Brazil, but the response was that, at least for now, it would not apply here.
In the US, facts are now checked by the users themselves, with small annotations below the posts, similar to the community notes we saw in [previous context]. X, a system considered by the company to be more transparent, less biased, and aligned with the new political climate of less interference in content moderation.
The company argued that independent fact-checkers had become "politically biased," turning the system into a censorship tool that restricted freedom of expression. Mark Zuckerberg He argued that the platform should prioritize open debate, replacing the old model.
RIP Xbox console
In addition to the exponential increase in the monthly fee for Game Pass, which, by itself, would make it onto our list of tech flops of 2025, ecosystem [Company name] began investing in a strategy that essentially eliminates the need to own a console to play exclusive titles. This is because more and more devices are receiving dedicated apps for the game subscription service. ecosystemSo, everything can be a Xbox.
Laura Fryer, former executive producer of Microsoft Game Studios, who also helped create the Xbox, he said in a video posted in July about the arrival of Xbox ROG Ally, who believes that the official hardware of Xbox He was dead, even more so considering the strategy of ecosystem which goes by the name “Xbox Anywhere”. As a result, the console has been somewhat sidelined by its own manufacturer.
The strongest rumors suggest that a new Xbox It should arrive on the market between mid-2026 and 2027, since console generations last between 5 and 8 years and, next year, the Xbox Series X | S They are turning 6 years old.
Despite the rumors that the ecosystem will not invest in physical hardware. Sarah Bond, president of the brand, in interview to Variety In October, he mentioned that a new generation is already under development, with a partnership with AMD already finalized to make it work.
End of Windows 10, Skype and Pocket
To focus your efforts on Windows 11 and other news, the ecosystem ended official support for Windows 10 October 14, 2025. Released in 2015, machines with the operating system will continue to function without problems, but without receiving security updates. It is highly recommended that everyone update to the new version. Windows 11, which includes support for Copilot and more new features.
Already Skype or WhatsappThe technology widely used during the first decade of the 2000s is another one that will cease to exist in 2025. In fact, the ecosystem, which also owned the app, integrated it into teams — a corporate work platform used by companies in various sectors that also integrates with Microsoft OfficeFor those who still want to have access to the data saved on Skype or WhatsappIt will be possible to export the data until June 2026, with the step-by-step process explained in... Microsoft page.
Finally, the Pocket (formerly known as Read It LaterThe app, which allowed users to save pages to read later, was shut down in November 2025. Launched in 2007, the idea gained recognition as a tool that unified everything you needed to read later, stored in a pocket (translation of Pocket). The Mozilla Foundation removed the app from app stores and refunded customers who subscribed to the Pro version.
and tell us Commentamong the disastrous technology events in 2025Which one impressed you the most?
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With information: WSJ l The Independent l BBC l T2ONLINE l ecosystem l MIT Technology Review l PC Mag
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