{"id":325642,"date":"2025-12-04T21:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/325642\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T21:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:27:08","slug":"the-3-biggest-ai-fails-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/325642\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3 biggest AI fails of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Generative AI<\/a> could have written this introduction, but there’s a good chance it would have started hallucinating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hallucination, which Google failed to mention in its AI-filled 2025 keynote<\/a>, led to many, many AI fails in 2025. But it wasn’t the only factor. Below, please enjoy our picks for the biggest AI fails from this past year.<\/p>\n

Hallucinations hit academia, government, and the law<\/p>\n

AI has been making stuff up for some time; hallucinate was the word of the year in 2023<\/a> for good reason. <\/p>\n

But in 2025, the problem got a lot worse. Google AI Overviews may no longer be telling you to put glue on pizza<\/a>, but they can also still claim the latest Call of Duty doesn’t exist<\/a>. <\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:
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\n Google AI overviews: Confident when wrong, yet more visible than ever<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

And it’s not like academics are immune. A study from Deakin University<\/a> found that ChatGPT fabricated about one in five of its academic citations, while half of its citations contained other error-laden elements of generative AI hallucination. <\/p>\n

Such proof of hallucination hasn’t stopped politicians, publications, or lawyers. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department used AI<\/a> to cite studies that don’t exist<\/a>. The Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list in May<\/a> full of real authors along with hallucinated book titles. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, lawyers and litigants in 635 cases have used AI hallucinations in their arguments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n Mashable Light Speed\n <\/p>\n

The Friend wearable failed fast<\/p>\n

The Friend is a wearable device that looks like a large necklace pendant and records all of the audio from around the wearer, sends it to a connected phone app, and uses that data to chat with the user by sending texts in real time. <\/p>\n

How incredibly odd, you might think. Could such a device increase our epidemic of isolation and loneliness<\/a>, which is already being exploited by tech companies<\/a>?<\/p>\n

That didn’t stop Friend spending more than $1 million on advertisements on the New York City subway system. Ads hit over 11,000 rail cars, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels, in one of the largest marketing campaigns<\/a> in NYC subway history. <\/p>\n


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The result? Commuters immediately vandalized it<\/a>. Criticism was so widespread that the subway ads themselves became Halloween costumes<\/a>. No wonder reviews of the Friend came with headlines noting “everybody hates it<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Most corporate AI pilots crashed<\/p>\n

Across the business world, companies are being told they simply have to start using AI. The problem: they’re just not very good at it. <\/p>\n

According to a report from MIT\u2019s Media Lab, “The State of AI in Business 2025<\/a>,” 95 percent of corporate AI initiatives fail despite investments that cost those companies somewhere between $30 billion and $40 billion.<\/p>\n

“Tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are widely adopted. Over 80 percent of organizations have explored or piloted them, and nearly 40 percent report deployment,” the report explains. <\/p>\n

“But these tools primarily enhance individual productivity, not P&L performance. Meanwhile, enterprise grade systems, custom or vendor-sold, are being quietly rejected. Sixty percent of organizations evaluated such tools, but only 20 percent reached pilot stage and just 5 percent reached production. Most fail due to brittle workflows, lack of contextual learning, and misalignment with day-to-day operations.”<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping 2026 will hold fewer AI fails. <\/p>\n

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable\u2019s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.<\/p>\n

\n Topics
\n Artificial Intelligence<\/a>\n <\/p>\n