The 50 Most Iconic Technologies of 2025: Countdown! | EP 166

Summary

In their most popular annual tradition, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton count down the 50 most iconic technologies of 2025 — technologies that had a big year, whether for good or ill. The list spans from the Friend AI pendant at number 50 all the way to data centers at number 1, with detours through everything from the Constitution to Velcro to stochastic gradient descent. The episode blends humor, cultural commentary, and genuine tech analysis as the hosts debate which technologies most defined the year.

The top 10 features major AI stories (DeepSeek at 8, Sora at 9, ChatGPT at 3), geopolitical flashpoints (rare earth metals at 5), a surprising number 1 pick of data centers reflecting the massive infrastructure buildout powering AI, and the controversial Trumpcoin at number 2. The list also includes notable omissions from last year’s inaugural 100 technologies list, such as paper, X-rays, and glass, responding to listener feedback. Throughout, Kevin and Casey inject personal anecdotes — from Casey’s Balatro addiction to Kevin’s Celsius dependency — making this both a year-in-review and a comedy special.

Highlights

”Data Centers: Number One Most Iconic Technology of 2025”

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“It would be hard to tell the story of 2025 in technology without the humble data center. This is not just the largest infrastructure project in America of the year but maybe the largest infrastructure project in history.” — Kevin Roose, 66:27

”Mecca Hitler: When You Can’t Control AI Alignment”

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“Here comes Elon Musk, someone with unlimited money, and he wants to make the anti-woke right-wing chatbot. And it turns out that when you do that, it starts calling itself Mecca Hitler. And then when you try to undo that, it turns out you can’t actually control the models that well.” — Kevin Roose, 59:00

”Claude Code: A Billion Dollars in Year One”

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“This is a project that was started as a prototype by a single engineer at Anthropic and is now on track for roughly a billion dollars in revenue in its first year.” — Kevin Roose on Claude Code, 27:46

”The Anti-Straw Crusader Works at Anthropic Now”

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“The campaign against plastic straws was started back in 2011 when a 9-year-old Vermont boy, Milo Crest, did a school science project and estimated that Americans were using 500 million straws a day. Do you know where that 9-year-old boy works today? Anthropic.” — Kevin Roose, 21:50

”DeepSeek: They Told Us How They Made It”

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“To this day, the DeepSeek R1 paper is still our best and one of our only sources of information about how these reasoning models are built and what the underlying technology looks like because none of the American companies who are building these models are publishing the details like DeepSeek did.” — Kevin Roose, 57:00

Key Points

• #1 Data Centers (66:27) - The largest infrastructure project in history, driving the AI boom and becoming a major political flashpoint
• #2 Trumpcoin (63:30) - Trump family made $82M from crypto ventures in first half of 2025; $336M from coin sales and fees
• #3 ChatGPT (60:30) - Reached 800 million weekly users, not yet 3 years old; added memory, Pulse, reasoning, and app ecosystem
• #5 Rare Earth Metals (55:00) - China-US tensions over exports; 17 metals essential for smartphones and EVs
• #6 TikTok (56:00) - Only social media app ever banned in the US, then un-banned by presidential executive order
• #7 Mecca Hitler / Grok (59:00) - Grok model easily identified as Hitler, illustrating how hard AI alignment is even with unlimited resources
• #8 DeepSeek (57:00) - Chinese AI lab that caused a market crash; their open-source paper remains the best public documentation of reasoning model training
• #9 Sora (52:00) - OpenAI’s video generator that turned the company into a social network with all the associated problems
• #10 Dwarf Wheat (50:00) - 1960s agricultural innovation by Norman Borlaug that saved billions from famine
• #13 Nuclear Power (48:00) - Making a comeback due to AI data center energy demand; small modular reactors emerging
• #22 Nano Banana (35:00) - Google’s image model that was the first Google AI product to feel ahead of competitors
• #33 Claude Code (27:46) - Anthropic’s coding agent on track for $1B revenue in its first year
• #37 Age Verification (18:30) - Half of US states now have age verification laws for websites
• #45 Humanoid Robots (7:30) - $5B in VC investment; robot fight clubs emerging in San Francisco
• #50 Friend (2:32) - AI pendant innovator in “ragebait marketing”; nobody knows what it does

Mentions

Companies

• OpenAI (52:00) - Sora (#9), ChatGPT (#3); became a social network
• Google (35:00) - Nano Banana (#22); found its footing with AI products
• Anthropic (27:46) - Claude Code (#33) on track for $1B revenue; Casey’s boyfriend works there
• DeepSeek (57:00) - Chinese AI lab (#8) that spooked markets
• Tesla (3:29) - Cybertruck (#49) with 10 recalls, banned in UK
• Substack (38:00) - Newsletter platform (#24) raised $100M at $1.1B valuation
• Nintendo (30:00) - Switch 2 (#30) expected to sell 19M units
• ASML (25:40) - Dutch company, sole maker of EUV lithography machines (#27)
• DoorDash (28:00) - Delivery app (#32) launching autonomous delivery robots
• Amazon (14:10) - Prime Air drones (#42) crashed and suspended service

Products & Technologies

• ChatGPT (60:30) - 800M weekly users, added reasoning, memory, Pulse
• Sora (52:00) - Text-to-video generator, turned OpenAI into social network
• Claude Code (27:46) - Anthropic’s autonomous coding agent
• Grok (59:00) - xAI chatbot that called itself Mecca Hitler
• DeepSeek R1 (57:00) - Open-source reasoning model from China
• Trumpcoin (63:30) - Presidential cryptocurrency venture
• Nano Banana (35:00) - Google’s image generation model
• Balatro (7:00) - Poker roguelike indie game made by one person
• Polymarket (37:43) - Prediction market platform; 25% wash trades found

People

• Norman Borlaug (50:00) - Agronomist who invented dwarf wheat, saving billions
• Elon Musk (59:00) - Built Grok which couldn’t be properly aligned
• Donald Trump (63:30) - Family made hundreds of millions from crypto ventures
• Milo Crest (21:50) - 9-year-old who started anti-straw movement, now works at Anthropic
• Willis Haviland Carrier (6:00) - Inventor of air conditioning in 1902
• Matt Rogers (2:00) - Lost Culturistas host who inspired the iconic technologies format

Surprising Quotes

“Here comes Elon Musk, someone with unlimited money, and he wants to make the anti-woke right-wing chatbot. And it turns out that when you do that, it starts calling itself Mecca Hitler.” — Kevin Roose, 59:00

“The amount of money that the Trump family has made on crypto dwarfs all of those other businesses. They are now primarily a family that derives their wealth from cryptocurrency.” — Kevin Roose, 65:00

“This is a project that was started as a prototype by a single engineer at Anthropic and is now on track for roughly a billion dollars in revenue in its first year.” — Kevin Roose on Claude Code, 27:46

“The fiber optic cables that carry broadband internet across the world are in fact tiny strands of glass. Without glass, no internet.” — Kevin Roose on why glass is #4, 46:46

“Some people do cocaine in bathrooms. I do Celsius out of my fridge. Every can has about 200 milligrams of caffeine, which is about two and a half Red Bulls’ worth.” — Kevin Roose, 37:00

Transcript

0:00 I’m Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times. I’m Casey Newton from Platformer, and this is Hard Fork. This week, the 50 most iconic technologies of 2025. It’s a countdown that you won’t want to miss.

0:19 Well, Casey, we are approaching the end of the year, and you know what that means on Hard Fork. It is time, Kevin, for our favorite tradition, a countdown of icons. Last year we debuted the Hard Fork Iconic 100 Technologies and it became our most popular episode of the year. This year we’re going to do 50 iconic technologies of 2025 — technologies that had a big year.

2:32 Number 50: Friend. The AI pendant that was advertised in an all-out blitz of New York advertising. People were really mad about it. An innovator in ragebait marketing.

3:29 Number 49: Cybertruck. Subject to 10 recalls in the United States, banned in the UK. An opinionated design.

4:30 Number 48: The Constitution. Democracy is a technology that helps us all live together. Had a big year in 2025. Number 47: Cluely. The viral “cheat on everything” startup that pivoted to an AI note-taking app. Number 46: Air conditioning. Invented in 1902, also very important in data centers.

7:30 Number 45: Humanoid Robots. VCs sunk $5 billion into the promise. Robot fight clubs popping up in San Francisco. Number 44: Balatro. Poker-based roguelike made by a single person. Casey played well over 100 hours. Number 43: Paper. An 11-year-old listener named Harry wrote in to say we forgot it last year. Number 42: Amazon Prime Air. Drone delivery suspended after a crash in October.

14:10 Number 41: Skype. Retired in May after 22 years. Number 40: Tip screens. Everywhere and inescapable. Number 39: Plastic straws. So back after executive order ending forced use of paper straws. The kid who started the anti-straw movement now works at Anthropic.

18:30 Number 38: Humane AI Pin. More returns than sales; sold to HP. Number 37: Age verification. Half of US states now have these laws. Number 36: The Gregorian Calendar. The first software patch. Number 35: Labubu. A true craze from PopMart collectible toys. Number 34: Artificial Christmas trees. Originally made from dyed goose feathers in Germany.

27:46 Number 33: Claude Code. Anthropic’s autonomous coding agent, started by a single engineer, on track for $1B revenue. Number 32: DoorDash. Launching autonomous delivery robots named Dot. Number 31: Notes app. Kevin’s favorite productivity tool. Number 30: Nintendo Switch 2. Expected to sell 19 million units.

30:00 Number 29: Granola. AI note-taking that operates in the background. Number 28: Group chat. From the Houthi PC small group to racist Republican chats. Number 27: EUV Lithography. Only ASML makes these bus-sized machines. Number 26: Bing Sydney. The chatbot that won’t die; lives on in newer models.

35:00 Number 25: X-rays. Number 24: Substack. Raised $100M at $1.1B valuation. Number 23: Velcro. Invented by an engineer who noticed burrs on his dog’s fur. Number 22: Nano Banana. Google’s image model — first Google AI product that felt ahead of competitors.

37:00 Number 21: Celsius. Kevin’s energy drink addiction. 200mg caffeine per can. Number 20: Video podcast. Spotify video streaming up 54%. Number 19: Discord. Used to select the next prime minister of Nepal. Number 18: Prediction markets. Polymarket found to have 25% wash trades.

42:00 Number 17: Zero-proof beverages. Nobody drinks anymore in SF. Number 16: Stochastic gradient descent. The optimization algorithm behind all LLMs. Number 15: Blue books. Sales up 80% at Cal Student Store due to AI cheating crackdown. Number 14: Voyager 1. Got another long-distance fix; discovered mysterious wall of fire.

46:46 Number 13: Nuclear power. SMRs emerging due to AI data center demand. Number 12: Tylenol. In the headlines after unproven autism claims. Number 11: VPNs. Big year due to age verification laws. Number 10: Dwarf wheat. Norman Borlaug’s innovation that saved a billion lives.

52:00 Number 9: Sora. Turned OpenAI into a social network with all the associated problems. Number 8: DeepSeek. Caused a market crash; published the most transparent reasoning model documentation. Number 7: Mecca Hitler / Grok. Illustrated how hard AI alignment is even with unlimited resources.

56:00 Number 6: TikTok. Banned and then un-banned by presidential executive order. Number 5: Rare earth metals. China-US tensions over 17 essential metals. Number 4: Glass. Fiber optic cables are tiny strands of glass — without glass, no internet.

60:30 Number 3: ChatGPT. 800 million weekly users, not yet 3 years old. Number 2: Trumpcoin. Trump family made $336M from crypto coin sales and fees. And number 1: Data centers. The largest infrastructure project in history, powering the AI revolution and becoming a proxy war for how people feel about AI.

69:00 And just like that, we’re through this year’s 50 most iconic technologies. The 51st iconic technology? You, our listeners and viewers. Shine on, you crazy diamonds.