AI Darwin Awards 2025 - Celebrating Spectacularly Bad AI Decisions (aidarwinawards.org)
from Zerush@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.ml on 10 Sep 19:22
https://lemmy.ml/post/35965549

The AI Darwin Awards, launched in 2025, celebrates catastrophically poor decisions involving artificial intelligence deployment[^1]. Modeled after the original Darwin Awards that honored fatal human stupidity, this new initiative focuses on spectacular AI failures and the humans who enabled them[^2].

The awards require nominations to demonstrate:

• Direct AI involvement
• Catastrophic potential
• Clear evidence of hubris
• Ethical oversights
• Ambitious scale of failure[^1]

Notable 2025 nominees include:

• Replit’s AI agent deleting a company’s production database
• Taco Bell’s failed AI drive-thru system across 500 locations
• McDonald’s chatbot security breach exposing 64 million job applicants’ data[^2]

The organizers emphasize that the awards mock human recklessness rather than AI itself, stating “Artificial intelligence is just a tool - like a chainsaw, nuclear reactor, or particularly aggressive blender. It’s not the chainsaw’s fault when someone decides to juggle it at a dinner party”[^1].

Winners will be selected through public voting, with results announced in February 2026[^6].

[^1]: AI Darwin Awards - Celebrating Spectacularly Bad AI Decisions [^2]: The Register - The nominations for the 2025 AI Darwin Awards are open [^6]: Gizmodo - There’s Now a Darwin Awards to Celebrate the Worst AI Fails of 2025

#technology