4 technologies that didn’t make our 2026 breakthroughs list

If you’re a longtime reader, you probably know that our newsroom selects 10 breakthroughs every year that we think will define the future. This group exercise is mostly fun and always engrossing, but at times it can also be quite difficult. We collectively pitch dozens of ideas, and the editors meticulously review and debate the merits of each. We agonize over which ones might make the broadest impact, whether one is too similar to something we’ve featured in the past, and how confident we are that a recent advance will actually translate into long-term success. There is plenty of lively discussion along the way. The 2026 list will come out on January 12—so stay tuned. In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the technologies from this year’s reject pile, as a window into our decision-making process. These four technologies won’t be on our 2026 list of breakthroughs, but all were closely considered, and we think they’re worth knowing about.

Male contraceptives

There are several new treatments in the pipeline for men who are sexually active and wish to prevent pregnancy—potentially providing them with an alternative to condoms or vasectomies. Two of those treatments are now being tested in clinical trials by a company called Contraline. One is a gel that men would rub on their shoulder or upper arm once a day to suppress sperm production, and the other is a device designed to block sperm during ejaculation. (Kevin Eisenfrats, Contraline’s CEO, was recently named to our Innovators Under 35 list). A once-a-day pill is also in early-stage trials with the firm YourChoice Therapeutics. Though it’s exciting to see this progress, it will still take several years for any of these treatments to make their way through clinical trials—assuming all goes well.

World models

World models have become the hot new thing in AI in recent months. Though they’re difficult to define, these models are generally trained on videos or spatial data and aim to produce 3D virtual worlds from simple prompts. They reflect fundamental principles, like gravity, that govern our actual world. The results could be used in game design or to make robots more capable by helping them understand their physical surroundings. Despite some disagreements on exactly what constitutes a world model, the idea is certainly gaining momentum. Renowned AI researchers including Yann LeCun and Fei-Fei Li have launched companies to develop them, and Li’s startup World Labs released its first version last month. And Google made a huge splash with the release of its Genie 3 world model earlier this year. Though these models are shaping up to be an exciting new frontier for AI in the year ahead, it seemed premature to deem them a breakthrough. But definitely watch this space.

Proof of personhood 

Thanks to AI, it’s getting harder to know who and what is real online. It’s now possible to make hyperrealistic digital avatars of yourself or someone you know based on very little training data, using equipment many people have at home. And AI agents are being set loose across the internet to take action on people’s behalf. All of this is creating more interest in what are known as personhood credentials, which could offer a way to verify that you are, in fact, a real human when you do something important online. For example, we’ve reported on efforts by OpenAI, Microsoft, Harvard, and MIT to create a digital token that would serve this purpose. To get it, you’d first go to a government office or other organization and show identification. Then it’d be installed on your device and whenever you wanted to, say, log into your bank account, cryptographic protocols would verify that the token was authentic—confirming that you are the person you claim to be. Whether or not this particular approach catches on, many of us in the newsroom agree that the future internet will need something along these lines. Right now, though, many competing identity verification projects are in various stages of development. One is World ID by Sam Altman’s startup Tools for Humanity, which uses a twist on biometrics. If these efforts reach critical mass—or if one emerges as the clear winner, perhaps by becoming a universal standard or being integrated into a major platform—we’ll know it’s time to revisit the idea.

The world’s oldest baby

In July, senior reporter Jessica Hamzelou broke the news of a record-setting baby. The infant developed from an embryo that had been sitting in storage for more than 30 years, earning him the bizarre honorific of “oldest baby.” This odd new record was made possible in part by advances in IVF, including safer methods of thawing frozen embryos. But perhaps the greater enabler has been the rise of “embryo adoption” agencies that pair donors with hopeful parents. People who work with these agencies are sometimes more willing to make use of decades-old embryos. This practice could help find a home for some of the millions of leftover embryos that remain frozen in storage banks today. But since this recent achievement was brought about by changing norms as much as by any sudden technological improvements, this record didn’t quite meet our definition of a breakthrough—though it’s impressive nonetheless.