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.
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