It was January 1st, 2025. The world woke up with hangovers, regrets about midnight texts, and absolutely no idea that technology would surprise us more than the price of Bitcoin surprises anyone.

They promised us flying cars. They gave us chatbots that write better than our college essays. They promised us virtual reality. They gave us brands selling digital sneakers more expensive than real ones. And they promised us artificial intelligence. Boy, did we get it! So much that now even computers have existential crises.

I’m Dr. Sergio Sanchez, your trusted Dr. Qubit, and today we’re doing something even ChatGPT can’t do yet: remember 2025 without hallucinating fake data. Welcome to “Behind the Screen,” the only podcast where technology is explained with burgers, football, and references to The Office.

DR. QUBIT: What’s up, digital listeners! Before we start, let me say this: if you survived 2025 without AI stealing your job, without falling for a crypto scam, and without your smart fridge judging you for eating leftover pizza for breakfast three days straight, congratulations! You’re here, you’re alive, and your personal information is probably only in 47 hacked databases instead of 50.

2025 was the year science fiction stopped being fiction and became “science, wait… really?”. It was the year AI went from being a curiosity to being that coworker who does everything faster than you but can’t make coffee.

Today we’re taking a tour through the tech moments that defined this year. And then, with all the audacity of a fortune teller at a county fair, we’re going to predict what’s coming in 2026.