For technology, 2022 has been a watershed year. On the global stage, we’ve seen the great tech slowdown as the years of pandemic-induced growth finally ground to a halt, and with it, the evaporation of tens of thousands of jobs. Meanwhile, China is still clinging to its zero-Covid policy, and for most of the year continued to lock down entire regions and millions of people if infections were found. And the invasion of Ukraine continues to rumble on, with thousands dead and threats to European energy and world food security.

Supply lines are still constricted, here and abroad, and there’s been a cooling of consumer demand. It was also the year when the US doubled down on it slow-motion war with China as it moved to curb the export of advanced chips as well the machines to fabricate them. This is aimed, among other things, at slowing China’s progress in AI.