Maybe you're at a party, debating whether "Succession," "Breaking Bad" or "The Sopranos" was the better show, and one person proudly chimes in that they don't know, because they don't watch TV.

The ID version of that: Ask a group of industrial designers to debate their favorite designs of all time, and that one person always says "The paper clip." This is a popular saw; the MoMA's "Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design" exhibit, design critic Owen Edwards' "Elegant Solutions" book, London Science Museum's "Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everyday Things," design historian Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful Things" and more always hail the bent piece of paper-holding wire as the crowning achievement of industrial might.

Image: Christin Hume on Unsplash

In an April Fool's joke, Technabob stated that Microsoft chose the paper clip as their new face of AI. The gag was that they'd bring back "Clippy," the company's much-derided illustration for the not-so-helpful "assistant" that first came with Office 97, to serve as the visual representation of the ChatGPT-driven Bing AI. (As it turns out, this idea has had traction on Twitter since at least January.)

Technabob

We've thought about it, and we fully support the idea. The 'bot needs a face.

"It looks like you're trying to start Armageddon. I can help with that--is this business Armageddon or personal Armageddon?"