It means they nearly won but sadly didn't. So close yet soo far away.

This must be some form of sarcasm, right? All I see is reasons to stop the waste of resources to further develop AI

Would you go to a stand up comedy show and ask the person on stage if they're being serious?

I guess this would be easy to spot for the end user. Maybe the app that is used for checking the pills can alert the user if one pattern is scanned multiple times.

Showing how often an authenticity code has been checked is something manufacturers like Xiaomi do, where there's rampant counterfeiting.