The article A moody annual review of the tech year 2025 first appeared in the online magazine BASIC thinking. With our newsletter UPDATE you can start the day well informed every morning.
In 2025 there would be almost no way around artificial intelligence. Not without reason AI era chosen as the word of the year in Germany. However, many so-called innovations did not feel like progress – on the contrary. But instead of facts, standard and respect, it was money and the loudest howler monkeys that dominated many debates. A commentary analysis.
AI hype, energy myths, anti-social media
- 2025 was the year in which artificial intelligence could do everything, but nothing was really right. While data centers used vast amounts of energy, the Society driven crazy by the media. Because AI was first hyped, then demonized and finally abandoned again. Until facts and reality could no longer be denied – unless your name was Elon Musk or Donald Trump.
- As in previous years, the so-called Social media will again be a bit more anti-social in 2025. Instead of promoting interpersonal relationships or debates as a social glue, hatred, agitation, lack of standard and bias were part of everyday digital life. The Tech oligarchs acted like feudal platform princes: Elon Musk played world politics on X, Sundar Pichai made the internet worse and Mark Zuckerberg sold the last scrap of his soul.
- Meanwhile, some even weirder birds wanted to Tear down wind turbines as the largest and cheapest energy source in Germanybecause they are responsible for around 200,000 real dead birds every year. That free-roaming domestic cats for several hundred million dead birdies are responsible? Free! The combustion engine lobby also beeped. The result is that electric cars ultimately do not cause more accidents than combustion engines, do not pose a greater fire risk and do not deform anyone’s brain using magical magnetic waves as suggested.
Humanity is abolishing itself
Be it AI, climate change or digitalization: In 2025, most media outlets used almost everything to create new milestones, revolutions or simply the end of the world. Depending on the click demand, AI was either a savior, a job killer, an environmental catastrophe or an exterminator of a humanity that is increasingly abolishing itself.
But while politics, the media and business have fallen for the AI hype, many craftsmen, salespeople and farmers have little interest in the topic of artificial intelligence. After all, some people seem to have already recognized that the AI debate is overrated. Now they just have to realize that they themselves are part of a bubble.
The problem: Debates about AI, renewable energies or digitalization were hardly possible in 2025 either. Never before have so few tech oligarchs controlled so much computing power, digital publicity, data and thus the entire Internet.
The result: People are flooded with information, extreme weather and their own egos, while competition and diversity of opinion are increasingly drying up. Because the constant update cycle takes its toll, so no one listens or is even able to.
Voices
- While over 40 percent of all AI answers in 2025 were incorrect and Google Overview recommended glue as a pizza ingredient, it was constructed OpenAI boss Sam Altman his very personal AI bubble: “I can’t imagine how I’m going to figure out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.”
- 2025 was also the year of the car crisis. But no one could have imagined that China would overtake German car manufacturers internationally when it came to electromobility and that people’s willingness to buy and the necessary change would come to an end. Former Economics Minister Robert Habeck in one interview in 2019 to the then VW boss: “If you don’t offer an electric vehicle for less than 20,000 euros in 2025, then I’m afraid you will fail in the market. Then you will only offer premium cars and would have to rename yourself PW.”
- After Donald Trump At the beginning of 2025, when he prophesied the AI supremacy of the USA, he followed his words with more words. Because: What has happened since then very little. In the middle of the year, however, it suddenly occurred to him in a speech that the term “artificial” in connection with AI bothers him: “You know, I don’t like anything that is artificial, so could we please clarify that? I’m serious – I don’t like the name ‘artificial’ at all. It’s not artificial. It’s genius. It’s pure genius.”
Environment, society, economy
One of my wishes for the coming year: We should all go downhill. Verbally, medially and above all: the pocket computer. Otherwise, many things will be even bigger, even more dangerous or even more urgent in 2026, but not necessarily more important or truer.
But what we need above all to advance digitally, medially and socially is discourse. Because where debates can and should take place, there are often irrelevant discussions or arguments. We need objectivity, standard, respect and above all: compromises.
Because if we drift further and further apart into black and white thinking, society will not progress and the planet will not be helped. Instead of giving in to sensational headlines and endless news feeds, we should try to understand topics in a more complex way and understand each other.
After years of asking “What is possible?” The “What makes sense?” could be back in 2026. come into focus. The potential of AI could be used, for example, to counteract climate change instead of promoting it. Renewables could make us more independent from authoritarian states.
And social debates could take place in digital media, even if people have different opinions. However, the order should Environment, society and economy be. Because without the former, the latter cannot exist.
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The post A moody annual review of the tech year 2025 appeared first on BASIC thinking. Follow us too Google News and Flipboard or subscribe to our newsletter UPDATE.
As a tech industry expert, I would approach a moody annual review of the tech year 2025 with a mix of caution and optimism. While there may have been challenges and setbacks throughout the year, it is important to acknowledge the progress and achievements that have been made in the industry.
One of the key themes of the review would likely be the continued impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize industries and improve the way we live and work, but they also raise concerns about privacy, security, and job displacement.
Another important aspect to consider in the review would be the ongoing debates around ethics and regulation in the tech industry. As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, it is crucial for companies and policymakers to prioritize ethical considerations and ensure that innovation is being used for the greater good.
Overall, while the tech year 2025 may have had its ups and downs, it is clear that the industry is evolving and shaping the future in profound ways. It will be important for stakeholders to continue to collaborate, innovate, and adapt in order to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Credits