Hello friends,

Happy New Year (is it too late for that?!) and welcome to another edition of AI for the Rest of Us! We had a bunch of new members join over the holiday break, so for all you newbies, welcome, we're thrilled to have you here.

Speaking of members, earlier this week a close friend (and one of “the rest of us”) sent me a text that made me lol – and helped me decide this edition’s topic.

He’d just gotten the new iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence and was eager to try out its fancy new AI features. This is what I got from him:

This got me thinking about where we are with AI and where we’re headed, versus where everyone says we are and where we’re heading. With 2025 now in full swing, my inbox is flooded with predictions about AI assistants for everyone, agents doing our jobs, and robots folding our laundry (side note: if they can fold shirts, I will 100% be one of the first to buy).

But maybe, just maybe, the reality will be a bit different than the headlines suggest and what you might see released into the wild. That’s what we’re digging into this week – what I believe the rest of us should actually expect from AI in 2025. Not predictions because those are for naught when it comes to this technology, but rather a clear-eyed look at what’s likely coming and what it might mean for our day-to-day lives.

Here we go...

– Kyser

P.S. If you’re new to AI and need a crash course on the technology, I highly recommend reading Editions #2 and #3, where we answer the question “What the heck is AI, anyway?”

P.P.S. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions, but if I did, it would be to post more on the AI for the Rest of Us Instagram, so be sure to follow us there because we’ll (be trying our hardest to) post more.

When I look ahead to what’s coming in 2025, I see something interesting happening: AI will continue to exceed our expectations while at the same time falling short of them.

Take my friend's iPhone experience. On one hand, we’ve got phones that can understand human speech remarkably well (if you haven’t used Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT, do it and you’ll see what I mean). On the other hand, asking Siri to come up with a creative message to text a friend still produces something that sounds like it came from Johnny 5 in Short Circuit.

My big take: this pattern of big breakthroughs alongside daily frustrations, with a heavy dose of hype from the big tech companies and mainstream media, is likely to define our AI experience throughout 2025. Let’s break down what that means for the rest of us.

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It’s Play Time

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And that wraps up another edition of AI for the Rest of Us. If you ever have any questions or feedback for me, you know where to find me.

Until next time (and on Instagram between then)...