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Ten Predictions for Data Science and AI in 2025
On agents, open source models, safety, and more
At an AI conference at the close of the year, I was in the speakers’ lounge finishing up my work when three loud AI executives entered just before the penultimate panel for the day on “the future of AI”. After a quick glance in my direction (likely to ensure I was a harmless NPC), one of them loudly proclaimed “this must be my what…30th? 35th? conference this year.”
After a pause he added, “…and you know what, they are all starting to sound the same.”
While musing about installing guardrails in my eardrums to filter out the humblebrag, I admit: he had a point. There is disturbing ‘sameness’ in AI narratives. It sounds something like:
AI agents and agentic workflows are the next wave.
AI pilots are aplenty. AI in production is dicey.
AI will not take your job, people who know AI will.
AI governance is important. Something something EU AI Act.
As we cross over into 2025, despite churning AI research publications at a rate of over 240,000 a year, and reproducibility crises aside, I wonder how many of them are truly groundbreaking rather than chasing the next incremental improvement of yet another…
