There are a couple other things I’ll be watching closely in 2025. One is how little the major AI players—namely OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google—are disclosing about the environmental burden of their models. Lots of evidence suggests that asking an AI model like ChatGPT about knowable facts, like the capital of Mexico, consumes much more energy (and releases far more emissions) than simply asking a search engine. Nonetheless, OpenAI’s Sam Altman in recent interviews has spoken positively about the idea of ChatGPT replacing the googling that we’ve all learned to do in the past two decades. It’s already happening, in fact.
The environmental cost of all this will be top of mind for me in 2025, as will the possible cultural cost. We will go from searching for information by clicking links and (hopefully) evaluating sources to simply reading the responses that AI search engines serve up for us. As our editor in chief, Mat Honan, said in his piece on the subject, “Who wants to have to learn when you can just know?”
Deeper Learning
What’s next for our privacy?
The US Federal Trade Commission has taken a number of enforcement actions against data brokers, some of which have tracked and sold geolocation data from users at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals, and military installations without explicit consent. Though limited in nature, these actions may offer some new and improved protections for Americans’ personal information.