It’s time to reset expectations.
AI is going to reproduce human intelligence. AI will eliminate disease. AI is the single biggest, most important invention in human history. You’ve likely heard it all—but probably none of these things are true.
AI is changing our world, but we don’t yet know the real winners, or how this will all shake out.
After a few years of out-of-control hype, people are now starting to re-calibrate what AI is, what it can do, and how we should think about its ultimate impact.
When the wow factor is gone, what’s left? How will we view this technology a year or five from now? Will we think it was worth the colossal costs, both financial and environmental?
Here, at the end of 2025, we’re starting the post-hype phase. This package of stories is a way to reset expectations—a critical look at where we are, what AI makes possible, and where we go next.
Let’s take stock.
The great AI hype correction of 2025
Four ways to think about this year’s reckoning.
Everyone in tech agrees we’re in a bubble. They just can’t agree on what it looks like — or what happens when it pops.
A brief history of Sam Altman’s hype
Here’s how pinning a utopian vision for AI on LLMs kicked off the hype cycle that’s causing fears of a bubble today.
The AI doomers feel undeterred
But they certainly wish people were still taking their threats really seriously.
AI coding is now everywhere. But not everyone is convinced.
Developers are navigating confusing gaps between expectation and reality. So are the rest of us.
AI materials discovery now needs to move into the real world
Startups flush with cash are building AI-assisted laboratories to find materials far faster and more cheaply, but are still waiting for their ChatGPT moment.
AI might not be coming for lawyers’ jobs anytime soon
Generative AI might have aced the bar exam, but an LLM still can’t think like a lawyer.
Generative AI hype distracts us from AI’s more important breakthroughs
It’s is a seductive distraction from the advances in AI that are most likely to improve or even save your life
CREDITS
EDITORIAL
Writing and reporting: Edd Gent, Alex Heath, Will Douglas Heaven, Michelle Kim, Garrison Lovely, Margaret Mitchell, James O’Donnell, David Rotman
Series editor: Niall Firth
Additional editing: Rachel Courtland, Charlotte Jee, Mary Beth Griggs, Mat Honan, Adam Rogers, Amanda Silverman
Managing editor: Teresa Elsey
Copy editing: Linda Lowenthal
Fact checking: Jude Coleman, Graham Hacia, Simi Kadirgamar
Engagement: Juliet Beauchamp, Abby Ivory-Ganja
DESIGN
Art direction: Stephanie Arnett
Photo Illustrations: Derek Brahney
Article link: https://www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/hype-correction/
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