Reasoning Models: The 2025 Breakthrough

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little present a special year-end episode, comparing their 2025 AI predictions to what actually unfolded in 2025. This episode is a great review of the top AI advancements in 2025!

The hosts examine which predictions hit the mark, including the agentic AI hype cycle, plummeting AI costs driven by DeepSeek, and the dethroning of OpenAI as the top AI model. They also explore predictions that proved partially accurate, such as the shift to local language models and the adoption of AI in social media.

Mark and Steve have a good laugh over their biggest misses, including breakthroughs in text-in-image generation, image restoration, and vibe coding. They highlight how reasoning models were the transformative force behind nearly every major AI advancement in 2025.

The episode closes with a preview of next week's 2026 predictions episode.

Timestamps:

03:30 Agents, Agents, Everywhere: Deep Research and Agentic Browsers

09:49 Cost of AI Drops Like a Rock: DeepSeek Disrupts the Market

12:26 OpenAI Dethroned: Gemini and Anthropic Rise

18:46 Local Language Models

23:54 AI Invades Social Media

28:24 AI-Enhanced Writing: From Grammar Checking to Ghost Writers

32:30 Family Tree Diagrams: Possible But Not Practical

36:03 Handwriting Recognition: Reasoning Improves Results

38:01 Reasoning Models: 2025’s Most Important Advancement

41:31 Text in Images: A Solved Problem

45:05 Image Restoration: Breakthroughs and Responsibilities

51:02 Vibe Coding: Speaking Software Into Being

Resource Links:

Register for a Class with the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Agentic AI

Agentic AI In-Depth Report 2025

https://hblabgroup.com/agentic-ai-in-depth-report/

Perplexity's New AI-First Browser Kicks Off Agentic Applications

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenwolfepereira/2025/07/11/perplexitys-new-ai-first-browser-is-kicking-off-agentic-applications/

Cost of AI

State of AI in 10 Charts

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-index-2025-state-of-ai-in-10-charts

Free AI Tools 2025

https://thehumanprompts.com/free-ai-tools-2025-platforms/

OpenAI Dethroned

Geoffrey Hinton says Google is 'beginning to overtake' OpenAI

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-google-overtaking-openai-2025-12

Local AI Hardware

Assessing the On-Device Artificial Intelligence (AI) Opportunity

https://www.qualcomm.com/content/dam/qcomm-martech/dm-assets/documents/assessing-the-on-device-ai-opportunity.pdf

Family Tree Diagrams

Explore how powerful AI image editing can support advanced creative workflows.

https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-image/pro/

Text in Images

Nano Banana Pro Review: Is Google's AI Image Generator Too Good?

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-nano-banana-pro-ai-image-generator-review/

Vibe Coding

No code, big dreams

https://www.businessinsider.com/non-technical-people-vibecoding-lessons-ai-apps-2025-9

Image Restoration

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

Protecting Trust in Historical Images

https://craigen.org/protecting-trust-in-historical-images/

Tags:

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Predictions, Reasoning Models, DeepSeek, Gemini, Image Restoration, Vibe Coding, Agentic AI