Deep Questions with Cal Newport Ep 386: Was 2025 a Great or Terrible Year for AI? (w/ Ed Zitron)
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Jan 5, 2026 
In a thought-provoking discussion, Ed Zitron, an independent tech commentator and AI industry analyst, breaks down the chaos of AI in 2025. He delves into the controversy surrounding DeepSeek's low-cost training, critiques the overhyped idea of AI agents replacing jobs, and highlights the financial instability plaguing AI firms. They also question the impact of model scaling and the unrealistic expectations set for tools like GPT-5. Ultimately, Ed argues 2025 was a terrible year for AI, filled with hype and misleading narratives.
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2025 Was An Overloaded Year For AI
- 2025 was saturated with AI headlines that pulled attention in many directions and confused public understanding.
- Cal Newport frames the year as so eventful that judging whether it was good or bad requires month-by-month analysis.
DeepSeek Sparked A Brief Panic
- Ed Zitron recounts DeepSeek as a short-lived media panic about cheap Chinese models trained for far less money.
- The story highlighted dependencies on NVIDIA and spooked markets though it quickly faded from coverage.
Edge Models May Be The Only Profitable Path
- Smaller, task-specific models running on-device are likely the only profitable long-term path for many AI applications.
- That future fragments the industry into many small vendors instead of a single giant company.
