Three AI advancements to look out for in 2025
War, film and work are among the areas that will be characterized by KI in 2025.
AI generated illustration from Midjourney
Main moments
2024 was a spectacular year for artificial intelligence. We got models that score as well as PhD students on tests in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. We saw AI as the master Norwegian dialects and can conduct conversations with humor, irony and empathy. And we got the first AI systems who can independently perform tasks on a computer.
All this is impressive, especially considering that the AI models could barely formulate a coherent text five years ago. Yet the really big changes lie ahead.
2025 will be the year when AI goes from being an exciting toy to changing how we work, are creative and — potentially — wage war. These are my predictions for 2025.
First AI-generated feature film
In 2025, we will see the first feature film in which all images, effects, sound and actors are one hundred percent AI-generated. The scripting, cutting and prompting will probably still be done by humans, but otherwise the AI-en will manage perfectly.
The technology already exists today. The latest models in AI video generation have now reached a level where anyone can conjure up the wildest scenes on the canvas with the touch of a button.
With a simple text description, Google's Veo 2 can create photorealistic scenes such as “a lego shark swims past a real coral reef while chasing a diver.”
The result is astonishingly natural, with perfect movements, light and details such as air bubbles. Perhaps most impressive is that the AI manages to “understand” how Lego pieces shaped like a shark would move in water, despite the fact that there is no training data for this.
The first AI film is unlikely to come from Hollywood, but from an indie studio or an experimental artist. And yes, the critics will probably be lining up to point out that it “lacks humanity.” But it will be the start of a new era in filmmaking.
Once a AI can replace expensive special effects and animation with a keystroke, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the industry follows suit. Jeffrey Katzenberg, former Disney executive, predicts that AI can replace up to 90 percent of animators.
AI-guided drone swarms used in conflict
A scarier development we will see on the battlefield. In 2025, for the first time, we will see AI-guided drone swarms being used in an armed conflict. Drone swarms are swarms of at least five drones that fly in coordinated formation and where each drone automatically adapts to the movement of the others -- a bit like a flock of birds. A human operator will still select the target and mission, while the AI will take care of the actual flight.
This video from the state-owned news channel CTC in China showing what is supposed to be a swarm of explosive drones.
Ukraine and Gaza show how drones and AI are already an integral part of modern armaments. In Ukraine, drones are used to survey enemy positions and drop grenades at trenches and tanks. Small, commercial drones costing a few thousand dollars have been shown to be able to destroy military equipment worth millions.
In Gaza, it uses Israeli Defense AI systems that automatically point out people and buildings they believe are affiliated with Hamas. Although an intelligence officer still has to approve each target, this process can take as little like 20 seconds.
I think the military benefits of drone swarms are simply too great for the major powers to want to give them up. An international ban, like the one we have on chemical weapons, could slow development. But in the current geopolitical situation, marked by growing tension between the United States, China and Russia, such an agreement seems sadly unthinkable.
AI agents make their entry into the labor market
A final prediction is that 2025 will be the year in which AI agents make their entry into the labour market and start performing simple routine jobs. KI agents are something completely different than Chat GPT and current language models. Where Chat GPT passively answers questions — like an interlocutor — an KI agent can actively perform complex tasks on their own.
Anthropic, a leading AI company, launched last year a function where their language model Claude can control the computer by itself.
If you ask Chat GPT for travel advice, you'll get a list of suggestions. If, on the other hand, you ask a AI agent to plan your holiday to Hemsedal, they will search for train tickets, check hotel prices, read reviews, and finally present you with a complete itinerary. Where Chat GPT can explain how to fill out an Excel sheet, a AI agent will actually open the spreadsheet and do the work itself.
Today, only prototypes of AI agents exist that can perform simple and shorter tasks. But this will change. They big companies are investing heavily in development, driven by the promise of cheap and precise automated labor.
For AI agents, this is not just another technological advancement — it is the start of a new era in which machines can make independent choices and perform complex tasks.
2024 was the year when AI impressed us. 2025 will be the year when it begins to change us.
