As usual, this text was written by a human, identified as Iwona Fluda, and only minor grammar and syntax were corrected with the help of an AI tool.
As this year comes to an end, I wasn’t planning to give you a neat list of achievements and highlights of 2025. First of all, that would be outrageously boring. And second, since this year was very much not a walk in the park, I will spare you the details. You can imagine it as jumping off a cliff, trying to build wings on the way down, missing the timing completely, and hitting cold ocean water while knowing I am not a great swimmer and not a fan of the cold. So much for the summary. Thank you, 2025.
Also, we talk too much about fluff and unicorns. We talk too much in general, and when we do talk, we speak far too little about what is forgotten and truly real, about what actually matters. I know that “what matters” can differ across people, cultures, and even galaxies, but bear with me. There has to be something worth pausing for.
And btw. The image above is called “Super Intelligence.” I asked Midjourney to imagine it. Everything is wrong with that picture, from the power dynamic it normalizes to the way it places humans as spectators instead of participants. It makes intelligence look like something external, untouchable, and inevitable, while leaving out what matters most: wisdom, empathy, ethics, and responsibility. If this is how we imagine the future, the risk is not only technological. The risk is that we forget we are meant to shape it.
What truly matters. Here is my professional and personal list of things to remember, reflect on, and act upon moving forward.
- Artificial superintelligence and its impact on the world. This is something all of us should be engaged in. It will affect everyone and everything, whether we like it or not. Future of Life Institute (FLI) invites everyone to sign the initiative to ban the development of superintelligence. Learn more there. Psss… I signed it.
- Existing AI harms and the lack of decisive action against large corporations that abuse our data. Tristan Harris and the team behind the Center for Humane Technology are doing extraordinary work in this field. Roman Yampolskiy also describes the potential impact of superintelligence with unsettling clarity in his podcast interview with Steven Bartlett here. Psss… We are all going to loose our jobs.
- The growing body of research suggesting that excessive use of large language models may negatively affect cognitive processes. See the MIT Media Lab studies on this topic here.
- Australia banning social media for children under 16. In my view, other nations should follow. We do not need more studies to recognize the harm being done, and not only to children, by the way.
- Climate. I understand many of the complexities around this topic, but believe me, the Earth will be just fine without humans. Dark humor, perhaps, but also a sobering truth.
And here is my more personal list. These are the things that mattered to me this year, opened my eyes, and will continue to guide my attention. Here I speak from a position of privilege (still alive, white and women 😁).
- I had the opportunity to meet many people this year and attend a significant number of events. Too often, I encountered a flood of words with very little action behind them. I have rarely experienced a year with so much talking and so little doing.
This reinforced a belief I already had. We need far more action and far less fluff. Action always beats words.
- Deep, powerful conversations. Nothing replaces them. By this, I mean conversations with people you instinctively know you can trust. I am deeply grateful to everyone who gave me their time and space to share, and to all of you who allowed me to hold space for you. These moments remind me that human decency still exists, and I will carry them with me until the end of the galaxy and back.
- Stargazing at night. My new favorite hobby. A quiet reminder of how small we are, and how much perspective lives above us, waiting patiently.
- Forests, long walks in the woods. Me, the trees, and the sky. They save me. I will be forever grateful.
- And the fact that the world presented me with so many opportunities to bend my moral spine, and I didn’t. That is something I’m quietly proud of.
Moving forward, I hope we talk less about appearances and more about responsibility. Less about narratives and more about consequences. Less about promises and more about presence. And moving forward, I need to see a new kind of evidence, not talk, but actions and outcomes. I am committed to making things happen.
That, for me, is what truly matters.
#Responsibility #AIEthics #SuperIntelligence #Humanity #AI #Artificial Intelligence
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