Five Takes from Zhengdong Wang’s 2025 Letter
AI
year in review
links
A thoughtful annual letter on where AI actually is, and where it’s heading.
Just read the 2025 Letter by Zhengdong Wang [1], a thoughtful reflection on where AI actually is, and where it’s heading. A few takes that stood out to me:
- Compute keeps compounding, despite energy, chip, and regulatory headwinds
- Progress isn’t about benchmarks, but time-to-task under real human constraints
- Institutions lag capability: jobs change slower than tools, and that’s expected
- AI success creates backlash when personalities change. Identity continuity matters
- The Bitter Lesson feels personal, not ideological: trends keep beating intuition
References
[1] Wang, Zhengdong. “2025 Letter.” zhengdongwang.com, December 30, 2025. https://zhengdongwang.com/2025/12/30/2025-letter.html
Originally posted on LinkedIn.