Artificial intelligence is suddenly everywhere, from chatbots in customer service to apps that write essays, generate art, or analyze your voice. But while the hype is loud, the understanding is often shallow. People are either terrified or thrilled, with very few actually understanding what artificial intelligence really is, and what it isn’t.
I’ve been watching AI closely for some time, partly out of fascination, but also out of concern.
On one hand, AI can make life easier. It can educate, simplify, and open doors. On the other, it has the power to take away livelihoods, rewrite reality, and manipulate entire populations without them even knowing it’s happening.
That dichotomy; that incredible promise sitting right next to a very real danger, is why I’m writing this.
I believe we need to understand artificial intelligence before we can decide what to do with it. Not the tech jargon, but the human impact. If we don’t, someone else will decide for us and it may not be in our best interest.
So here is my first article on AI. Seven basic things I think we all need to know about artificial intelligence in 2025, before it changes everything. It’s a blend of my own writing and AI.
1. Artificial Intelligence Isn’t a Brain – It’s a Mirror
Despite what sci-fi movies tell us, AI doesn’t “think” or “feel.” It doesn’t understand context the way we do. What it does is mimic patterns found in the data it’s trained on. Tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney aren’t conscious; they reflect the biases, structures, and information baked into their training material.
AI doesn’t “think” like a human. Instead, it predicts what comes next based on patterns in data, similar to how your phone suggests the next word while you’re texting. Its sophistication is dazzling, but it has no intent, no ethics, and no awareness of truth or consequences. That part is still on us.
2. It’s Already All Around Us
If you’ve used Google Translate, Netflix recommendations, fraud detection on your credit card, or voice assistants like Alexa, you’ve already interacted with artificial intelligence. What’s new in 2025 is the mainstream adoption of generative AI. Tools that were once behind closed doors are now directly in the hands of the public, allowing them to create text, images, music, and even computer code.
These tools are being used by everyone from students to software engineers, marketers to musicians. Some use them to speed up work. Others are using them to replace work.
3. AI Can Be a Tool for Good – If We Stay in Control
Artificial intelligence has real potential to solve problems – from speeding up medical research and diagnosing diseases, to modelling climate change scenarios more accurately, to helping people with disabilities navigate the world. Open-source projects even utilize AI to translate Indigenous languages or help identify regions struggling with hunger and food insecurity.
However, these benefits will only be realized if human values drive the development, rather than corporate profits or political manipulation. If AI is a tool, we need to remain the ones holding the handle.
4. Artificial Intelligence is Also a Tool for Profit and Power
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: the most powerful artificial intelligence systems are controlled by a handful of massive tech companies, including OpenAI (backed by Microsoft), Google, Meta, and Amazon. These models are expensive to build and even more expensive to run.
That means AI is already reinforcing existing power structures: those who own the tools get richer while those who don’t risk being automated out of a job.
And while the AI itself doesn’t have intent, those who wield it often do. That includes advertisers, political operatives, and yes, governments and militaries.
5. AI Hallucinates and People Believe It
One of the most concerning aspects of artificial intelligence in its current form is how confidently it delivers incorrect answers. Chatbots can generate believable-sounding misinformation, fake legal citations, and invented historical facts. Some companies are rolling them out into schools, hospitals, and courts anyway.
This “hallucinating” happens because artificial intelligence isn’t automatically connected to a live fact-checking system. It doesn’t “know” what’s true or false, it just generates words based on patterns it has seen in its training data. That means it might confidently invent a scientific study, misquote a public figure, or mash together ideas that sound convincing but aren’t grounded in reality. It isn’t lying (it has no intent), but it also isn’t verifying anything. And because it writes so fluently, people often believe what it says, especially if they don’t know how to question it.
In the next year, expect more pressure to integrate AI into “decision-making” systems. The challenge will be making sure humans stay in the loop, especially when lives, rights, or resources are at stake.
6. The Next Five Years Could Reshape Everything
By 2030, artificial intelligence is expected to be embedded in nearly every industry. We’re not talking about robots with personalities; we’re talking about invisible systems that write reports, answer legal questions, schedule deliveries, evaluate job candidates, monitor social media, and more.
In progressive terms, this means we need urgent discussions around:
- Labour rights and automation
- Data ownership and surveillance
- Bias and discrimination in AI-driven systems
- Equitable access to AI tools and education
Without strong, values-based governance, we risk a future where a few companies dictate the behaviour of billions, without accountability.
7. You Don’t Need to Be an Expert, Just Pay Attention
You don’t have to become a computer scientist to understand the stakes. What matters is asking good questions:
- Who built this AI and why?
- What data was it trained on?
- Who might be helped and who might be harmed?
Artificial intelligence will be what we allow it to be. If we treat it like magic, we risk being manipulated by it. If we treat it like a tool and insist on transparency, fairness, and public benefit, we just might build something that makes life better, not worse.
Final Thoughts
Artificial intelligence is a turning point for humanity. While tech companies race to roll it out faster and cheaper, many of the world’s most respected scientists, ethicists, and economists are sounding the alarm.
Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” stepped down from Google in 2023 to publicly address the risks associated with the very technology he helped create. Others, like MIT researcher Max Tegmark and former Google ethicist Timnit Gebru, have been equally vocal, warning that AI could deepen inequality, entrench surveillance, or spiral out of human control altogether.
This article isn’t the end of the conversation. It’s the beginning. AI is going to reshape our world; we need to stop thinking of it as a novelty and start treating it as the powerful, disruptive force it is. That means staying informed, asking hard questions, and refusing to let profit or convenience drive us off a cliff.
We still have time to shape the future but only if we’re paying attention.
