Podcast Summary:

Podcast: Tech Brew Ride Home
Host: Erica Mandy (The Newsworthy), Guest: Brian McCollough
Episode: (BNS) Top Tech Stories Of 2025 With The Newsworthy
Date: December 25, 2025

Overview

In this special year-end episode, Erica Mandy from The Newsworthy sits down with Brian McCollough, host of Tech Brew Ride Home, to break down and reflect on the top 10 tech stories of 2025. Their discussion covers industry breakthroughs, shifting economic tides, big surprises, missed expectations, and the overarching theme of AI’s dominance in the tech landscape. The episode blends analytical insight with accessible commentary, making sense of a frenetic year in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Main Discussion Points and Insights

The State of Tech in 2025

• Tech’s Big Rebound:
  Brian summarises the year as a massive rebound for tech, noting highs in stock markets (Nvidia, Bitcoin), renewed IPO activity, and a widespread sense of optimism—albeit with "storm clouds on the horizon" for 2026.

  • “Tech is back. It rebounded…” (02:33 – Brian)

• Criteria for Top Stories:
  Brian focused on breakthroughs and events likely to be seen historically as pivotal, with AI naturally threading through half the list.

  • “Things that I think we’ll look back historically as this was the year this broke through or that happened.” (03:01 – Brian)

The Top 10 Tech Stories of 2025

10. Smart Glasses as a Viable Consumer Product

• AI enabled a new wave of smart glasses that became both affordable and functional.
• Meta’s Ray-Bans reportedly sold in the tens of millions, marking a shift from niche to mainstream.
• “This is a product category that is enabled by AI…” (03:24 – Brian)
• "I do not use one on a daily basis… A lot have been sold, but I don’t see them on the subway." (04:32 – Brian)

9. Quantum Computing Gets Practical

• 2025 saw the first real-world applications, especially via hybrid AI-quantum systems, impacting materials science and drug discovery.
• No "ChatGPT moment" yet, but clear viability established.
• “This is the year where [quantum computing] became viable…” (04:45 – Brian)
• “Not going to try” [to explain quantum computing], “but… it can do things our classical models would take tens of thousands of years to compute.” (05:28 – Brian)

8. Self-Driving Cars Hit Scale

• Expansion from pilot cities to a dozen or more; 15–20% of ride-hailing trips in places like Austin and San Francisco are now fully autonomous.
• Public comfort growing despite controversies, with safety data now favoring autonomous vehicles.
• “If a year from now it’s 30 cities, then 150… 20 to 30% of ride hailing is going to be done by self-driving.” (07:15 – Brian)
• “I actually don’t think [your 4-year-old] will ever need to learn how to drive.” (08:05 – Brian)

7. ‘AI Slop’ Floods the Internet

• Explosion of low-quality or synthetic AI-generated content, especially video, dominates social and creative platforms.
• Backlash versus embrace as users wrestle with authenticity and quality.
• “Slop. AI slop is the word of the year because of the AI revolution…” (08:40 – Brian)
• “People are just going to use it… It’s inevitable.” (10:56 – Brian)

6. Agentic AI… Didn’t Happen

• Despite major buzz, truly autonomous AI agents that manage complex tasks are not widely adopted.
• Technology is available, but user adoption and reliable workflows are lagging.
• “This is something that didn’t happen this year. Agentic AI kind of didn’t happen.” (12:11 – Brian)
• “I just know that it’s not being adopted.” (12:57 – Brian)

5. The AI Arms Race: DeepSeek and Open Source Acceleration

• US dominance shaken by Chinese model DeepSeek, which outperformed top Western models at a fraction of the cost.
• Open source and cheap, “good enough” AI models are democratizing access, threatening incumbent giants.
• “The assumption of American hegemony in AI was shaken…” (13:29 – Brian)
• “If it’s cheaper to use and it’s good enough, it’s going to win out.” (14:19 – Brian)

4. Nvidia Becomes a $5 Trillion Company

• Demand for AI chips (GPUs) leads to historic investment; tech giants’ AI spend may be propping up the whole US economy.
• Bubble fears debated: is this sustainable or reminiscent of dot-com excess?
• “Nvidia was the big story of the year by the fact that they make the chips for the AI…” (15:23 – Brian)
• “Without this AI spend… we probably would already be in a recession.” (16:55 – Brian)

3. Crypto Hits New Highs, Then Faces Hangover

• Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins surge as the Trump administration takes a crypto-friendly stance, but recent “hangover” pullbacks foreshadow volatility.
• Business treasuries and prediction markets get swept up before the cooling trend.
• “Crypto took over, hit all-time highs…all this stuff… And in the last two or three months a lot of that is starting to evaporate.” (17:23–18:18 – Brian)

2. The Disappointment of GPT-5

• Expectation for a step-change leap after GPT-4 led to underwhelming response for GPT-5.
• Growth continues, but the revolutionary pace is moderating.
• “It was not the step change that people were expecting.” (19:13 – Brian)
• “If the next one isn’t moving just as fast, it’s surprising.” (19:26 – Erica)

1. The AI Race Upended: Google Overtakes OpenAI

• Google’s Gemini 3 is widely seen as superior to GPT-5.
• OpenAI faces existential questions amid internal restructuring and “code red” efforts to catch up.
• If Google’s model and in-house chips (TPUs) beat Nvidia’s GPUs, both OpenAI and Nvidia’s dominance are at risk.
• “Is OpenAI in trouble? Is Nvidia in trouble? Is Google suddenly now the leader in AI?” (19:34 – Brian)
• “Why is OpenAI behind?...they just announced a code red…” (20:49 – Brian)

Other Notable Discussion Threads

• Enterprise AI and Safe AI (Anthropic):

  • Enterprises may prefer trusted, “safe” platforms like Google and Anthropic over experimental models.
  • “Anthropic is like we’re gonna make this safe, we’re gonna make this reliable…” (22:44 – Brian)

• AI Companions:

  • AI companions for kids and adults are being scaled back due to lawsuits and misuse; adoption remains tentative.
  • “They’ve had to scale it back incredibly. …that is something that I think is going to continue to be iffy.” (23:31 – Brian)

• Tariffs & Regulation:

  • Tariffs led to higher costs and instability, but tech firms absorbed these changes without systemic impact.
  • “…But in the end, it’s just been something that people have navigated but it hasn’t really blown anything up.” (23:59 – Brian)

Personal Picks & 2026 Watchlist

• Brian’s Most Exciting Trend:

  • Consumer home robotics, powered by AI, may finally hit the mainstream at CES 2026.
  • “My prediction is that this is the year that robotics is the big story coming out of CES.” (24:45 – Brian)

• What to Watch Next Year:

  • An AI bubble burst could have deep economic and industry consequences—but timing uncertain, much like the dot-com boom and bust.
  • “If the AI bubble bursts…that’ll be the biggest story of the year…” (25:50 – Brian)

Memorable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Tech is back. It rebounded. All sorts of things hit all time highs…” (02:33 – Brian)
• “Slop. AI slop is the word of the year…” (08:40 – Brian)
• “If a year from now it’s thirty cities, then a hundred and fifty…that’s going to be something that everyone’s going to experience quite soon.” (07:15 – Brian)
• “It’s AI all the way down.” (13:06 – Brian)
• “Without this AI spend…we probably would already be in a recession.” (16:55 – Brian)
• “Is OpenAI in trouble? Is Nvidia in trouble? Is Google suddenly now the leader in AI?” (19:34 – Brian)
• “This was the most fun year to cover tech in a long, long time, because again, so much is up in the air and I get excited about that.” (26:47 – Brian)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:33] Tech’s rebound and big picture
• [03:24] #10: Smart glasses go mainstream
• [04:45] #9: Quantum computing milestones
• [06:04] #8: Self-driving at scale
• [08:40] #7: AI slop overtakes content
• [12:11] #6: Agentic AI stalls
• [13:29] #5: The global AI arms race
• [15:23] #4: Nvidia’s rise and the AI bubble
• [17:23] #3: Crypto boom to hangover
• [18:19] #2: GPT-5’s underwhelming debut
• [19:34] #1: Google topples OpenAI in the AI race
• [24:45] Robotics as Brian’s pick for 2026
• [25:50] AI bubble risk in 2026
• [26:47] Reflections on the year in tech

Closing Thoughts

Brian McCollough paints 2025 as a dynamic, tumultuous, and AI-dominated year for tech—one where expectations remained sky-high but not all innovations met the moment, and the competitive landscape shifted dramatically. The episode closes with words of excitement for what’s next, a readiness for volatility, and a sense of possibility for both new consumer technologies and the broader economic impact of tech’s latest transformations.