The stories that defined 2025: AI dreams, brutal realities, and Seattle tech at a turning point

GeekWire

Technology, News, Tech News

4.4 • 116 Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Todd Bishop and John Cook reflect on the top tech stories of 2025, a pivotal year defined by the AI boom's dual nature: massive infrastructure spending alongside widespread layoffs.

We discuss Bill Gates' framing of AI as "intelligence becoming free," the tension between tech workers and corporate mandates to adopt AI, and the "best of times, worst of times" dichotomy playing out at Microsoft, Amazon, and across the industry.

We also cover the top story of the year — UW rethinking its computer science curriculum — the Statsig acquisition by OpenAI, Seattle's competitive position, and the human side of tech through Ambika Singh's heartfelt speech at the GeekWire Awards.

Featuring audio clips from Gates, Satya Nadella, Andy Jassy, Ken Jennings, and more.

Audio editing by Curt Milton.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Holy crap, it's colder in here.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.2	We both got our jackets on.
0:06.4	Yeah.
0:07.5	Woof.
0:08.2	Gonna be able to make it through this?
0:09.8	Yeah, let's do this.
0:11.1	Okay.
0:11.5	Okay.
0:16.3	Hi, and welcome to Geekwire.
0:17.8	I'm Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop.
0:19.5	And I'm Geekwire co-founder John Cook. And I'm Geekwire co-founder John Cook.
0:21.1	We are coming to you from Seattle from a pretty frigid conference room.
0:25.4	Our heating is off here in the days leading up to Christmas.
0:29.4	Seems typically. I know. It's cold in here.
0:33.1	We're coming to you from Seattle where we get to report each day on what's happening around us in business, technology, and innovation.
0:39.4	What happens here matters everywhere and every week on this show.
0:42.6	We talk about some of the most interesting and important and monumental stories in the news.
0:48.0	How's that for an adaptation of the intro?
0:50.2	And this time, it is for the entire year monumental stories.
0:55.0	So how are we going to cover all this?
0:57.3	Well, what we did, and we've done this in the past, and it's worked pretty well.
	...

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