The state of AI – December 2025 (www.ashprabaker.com)

In December 2025, the AI landscape witnessed a rapid release of major models, including Claude Opus 4.5, GPT-5.2, and Gemini 3, sparking what the industry refers to as the "frontier model arms race." Notably, Opus 4.5 achieved an unprecedented 80.9% on the SWE-Bench verified test for autonomous software engineering. OpenAI's advanced reasoning models have even triumphed at the International Math Olympiad, showcasing their capability. Meanwhile, the gap in performance on the MMLU benchmark between U.S. and Chinese models has nearly closed, with China now leading in open-source model development, exemplified by the emergence of DeepSeek-R1, which dramatically challenged NVIDIA's market position. This competitive environment is reshaping the tech economy, as AI-generated code accounted for 41% of all coding in 2025, with 82% of developers using AI tools regularly. Despite concerns over job displacement (with an estimated 85 million jobs at risk), research suggests that new roles will emerge simultaneously, often requiring higher education qualifications. Furthermore, societal implications are profound; AI tools have begun influencing legal cases, education methods, and even personal relationships, raising ethical questions about AI consciousness and morality. As AI becomes integrated into daily life, discussions around safety regulations and governance frameworks are becoming increasingly critical, evidenced by the international AI safety report and new national laws emerging across jurisdictions.