Halfway through 2025: 9 AI Aha Moments That Stopped Me in My Tracks

The first half of 2025, from DeepSeek r1 to Manus to GPT-o3 — almost every week, even every day, the AI industry has been evolving at breakneck speed.

This week's Crossroads podcast isn't a founder interview. It's a mid-year personal reflection from Koji, sharing nine "Aha Moments" I've experienced in AI over the past six months — spanning a technical breakthrough, a product launch, and an entrepreneur's story.

This episode isn't about cutting-edge LLM knowledge, nor is it attempting any kind of Top 10 product ranking. It's my personal take from being on the front lines, talking with founders and testing products daily.

These reflections carry my strong personal imprint. Some things moved me that might not move others; likewise, many things that excite others barely register with me. I hope this sharing offers a different perspective and sparks some meaningful conversations.

You can follow along with the accompanying 74-page PPT while listening.

You can also read the WeChat article version of this episode, which includes the full transcript and corresponding images.

03:14 Picking up from last year's year-end LLM retrospective episode

07:05 ① "This isn't a fair competition!"

09:31 ② "No secrets, only pure execution speed"

12:59 ③ "Question Talking Tom, become Talking Tom, surpass Talking Tom"

16:17 ④ "The future is already here — it's just not evenly distributed"

19:37 ⑤ "The changes and opportunities brought by AI Agents are still underestimated"

24:27 ⑥ "Don't do AI for AI's sake, don't start a company for the hype"

32:40 ⑦ "We always overestimate change in the next two years and underestimate change in the next ten."

37:48 ⑧ "Beauty is a form of productivity"

41:26 ⑨ "Create moments of love"

This episode was recorded at the Amazon Web Services China Summit.

This year's summit, the Crossroads team was invited by AWS to do something big — we built a 3,000-square-foot pop-up space called "AI Daydream Stage." I documented these two days in a vlog posted on my Xiaohongshu, WeChat Channels, and Douyin; check it out if you're interested.

Those familiar with Crossroads know that open mic is a signature feature of our offline events, where we invite proactive actors of the AI era to take the stage for ten minutes to share their ideas, products, or entrepreneurial journeys in AI.

This time, nearly twenty friends took the open mic stage, speaking from dawn till dusk. There was a joint open mic from two leading AI companies — Yanchen Yan, co-founder of Dify, and Qiaodan, sales lead at Zilliz; founders from Spark Lab and AdventureX, two of the strongest Gen Z communities; plus top Bilibili creators Fan from AI Research Lab, Tongji Zihao and his robot and robodog, among others.

I also presented "9 Aha Moments AI Gave Me in 2025" at the open mic. With only ten minutes, I could only briefly introduce what each moment was. After stepping off stage, I recorded this full podcast episode.

Subscribe to the "Crossroads" podcast 🚦 We track the industry shifts and entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology.

🚦 "Crossroads" is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together a new generation of AI founders and proactive actors of the AI era, exploring and embracing new changes and possibilities alongside them.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I co-founded Jiepang / The Fair / Tangdao, and started AI Hacker House, a community space for a new generation of AI entrepreneurs. I believe technology, especially AI, represents the greatest value-creation opportunity of our generation. Feel free to reach out to chat, bounce ideas, and connect on what's next. Koji on Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: I've worked at a dollar-denominated VC and spent five years as a Silicon Valley correspondent, tracking technological development and business stories. Feel free to reach out and exchange ideas with me. Ronghui on Jike

🎄 This podcast is supported by The Fair's Sound Forest Podcast Initiative.