When we launched HonestAi , artificial intelligence was riding a wave of optimism, anxiety, and a fair amount of science fiction. The promise was enormous, the risks were unclear, and the future felt just close enough to imagine but far enough to debate.
Years later, the world has changed and so has AI.
From boardrooms to classrooms, smartphones to operating rooms, artificial intelligence is no longer emerging. It has arrived, and with it, so have profound questions about power, ethics, creativity, and identity.
In this special anniversary retrospective, we reflect on how AI has evolved—not just in terms of technology, but in how society thinks about it, talks about it, and governs it. Here are five major shifts we’ve witnessed since the first issue of HonestAI hit the stands.