A visitor interacts with a robot equipped with intelligent dexterous hands at the 2025 World AI Conference in East China's Shanghai, July 29, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
2025 was nothing short of a landmark year for artificial intelligence. The last year witnessed breakthroughs that pushed technological frontiers — from DeepSeek's globally acclaimed open-source release to the boundary-breaking launches of GPT-5 and Gemini 3. Meanwhile, global forums like the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and Geneva Summit brought ethical development to the forefront of global dialogue.
Beyond these headline-making milestones, AI also embedded itself deeply into daily life across public safety, tech, personal spheres and beauty — bringing convenience, sparking debates and facing occasional stumbles.
The following stories capture AI's evolving, imperfect yet impactful integration into modern life.
AI confuses chips for gun
An AI-driven gun detection system at a high school in the US triggered a heavy police response after misidentifying a student's empty bag of chips as a firearm.
According to a CNN report, Taki Allen, a football player, described being forced to kneel and have his hands cuffed behind his back with a gun pointed at him — all because he was holding a Doritos bag.
The school district's security department canceled the gun detection alert after confirming there was no weapon. Local councilman also called for a review of the use of the AI system "to make sure...this type of error does not happen again."
France's AI chatbot nosedives
In a highly publicized embarrassment for France's AI ambitions, the chatbot Lucie was pulled offline just three days after its launch.
Users quickly discovered that Lucie struggled with basic logic and facts, like "cow's eggs", miscalculating 5×5 as 17, and declaring that "the square root of a goat is 1".
Its developer admitted the release came too soon, calling it an "academic research project in its early stages", according to CNN.
Filmmaker 'revives' late mother
A screenshot from the video titled "I brought my mum back to life using AI".
69-year-old filmmaker Tony Cane-Honeysett used AI to create a documentary about his late mother Mary, a decade after her 2016 death.
He cloned her voice to narrate her unpublished memoir (1928–1949 London life) and animated old photos, with the YouTube film emerging amid debates over AI in the arts.
While AI scenes show technical limits (e.g., malformed cars), Cane-Honeysett calls AI a "game-changing" tool to preserve personal history, in a report from The London Telegraph. He believes AI is "unstoppable" and lets him connect deeper with his mother.
Texas dad's education experiment
A screenshot from the report.
A 44-year-old UK-born AI expert, Adam Lyons, who lives in Texas, parents his five kids (5–15) with AI assistance, according to a report by The Mirror in England.
According to Lyons, AI aids his children's education, settles arguments, controls household devices, entertains with custom stories and handles chore-related spats to give the father more free time.
However, education experts have pointed out that, despite AI's potential, there is ultimately no replacement for a parent or teacher, and that we must teach kids to be critical of digital tools.
UK's AI manicure breakthrough
As AI expands into the beauty sector, Umia — touted as the world's first "AI manicure machine" — was launched in the UK during British Beauty Week 2025.
The Mirror reported the sleek device completes a full gel manicure in under 20 minutes (100 seconds per nail), using a camera to scan "nail DNA" before spraying and UV-curing three gel coats for a 10-14 day lasting.
A representative said it was a faster, more affordable option than a salon (coming in at under half the cost of traditional manicures), with plans for placement in cafes, airports and hairdressers — highlighting AI's growing role in accessible beauty tech.
Editor:Gao Weiyi
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