World Signal
AI Timeline
structure, not events
The world is not changing in events.
It is changing in structure.
PARADIGM
recurrence → attention
LEGACY
Foundation of all modern LLMs
2017
Intelligence via attention
PARADIGM
tool → conversation
LEGACY
AI becomes publicly accessible to billions
2022
Intelligence via conversation
PARADIGM
response → action
LEGACY
AI starts executing tasks in the real world
2024
Intelligence via action
PARADIGM
tool → infrastructure
LEGACY
AI becomes the invisible backbone of work
2025
Intelligence as infrastructure
NOW
You are here. The future is being written.
2026
→
The decade is still unfolding. The rest is unwritten.
202x
Continues
ORIGIN
AI is born as a formal discipline
1956
Dartmouth
BREAKTHROUGH
Deep learning revolution begins
2012
AlexNet
MILESTONE
Frontier reasoning: GPT-4, Claude
2023
GPT-4
OPEN SOURCE
DeepSeek-V2: MoE at fraction of cost
2024
DeepSeek-V2
OPEN REASONING
DeepSeek-R1 matches closed frontier
2025
DeepSeek-R1
AI-NATIVE DEV
Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot
2025
Claude Code
The most important structural changes
do not arrive as revolutions.
They arrive as an ordinary afternoon,
a small automation,
a brief moment of noticing
that something has already shifted.
With respect to Liang Wenfeng and the open-source spirit.