AI Timelines

The AI Chips Race

The race for AI chips represents one of the most consequential hardware competitions in computing history. What began as a niche market for specialized processors has evolved into a global struggle for technological dominance, with companies like NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and emerging players from China and other nations competing fiercely for market share. The competition intensified dramatically after 2017, when transformer-based models demonstrated that specialized silicon could dramatically accelerate AI workloads. Today, the stakes extend beyond profit margins: control over AI chip design and manufacturing capacity shapes geopolitical influence, national security strategies, and the pace of AI development itself. The competition remains far from settled, with new architectures, manufacturing breakthroughs, and strategic partnerships constantly reshaping the landscape.

Llama and the Open-Source AI Movement

Meta's Llama models represent a watershed moment in artificial intelligence history. Released initially in February 2023, Llama brought large language model capabilities to researchers and developers outside the wealthiest tech companies. The open-source approach democratized access to frontier AI systems, sparking a global movement that challenged the closed-model dominance of OpenAI and Google. By 2024, Llama had become the foundation for thousands of derivative projects, fine-tuned variants, and commercial applications. This shift fundamentally altered how AI research progresses, who can participate in it, and what governance frameworks might emerge for powerful AI systems.