AI Timeline

An open-source timeline tracking the evolution and advancements in Artificial Intelligence from 2022 onwards.

This project provides a chronological overview of significant milestones, model releases, and key developments in the AI field. It aims to be a clear and concise resource for tracking the industry's rapid progress.

• Yearly Sections: Events organized by year.
• Monthly Events: Clear breakdown of events within each month.
• Key Event Highlighting: Important milestones are visually emphasized.
• Sortable View: Toggle between newest-first and oldest-first chronological order.
• Dark Mode: Switch between light and dark themes.
• Responsive Design: Works well on desktop and mobile devices.
• Further Reading: Links to related articles and resources.
• Event Sources: Expand sources beneath an event to see linked publications, publishers, and publication dates.

1. Visit the Timeline: https://nhlocal.github.io/AiTimeline/
2. Navigate: Scroll or use the year links at the top.
3. Sort: Use the "Sort" button to change the timeline order.
4. Theme: Use the toggle button (moon/sun icon) to switch between dark and light modes.

This site is built using Jekyll, a static site generator, and is automatically deployed using GitHub Actions.

• Content Source: The single source of truth for the timeline is _data/timeline.md. This is the only file you need to edit to add or change events.
• Data File: The _data/timeline.yml file is used by Jekyll to build the site. This file is generated automatically by a script. Do not edit it directly.
• Automation: When changes are pushed to the main branch, a GitHub Action automatically runs:
  1. Converts the _data/timeline.md file to _data/timeline.yml.
  2. Commits the updated .yml file back to the repository.
  3. Builds the Jekyll site.
  4. Deploys the site to GitHub Pages.

Contributions are welcome and have been simplified! Help keep the timeline accurate and up-to-date.

1. Fork & Clone: Fork the repository to your GitHub account and clone it locally.

   git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/AiTimeline.git
   cd AiTimeline

2. Edit _data/timeline.md:

   • Open the _data/timeline.md file.
   • Add or modify events using the existing format (# Year:, ## Month, - Event description).
   • Use **bold text** for emphasis (e.g., model names).
   • To highlight an event as "special", add (*special*) at the end of its line, with a space before it.

     ## March
     - An important event happened. (*special*)
     - A regular event occurred.

   • Add sources directly beneath the event, using two spaces of indentation. Each source needs its exact title, HTTPS URL, publisher, and publication date:

     - A significant model is released in a limited preview. (*special*)
       - Source: [Introducing the model](https://example.com/model-launch) | Example Lab | 2026-04-02

     Sources are optional for older entries and appear in both the site and RSS feed. Multiple sources can follow one event. Keep the (*special*) marker on the event line, not on a source line.
   • Prefer original announcements and research papers. Distinguish announcements, previews, and general availability; use the month of the event rather than a later article update. Group related minor releases, and reserve special highlighting for major capability changes or scientific milestones. Attribute benchmark results and preliminary findings instead of treating them as established consensus.

3. Commit and Push Your Changes:

   • Stage and commit only the timeline.md file. The .yml file will be updated automatically by the workflow.

     git add _data/timeline.md
     git commit -m "docs: Add [brief description of your change]"

   • Push your changes to your forked repository:

     git push origin main # or your branch name

4. Create a Pull Request:

   • Go to your fork on GitHub and open a Pull Request to the main branch of NHLOCAL/AiTimeline.
   • Once your Pull Request is merged, the automated workflow will handle the conversion and deployment.

Have feedback, found a bug, or want to suggest an addition? Please open an issue on GitHub. We appreciate your input!

To preview your changes on your local machine before creating a pull request:

1. Install Prerequisites:

   • Ruby and Bundler (see Jekyll Installation Guide)
   • Python 3

2. Install Dependencies:

   bundle install

3. Generate the .yml File for Local Preview:

   • After editing _data/timeline.md, you must run the conversion script to see your changes locally.
   • This step is only for local previewing. The final conversion is handled automatically online.

     # Run from the project root
     python scripts/convert_timeline_events.py _data/timeline.md

4. Serve the Site:

   bundle exec jekyll serve

5. View: Open your browser to http://localhost:4000/AiTimeline/ (or the address provided).

Run python -m unittest discover -s tests to check conversion, source validation, and Markdown/YAML round trips. Before previewing, regenerate the YAML and run bundle exec jekyll build. The generated YAML remains workflow-managed and should not be included in manual content commits.

The code in this repository is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

The content of the website, including the timeline data, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This means you are free to share and adapt the content for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original source.

If you use or reference the data from this timeline, please use one of the following standard citation formats.

APA Style:

NHLOCAL. (2025). *AI Timeline*. Retrieved from https://nhlocal.github.io/AiTimeline/

BibTeX Entry:

@misc{nhlocal_ai_timeline,
  author       = {NHLOCAL},
  title        = {AI Timeline},
  year         = {2025},
  howpublished = {\url{https://nhlocal.github.io/AiTimeline/}},
}