The Deep Learning Revolution: How fifteen years upended everything we thought we knew about intelligence

On September 30, 2012, in a bedroom at his parents' house, a Canadian doctoral student trained a neural network on two video game graphics cards. Eight days later, his system shattered all image recognition records. The world of artificial intelligence shifted.

AlexNet. ChatGPT. AlphaFold. DeepSeek. Mistral. These names mark a dizzying acceleration unprecedented in the history of technology. In fifteen years, AI passed from the laboratory to the daily lives of billions of human beings. Machines learned to see, to speak, to write, to reason. They passed bar examinations. They predicted the structure of two hundred million proteins. They defeated world champions at the most complex games.
But this revolution did not have just one epicenter.

Africa produced more than two thousand four hundred AI companies.

The Emirates appointed the world's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence.

France created Mistral, the only credible European competitor to the American giants.

China filed four times more AI patents than the United States. India became the world leader in AI skills penetration.

You will traverse six continents. Fifteen years of dizzying acceleration. From the laboratories of Toronto to the factories of Taiwan. From the startups of Tunis to the foundries of Abu Dhabi. From the servers of San Francisco to models in African languages.
And everywhere, the same question: who shapes artificial intelligence — and according to what values?

The godfathers of AI have become prophets of concern. Giants are engaged in a planetary race. Regulators are trying to keep up. The summer of deep learning continues — but no one knows how it will end.

Welcome to A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence, season 6.

All essays are available online.