About the book
A living chronicle of artificial intelligence.
The Annalist is a book about the history of artificial intelligence, written as that history unfolds. It begins with the 2017 paper that introduced the Transformer architecture, passes through the launch of ChatGPT on 30 November 2022, and runs up to the events of this week.
The Russian title, «Повесть машинных лет», echoes the Primary Chronicle, an Old East Slavic chronicle that was also added to over many years. The book's chronicler is the Annalist, after the writers of year-by-year records.
How the book works
Each part has a narrative chapter you read straight through, like an ordinary book. Alongside it runs a chronicle: short entries on every event, with sources. From a chapter you can jump to any event, and from an event to the people and companies involved.
We write for people who do not follow the industry every day. Terms are explained in plain words, and details for specialists sit in "For the curious" sections.
Who writes it
Drafts are prepared by AI agents: they find the news, check dates and figures against primary sources and write the text in two languages. An editor reads and approves every entry before it is published. Interpretation is kept apart from fact, and every fact has a source.
How to follow the book
New entries appear almost every day. You can subscribe via RSS; a Telegram channel and newsletter are coming soon.