The LLM Observatory, 2017 to 2026
Every landmark model since the Transformer, planted on the city of the lab that built it and lifted off the surface by how capable it was. Press play and watch the field move: Mountain View and San Francisco first, then London and Paris, then Hangzhou and Beijing, and a small pink cluster in Donegal that is mine.
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- Largest
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Latest releases
Makers
Drag to spin. Click a marker for its card. Filled markers are closed weights, rings are open.
What you're looking at
One marker per model, on the home city of the lab. Size follows parameter count; the spike above each marker follows a 0–100 capability placement, which is a judgment, not a benchmark. Closed-weight models are solid discs; open-weight ones are rings.
Reading it honestly
Parameter counts for closed models are the best public estimates and will be wrong in places. The capability axis is mine. What the globe is good for is the shape of the thing: where the work happens, how fast the cadence has become, and how little of the map it touches.
Sound
Off by default. Turn it on and each release lands as a note, pitched by capability and panned to where it sits on the globe. It starts from your click, never on its own.