2023-03 → Present

The AI takeoff is happening.
We're measuring it.

Future Shock maps the accelerating trajectory of artificial intelligence — across models, compute, robotics, research, and open source. Updated daily. No hype. No financial advice. Just the signal.

Six Tracking Axes

The dimensions of acceleration
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Model Capability

Benchmarks, multimodal, agents, context windows, tool use

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Compute & Chips

GPU releases, FLOPs/dollar, training clusters, energy

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Robotics

Humanoid milestones, autonomous deployments, LLM-driven demos

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Research Velocity

arXiv publication rate, breakthrough papers, citation velocity

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Open Source

GitHub commit velocity, AI co-authored code, framework growth

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Policy

Government action, regulation, defense, trade, AI governance

Latest Signals

Updated daily
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Apr 12, 2026

Liquid AI Releases LFM2.5-VL-450M: a 450M-Parameter Vision-Language Model with Bounding Box Prediction, Multilingual Support, and Sub-250ms Edge Inference

Liquid AI just released LFM2.5-VL-450M, an updated version of its earlier LFM2-VL-450M vision-language model. The new release introduces bounding box prediction, improved instruction following, expanded multilingual understanding, and function calling support — all within a 450M-parameter footprint designed to run directly on edge hardware ranging from embedded AI modules like NVIDIA Jetson Orin, to mini-PC […] The post Liquid AI Releases LFM2.5-VL-450M: a 450M-Parameter Vision-Language Mo

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Apr 11, 2026

How to Build a Secure Local-First Agent Runtime with OpenClaw Gateway, Skills, and Controlled Tool Execution

In this tutorial, we build and operate a fully local, schema-valid OpenClaw runtime. We configure the OpenClaw gateway with strict loopback binding, set up authenticated model access through environment variables, and define a secure execution environment using the built-in exec tool. We then create a structured custom skill that the OpenClaw agent can discover and […] The post How to Build a Secure Local-First Agent Runtime with OpenClaw Gateway, Skills, and Controlled Tool Execution appe [Editorial note: single-source report covering OpenClaw ecosystem, not independently verified]

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Apr 11, 2026

SQLite 3.53.0

<p><strong><a href="https://sqlite.org/releaselog/3_53_0.html">SQLite 3.53.0</a></strong></p> SQLite 3.52.0 was withdrawn so this is a pretty big release with a whole lot of accumulated user-facing and internal improvements. Some that stood out to me:</p> <ul> <li><code>ALTER TABLE</code> can now add and remove <code>NOT NULL</code> and <code>CHECK</code> constraints - I've previously used my own <a href="https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/python-api.html#changing-not-null-status">sqlit

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Apr 10, 2026

The Great AI Grift

Tech leaders want you to believe that AI is the key to a new golden age. The reality looks more like a bold, government-backed heist. The post The Great AI Grift appeared first on AI Now Institute .

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Apr 10, 2026

AI firms and their US military ties, "a whole civilization will die tonight" edition

Plus, Anthropic's new AI model that's 'too dangerous to release,' thoughts on the New Yorker's Sam Altman investigation, and more.

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Apr 10, 2026

Actions workflows are limited to 50 reruns

Multiple reputable sources confirm

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