The History of AI Explained: Crash Course Futures of AI #1

In 1965, Moore’s Law predicted how computers would become smaller, faster, and more powerful than ever before. But here in 2025, we’re on the brink of an even bigger revolution. In this episode, we explore where AI's been, what it can do, and where it might be going. AI benchmarks and scaling laws help us understand what AI is, and could be, capable of.

Introduction 00:00
How did AI get here? 2:21
How do we measure AI progress? 7:47
How can we predict the future of AI? 9:10
Conclusion 11:29

About This Series:
AI is changing FAST so rather than doing a full Crash Course series of 12+ episodes, we’ve prepared a mini-series of just the basics. Crash Course will never tell you what to think and we’re not the type of organization that responds to breaking news in real time. Instead, we’re here to offer a zoomed-out foundation upon which to base your own opinions as you continue to learn from other outlets about the world that’s changing around us.

Crash Course: Futures of AI will cover:
-What even is AI? What’s the history of this thing and how quickly has it evolved to what exists today?
-How could AI transform society? Will AI cause the next Industrial Revolution, and what might that mean for workers and the environment?
-How powerful could AI become? How do we measure the progression of AI? What are the consequences we’re already seeing, and what might be the future consequences of unchecked AI development?
-How might powerful AI cause harm? We’ll touch on copyright infringement, misinformation, surveillance, authoritarianism, and (unfortunately,) more.
-How could AI be governed? What are the potential approaches for controlling AI both nationally and internationally?

P.S. Wondering if we used AI to create this series? Nope! Every Complexly video is lovingly, painstakingly human-made.

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16br0e73KFVD5qu-VEBV40yQTpBiX0l65EgWQ6Q7Fz-k/edit?usp=sharing

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Post from Crash Course on November 19, 2025

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