Reference: Andrej Karpathy’s keynote address on 17 June 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco
In the 1960s and ’70s:
- a computer filled a large room in a central location, far from most of its users
- it had an operating system which provided basic functions
- application programs used operating system functions to do useful things
- we accessed the computer remotely over telephone lines
- we communicated with the computer using only text, from a terminal
In 2010:
- computers were personal, portable, and mostly ran local software
- the operating system managed files, programs, and user settings
- applications were installed and launched directly by the user
- internet access became always-on, but most processing still happened locally
- we communicated with the computer through keyboard, mouse, and graphical interface
In 2025:
- an AI runs in a cloud-based data centre, far from the user
- it has an LLM which provides core functions for language, reasoning, and knowledge work
- prompts use the core functions to do useful things
- we access the AI remotely over the internet
- we communicate with it using mainly text, (voice, or images are also possible, now) and still mostly from a terminal.
In 2050:
- an AI will be personal, portable, and …
LLMs are the new operating systems.
Prompts are the new application programs.
Context is the new user interface.
Transparency: This post was conceived, structured, and written by a human author. ChatGPT was used to suggest phrasing and refine analogies, but all key ideas, narrative framing, and editorial decisions were made by the human. AI input was limited to supporting the writing process.