Artificial intelligence is no longer a technology for a narrow circle of specialists. According to a new report from the AI100 project (One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence), the past five years have been a turning point: the mass spread of generative models has brought AI into the daily lives of millions of people.
The report, titled "AI Goes Mainstream: The Scaling Era and the Rise of Generative AI", was issued by the AI100 project, which is overseen by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). It is a longitudinal study - that is, observation of the same topic over many years - published once every five years. It assesses the development of AI and its impact on people, communities and society in technical, ethical, economic and social dimensions.
The 2026 expert panel included Iyad Rahwan, director of the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The international group brought together specialists in computer science, philosophy, sociology and related disciplines to assess how AI has changed since the previous report in 2021.
The new report examines the scaling of data and computing resources that underlies generative AI, advances in scientific discovery, investment in infrastructure, concentration of development of frontier models, cybersecurity and military applications, trust in digital media, new risks, public participation and international governance.
"The 2021 report was very optimistic about the rapid progress of AI. What we did not foresee was the 'ChatGPT moment' that captured the world. AI suddenly became the main topic, and today billions of people interact with it regularly. This shift has fundamentally changed how society, business and industry view the technology," Rahwan is quoted as saying in a press release.
The report builds on the previous editions of 2016 and 2021 and documents how artificial intelligence has turned from a specialized research technology into a ubiquitous public force. It answers 12 standing questions about the achievements, capabilities, dangers and social effects of AI, includes an in-depth analysis of the geopolitics of AI and the scaling era, and also compares events after 2021 with the assessments of the previous panel.
For the panel's researchers, one thing is obvious: the coming years will be decisive in shaping the capabilities and risks of this technology.