Recorded event
OpenAI introduces GPT-4
OpenAI introduced GPT-4 and began providing text access through ChatGPT Plus and an API waitlist.
Read context
Image input remained a research preview.
All timelines From the beginning
AI competition: reasoning models and new releases
Compare dated releases from OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google and Anthropic. Launches are verifiable events; vendor benchmark claims are not an independent ranking.
Reviewed 9/21/2026
Selected releases through September 10, 2026; not an exhaustive model catalog or a best-model ranking.
Dates without a time use the local date of the event.
Recorded event
Google introduces Gemini 1.0
Google announced Gemini 1.0 in Ultra, Pro and Nano variants, and began bringing Gemini Pro to Bard.
Read context
The announcement did not make all three variants generally available.
Recorded event
Anthropic releases Claude 3 Opus and Sonnet
Anthropic introduced the Claude 3 family and made Opus and Sonnet available through Claude and its API.
Read context
Haiku was announced for later availability.
Recorded event
OpenAI begins rolling out GPT-4o
OpenAI introduced GPT-4o and began rolling out text and image capabilities in ChatGPT, with text and vision access through its API.
Read context
The new voice experience was scheduled for a later rollout.
Recorded event
OpenAI releases o1-preview
OpenAI released an early o1 reasoning model for use in ChatGPT and selected API access.
Read context
The preview made inference-time reasoning a visible product feature. Its release did not establish superiority on every task.
Recorded event
Google releases experimental Gemini 2.0 Flash
Google introduced Gemini 2.0 and made experimental Flash available to developers with multimodal input and text output.
Read context
Image and audio output were limited to early access; this was not general availability.
Recorded event
DeepSeek releases R1
DeepSeek released R1 and made its reasoning model available through an API and downloadable model releases.
Read context
Distribution choices matter alongside capability: an API service and downloadable weights support different ways to build products.
Recorded event
Google introduces experimental Gemini 2.5 Pro
Google introduced Gemini 2.5 with an experimental Pro model available through Google AI Studio and Gemini Advanced.
Read context
Experimental availability is a different milestone from a later stable release. The original launch post identifies which version was available.
Recorded event
Anthropic introduces Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4
Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, offering both direct responses and extended thinking.
Read context
The release emphasized coding and longer agent workflows. Those are the vendor's product priorities, not proof of a universal winner.
Recorded event
DeepSeek adds V4.1 Flash to its API
DeepSeek's dated changelog records the release of V4.1 Flash with native visual input support through its API.
Read context
This extends the timeline beyond the initial reasoning-model launches. Published vendor scores remain separate from independent evaluation.
Through 9/10/2026
Selected releases through September 10, 2026; not an exhaustive model catalog or a best-model ranking.
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