Pixel-Art Documentary Traces AI's Evolution from Perceptron to LLMs

A new independent documentary, "Building Intelligence," is set to release on YouTube in late November 2026, offering a unique look at the history of artificial intelligence. The film utilizes pixel-art visuals and AI-assisted animation to trace the lineage of AI development, highlighting the surprising interconnectedness of ideas across decades.

The documentary focuses on the evolution of AI from early concepts like the 1950s Perceptron to modern Large Language Models (LLMs). It explores how foundational concepts such as backpropagation, distributed representations, and attention mechanisms, once dismissed or forgotten, have resurfaced and become critical components of contemporary AI systems. The narrative emphasizes the challenges faced by researchers and how their attempts to overcome these obstacles paved the way for new advancements.