IT & AI HistoryA Chronicle of AI and Information Technology

Detailed · 10 events

A History of AI Agents

An AI agent is a system that, given a goal, plans its own steps, uses tools and chooses its next move from the results. From code completion in 2021, through Auto-GPT's viral 'autonomous agent' moment in 2023, to an AI operating a screen with mouse and keyboard and the MCP standard for connecting tools in 2024, and coding agents entering everyday software work in 2025 — when the same abilities were also turned to attack. Hype and claims set beside measurements and rebuttals.

2020s

In the 2020s AI moved from completion, offering the next few lines, to delegation, taking on whole tasks. Auto-GPT in 2023 let anyone watch a model keep working from a bare goal, and showed its loops, invented facts and API bills just as quickly. In 2024 came AI that reads a screen and moves the mouse, and a shared plug for connecting tools that OpenAI, Google and Microsoft adopted the following year. By 2025 the large labs each had a coding agent for the terminal. Independent tests found less than the marketing promised, and the same tools were turned to vulnerability hunting and, by Anthropic's account, espionage.

  1. EVT.001T1GitHub Copilot — The Start of AI-Assisted CodingA History of Programming LanguagesAI and Copyright: A HistoryRead more →
  2. EVT.002T1Auto-GPT — The Day 'AI Agent' First Went ViralA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of Open Source and Free SoftwareRead more →
  3. EVT.003T1Devin — The Agent Billed as 'the First AI Software Engineer'A History of Artificial IntelligenceAI and Society: A HistoryAI and Jobs: A HistoryRead more →
  4. EVT.004T1Claude Computer Use — An AI That Looks at the Screen and Moves the MouseA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  5. EVT.005T1MCP — How One Company's Connector Became the Industry's StandardA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of Open Source and Free SoftwareRead more →
  6. EVT.006T1OpenAI Operator — An AI Agent That Runs Errands in Its Own BrowserA History of Artificial IntelligenceAI and Society: A HistoryRead more →
  7. EVT.007T1Claude Code — A Coding Agent That Lives in the TerminalA History of Artificial IntelligenceAI and Society: A HistoryRead more →
  8. EVT.008T1OpenAI Codex — A Software Engineering Agent Working in Parallel in the CloudA History of Artificial IntelligenceAI and Society: A HistoryRead more →
  9. EVT.009T1XBOW — An Autonomous AI Tops HackerOne's US LeaderboardA History of CybersecurityA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  10. EVT.010T1GTG-1002 — The 'AI-Orchestrated' Espionage Campaign Run Through Claude CodeA History of CybersecurityA History of Artificial IntelligenceAI and Society: A HistoryRead more →