Simon Willison delivered the closing keynote presentation at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America conference in San Jose on Friday. His presentation offered a chronological review tracking the major trends and model developments across the artificial intelligence landscape so far in 2026. To accompany the session, Willison released a complete video recording of the talk alongside annotated presentation slides and detailed reference notes.
Context and Key Developments
In analyzing the momentum of 2026, the presentation grounds current advancements in the model updates from late 2025. Specifically, the overview points to November 2025 as a key turning point that included the release of Claude Opus 4.5. These late-2025 model debuts helped establish the foundational capabilities, performance standards, and architectural expectations that shaped software development trends throughout the first half of 2026.
Unanswered Questions
The provided summary does not outline the full list of specific model releases, technical benchmarks, or industry trends discussed during the complete keynote in San Jose. Additionally, the initial notes cut off prior to naming the second major model released in November 2025 alongside Claude Opus 4.5. The report also does not specify exact performance comparisons, licensing structures, or deployment statistics for the tools highlighted during the tour.
As 2026 continues, further updates from the presentation notes may provide additional clarity on upcoming industry shifts. Developers can review the complete slide deck and video recording for full context on the featured timeline.
Lead image: Matheus Bertelli / Pexels
