The last six months in LLMs in five minutes

Between November 2025 and February 2026, large language models (LLMs, AI systems trained on vast text data) underwent rapid advancement, with the 'best' model changing hands multiple times among major providers. The most significant development was that coding agents (AI systems that write software code) improved dramatically from often-working to mostly-working, becoming reliable enough for daily professional use after months of reinforcement learning from verifiable rewards (a technique where AI systems learn by receiving feedback on whether their outputs are correct). This progress sparked widespread experimentation and led to the emergence of 'Claws' (personal AI assistants), with OpenClaw becoming particularly popular by February.