Six Months of Massive LLM Changes: The Rise of Coding Agents, OpenClaw Explosion, and Local Models Fighting Back
Simon Willison reviews major LLM changes and coding inflection points from late 2025
In a lightning talk at PyCon US 2026, Simon Willison reviewed the past six months of major LLM developments, highlighting the "November 2025 inflection point" — the critical moment when AI coding agents crossed the quality threshold — and outlined the most noteworthy trends and events from this period.
Simon Willison used a five-minute lightning talk at PyCon US 2026 to review the major changes in the LLM space over the past six months. This period happens to cover what he calls the "November 2025 inflection point" — a pivotal moment that reshaped the AI coding landscape. This article is based on his talk, providing a deep dive into the most noteworthy trends and events from these six months.
November 2025: The Inflection Point Where Coding Agents Crossed the Quality Threshold
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