Innovation Timeline

Historical events of Astek innovation.

• Mixtral 8x7B (2024-01-08) — Mistral AI launches Mixtral 8x7B, an open-source Mixture of Experts model that rivals GPT-3.5. This model uses an innovative architecture that activates only 2 out of 8 experts per token, optimizing performance and efficiency.
• GenAI Meetup #1 (2024-01-18) — First ASTEK meetup dedicated to generative AI. Presentation of LLM fundamentals and demonstration of enterprise use cases. Over 50 participants!
• Google Gemini 1.5 Pro (2024-02-15) — Google unveils Gemini 1.5 Pro with a revolutionary context window of 1 million tokens. This breakthrough enables processing entire documents, hours of video, or complete codebases in a single query.
• Claude 3 (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku) (2024-03-04) — Anthropic launches the Claude 3 family with three models: Opus (the most powerful), Sonnet (balanced), and Haiku (fast). Claude 3 Opus outperforms GPT-4 on many benchmarks and introduces multimodal vision capabilities.
• Documentary RAG POC (2024-03-15) — The iLab team is developing a RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) proof of concept for internal document search. Using LangChain, ChromaDB, and Claude 3.
• Meta Llama 3 (2024-04-18) — Meta releases Llama 3 in 8B and 70B parameter versions, setting new standards for open-source models. The models are available on Hugging Face and can be freely fine-tuned.
• GPT-4o (Omni) (2024-05-13) — OpenAI launches GPT-4o, a natively multimodal model capable of processing text, audio, and images in real time. Impressive demonstration of natural voice conversations with minimal latency.
• Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2024-06-20) — Anthropic launches Claude 3.5 Sonnet, outperforming Claude 3 Opus on most benchmarks while being 2x faster and 5x cheaper. Introduces 'Artifacts' for interactive content generation.
• ASTEK AI Hackathon (2024-06-28) — First internal hackathon dedicated to AI. 48 hours to develop innovative solutions using LLMs. 8 teams, 32 participants, 3 projects awarded.
• Mistral Large 2 (2024-07-24) — Mistral AI launches Mistral Large 2 (123B parameters), a frontier model competing with GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Supports 80+ languages and features a 128k token context window.
• OpenAI o1 (Strawberry) (2024-09-12) — OpenAI launches o1, a new model paradigm capable of 'thinking' before responding. Exceptional performance in mathematics, coding, and complex reasoning thanks to internal 'chain of thought'.
• Claude Computer Use (2024-10-22) — Anthropic introduces 'Computer Use', enabling Claude to interact with graphical interfaces: clicking, typing, navigating. A major step forward towards general AI agents.
• Google Gemini 2.0 Flash (2024-12-11) — Google launches Gemini 2.0 Flash with native agent capabilities: image generation, text-to-speech, code execution. Available via the API and in AI Studio.
• Kickoff Innovation 2025 (2025-01-16) — Official launch of ASTEK's Innovation 2025 program. Presentation of the AI roadmap and annual objectives.
• DeepSeek R1 (2025-01-20) — DeepSeek launches R1, an open-source reasoning model that rivals OpenAI's o1. Exceptional performance in mathematics and coding, all open-source.
• Google Gemini 2.0 Ultra (2025-03-12) — Google launches Gemini 2.0 Ultra with expanded multimodal capabilities and a context window of 2 million tokens.
• Autonomous Agents POC v2 (2025-03-20) — New version of the Agents POC with multi-agent orchestration and MCP integration. Demonstration of concrete use cases in enterprise environments.
• Meta Llama 4 (2025-04-08) — Meta releases Llama 4 featuring a Mixture of Experts architecture and performance rivaling GPT-5. Available as open-source.
• Google I/O 2025 (2025-05-20) — Google I/O conference with major announcements: Gemini 2.0 Pro, Project Astra 2.0, new agent APIs, and AI integration in Android 16.
• Mistral Large 3 (2025-06-10) — Mistral AI launches Mistral Large 3, a 200B parameter frontier model with advanced reasoning capabilities and multimodal support.
• AI Agents Hackathon (2025-06-27) — Second edition of the internal hackathon, this time focused on AI agents. 48 hours to create innovative automation solutions.
• Claude 4 (2025-07-15) — Anthropic unveils Claude 4, a new generation model with long-term planning and self-correction capabilities.
• AI Platform Launch (2025-08-20) — Official launch of the internal ASTEK AI platform. Centralization of tools, agents, and models for all employees.
• GPT-5 GA (2025-11-12) — OpenAI launches GPT-5 into general availability. The model sets new standards in reasoning, creativity, and reliability.
• AI 2025 Review Meetup (2025-12-18) — Year-end meetup to review the AI year 2025. Retrospective, demos, and outlook for 2026.