Everywhere, Somewhere, Here: Intelligence in the Place
From foundation models to agents to embodied intelligence, AI is unfolding from everywhere to here.
Posted by David Thyresson • 4 min read
🗓️
Everybody’s been talking about AI. It feels like it’s everywhere --- in headlines, in workflows, in conversations at dinner tables. Everywhere can also mean something bigger: the dream of AGI, artificial general intelligence, vast and expansive. But the real story isn’t just that intelligence is everywhere. It’s that it’s finding its place.
The unfolding of AI can be seen in three movements:
- Everywhere: The rise of foundation models in the cloud (and the broader imagination of AGI).
- Somewhere: The emergence of agents that give shape and direction.
- Here: Intelligence embedded and embodied, finally in the place with us.
Everywhere
2023 was the year of foundation models. They seemed to arrive all at once, accessible from any browser, any device — knowledge and creativity suddenly everywhere.
But “everywhere” was an illusion of access. These models were massive, energy-hungry, and tethered to remote data centers. They impressed, yes, but they were also abstract, diffuse — more like echoes from afar than intelligence in the place where we stood.
Somewhere
By 2024, AI gained direction. Models evolved into agents: not just reactive, but active.
Agents could plan, adapt, use tools. Instead of just answering prompts, they pursued goals. Workflows in customer service, research, and software development began to shift. Intelligence was no longer scattered everywhere, it was anchored somewhere — in systems, in processes, in loops that gave it structure.
Yet, even then, it was still confined to screens and servers. Somewhere, but not here.
Here
Now comes the shift that matters most: intelligence in the place.
Here means AI that runs on-device, in real time — on a car’s computer, a robot’s processor, a phone’s chip. It means a drone inspecting infrastructure offline, narrating its findings. A home assistant that adapts without sending data away. A factory robot reasoning locally, coordinating with its peers.
“Here” transforms AI from something we summon to something we inhabit. Not remote, but present. Not abstract, but situated. Intelligence, finally, with us — in the place.
The Reflection
The unfolding is clear:
- Everywhere gave us reach (and the dream of AGI).
- Somewhere gave us purpose.
- Here gives us presence — intelligence in the place.
When AI is here, it ceases to be an oracle we query and becomes part of the world we live in. It settles into our tools, our homes, our cities — and into us.
Companies like Liquid AI exemplify this transition, designing models that are efficient, adaptive, and ready for the edge. Their vision of liquid intelligence captures the shift: like water, intelligence flows to wherever it’s needed — and now it’s not just everywhere, but here, in the place.
Everywhere, somewhere, here. Intelligence has found its place. The work ahead is deciding what kind of place we want it to be.
The title of this piece nods to “Everybody in the Place”, a 1991 single by The Prodigy. A reminder that culture, like technology, often finds its power in moving from everywhere to here — in the place where we live it.
The image was generarated by fal and the flux-1/schnell model using the following prompt:
A conceptual illustration showing the unfolding of AI across three movements: “Everywhere” as glowing cloud-like networks in the sky, symbolizing vast foundation models and the dream of AGI; “Somewhere” as structured geometric shapes or pathways representing agents giving direction and purpose; and “Here” as embedded AI inside everyday physical objects like a smartphone, robot, and car chip. The style should be modern, sleek, and slightly abstract — blending digital networks with physical devices to convey intelligence flowing from the cloud into the real world.