From Random Forests to RLVR: A Short History of ML/AI Hello Worlds

Machine learning "Hello World" examples have evolved dramatically from 2013's RandomForestClassifier on Iris datasets to 2025's sophisticated Qwen3 with reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) on MATH-500. This progression shows how beginner-friendly AI demonstrations have advanced through XGBoost, neural networks, transformers, and large language models to now include reasoning models that can solve complex mathematical problems.