forerunner

The three partners founded Hugging Face in New York, where Delangue was already living, with the aim of building a conversational AI interface -- a sort of forerunner of ChatGPT -- aimed primarily at teenagers.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

Burnham has long been involved with fans' groups and he founded Supporters Direct, one of the forerunner organisations to the Football Supporters' Association.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026

Tim Burton’s stylish 1989 movie, “Batman,” wasn’t only a forerunner of the superhero films to come in the following decades.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

It proved a forerunner of a television revolution.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Mama Tataba’s job, we were surprised to learn, was to live with us and earn a small stipend by doing the same work she’d done for our forerunner in the Kilanga Mission, Brother Fowles.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Margaret and Alice are the forerunners of Lucy and Ethel, and Shakespeare’s comedy, written expressly to entertain, gives us a sense of what an Elizabethan-era situation comedy might look like.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Having Albert Brooks as a best friend likely molded his style too; both were forerunners of a school of comedy that merged a naturalistic, conversational delivery with an absurdist sensibility.

From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025

AMD was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders and other veterans of Fairchild Semiconductor, a pioneering developer of what were known as integrated circuits, the forerunners of modern chips.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025

“As soon as this passed, then you have the start of what are the forerunners of modern airlines,” said Randall, like “American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024

In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling