break new ground

break new ground (third-person singular simple present breaks new ground, present participle breaking new ground, simple past broke new ground, past participle broken new ground)

1. (literally) To begin excavating and levelling earth for a new building, or, originally, for cultivation.
2. (by extension) To initiate a new venture, especially something never before attempted; to advance or innovate.
   • 1962 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: London Midland Region: Central Lines”, in Modern Railways, page 280:

     One of the Birmingham R.C.W. diesel multiple-units on the Calder Valley service broke new ground on August 12 when it was enployed for a works excursion from Halifax to Windermere, [...].

   • 2023 March 15, Kevin Roose, “GPT-4 Is Exciting and Scary”, in The New York Times‎:

     Some of these things were possible to do with earlier A.I. models. But OpenAI has broken new ground, too. According to the company, GPT-4 is more capable and accurate than the original ChatGPT, and it performs astonishingly well on a variety of tests […]

• break ground