It's current year, of course they used AI to help [0], and it does feel like the article was AI assited.

"This map isn't flat — it has 5 levels of elevation."

"The ocean isn't just a blue plane — it has animated caustic sparkles"

"The fundamental issue:" and "The key constraint:"

I still enjoyed the article.

[0] https://github.com/felixturner/hex-map-wfc/commit/1679be