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I didn't quite read parent's comment like that. I think it's more about how we keep moving the goalposts or, less cynically, how the models keep getting better and better.

I am amazed at the progress that we are _still_ making on an almost monthly basis. It is unbelievable. Mind-boggling, to be honest.

I am certain that the issue of pacing will be solved soon enough. I'd give 99% probability of it being solved in 3 years and 50% probability in 1.




In my consulting career I sometimes get to tune database servers for performance. I have a bag of tricks that yield about +10-20% performance each. I get arguments about this from customers, typically along the lines of "that doesn't seem worth it."

Yeah, but 10% plus 20% plus 20%... next thing you know you're at +100% and your server is literally double the speed!

AI progress feels the same. Each little incremental improvement alone doesn't blow my skirt up, but we've had years of nearly monthly advances that have added up to something quite substantial.


Yes, if you are Mary Poppins, each individual trick in your bag doesn't have to be large.

(For those too young or unfamiliar: Mary Poppins famously had a bag that she could keep pulling things out of.)


Except at some point the low hanging fruit is gone and it becomes +1%, +3% in some benchmarked use case and -1% in the general case, etc. and then come the benchmarking lies that we are seeing right now, where everyone picks a benchmark that makes them look good and its correlation to real world performance is questionable.


What exactly is the problem with moving the goalposts? Who is trying to win arguments over this stuff?

Yes, Z is indeed a big advance over Y was a big advance over X. Also yes, Z is just as underwhelming.

Are customers hurting the AI companies' feelings?


> Are customers hurting the AI companies' feelings?

No. It's the critics' feelings that are being hurt by continued advances, so they keep moving goalposts so they can keep believing they're right.


The goalposts should keep moving. That's called progress. Like you, I'm not sure why it seems to irritate or even amuse people.




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