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Wake me up when AI can...

stoppels.ch29 points12 comments
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A project gathers 826 Hacker News comments from 2016-2026 that set a threshold for believing in AI, then turns each into a claim people can judge as achieved, uncertain, or not achieved. Nearly 9,700 people cast more than 100,000 votes. The exercise captures how quickly expectations shift: abilities that once sounded transformative can become ordinary after only a few days of using newer models. The author argues that looking back at past predictions helps counter that recency effect and shows how demands for proof can move as systems improve.

Using a two-thirds “yes” vote as the threshold for “clearly happened,” 112 claims met it, mostly about writing and understanding text or code; many were made before ChatGPT’s 2022 release. Examples include generating working code from specifications, solving programming problems, finding bugs, and handling algebra or categorization. Turing-test claims illustrate moving goalposts: a simple version receives strong approval, while tests requiring prolonged, live, or highly adversarial interaction are less accepted. Seventy-eight claims were contested, especially those about verifying truth, expressing uncertainty, generating genuinely new theories, and replacing experienced software engineers. The results distinguish practical capabilities that voters consider established from broader claims about reliable autonomy, general intelligence, and human-level expertise.

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