When the Chips Are Down
This feels like the end of the beginning
By Paul Krugman
The technology everyone calls AI is remarkable, especially to those who remember the long, depressing history of previous attempts to get computers to do even seemingly simple things, like recognizing the same object seen from different angles, let alone recognize it as a member of a class of related objects.
Yesterday I gave Claude the image at the top of the post, and asked, “What is this a picture of?” Claude responded:
A tuxedo cat (black and white) curled up asleep on a patchwork quilt, on what looks like a bed with a white metal frame. The photo’s a bit blurry/motion-blurred, but the cat’s clearly tucked into a tight, cozy sleeping curl with its face buried near its front paws.
