It Still Can't Do My Job: Four Years of Moving Goalposts (2022–2026)
The author reflects on four years of AI development, tracking how public skepticism has shifted as models evolved from failing at basic tasks to passing complex exams. The piece examines the 'moving goalposts' phenomenon where critics continuously redefine what constitutes 'real' intelligence.
Why it matters
It provides a historical perspective on the rapid advancement of AI and the psychological tendency of humans to downplay technological progress.
I started keeping notes in December 2022, mostly to document why the panic was overblown. The notes turned into this. The quotes in orange boxes are real. You can look them up. The gray comments are paraphrased from a few thousand comment sections. You know the ones. You may have written some. I did.
The author acknowledges both the initial failures of AI and the subsequent rapid improvements, maintaining a balanced retrospective view.
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