AI Article

[Monroe]

I know very little about 'AI' ... just a little here, just a little there. I do know that my electric bill went up last year ... supposedly from all the data centers being built and coming online. This article is interesting and disturbing if all true.

Just to add: The article came from here ...

https://citizenfreepress.com/

Something Big Is Happening

By Matt Shumer • Feb 9, 2026

https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening

+ Some  points from the article ...

For years, AI had been improving steadily. Big jumps here and there, but each big jump was spaced out enough that you could absorb them as they came. Then in 2025, new techniques for building these models unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster. And then faster again. Each new model wasn't just better than the last... it was better by a wider margin, and the time between new model releases was shorter. I was using AI more and more, going back and forth with it less and less, watching it handle things I used to think required my expertise.

Then, on February 5th, two major AI labs released new models on the same day: GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI, and Opus 4.6 from Anthropic (the makers of Claude, one of the main competitors to ChatGPT). And something clicked. Not like a light switch... more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest.

I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job. I describe what I want built, in plain English, and it just... appears. Not a rough draft I need to fix. The finished thing. I tell the AI what I want, walk away from my computer for four hours, and come back to find the work done. Done well, done better than I would have done it myself, with no corrections needed. A couple of months ago, I was going back and forth with the AI, guiding it, making edits. Now I just describe the outcome and leave.

+ Second point ...

How fast this is actually moving

Let me make the pace of improvement concrete, because I think this is the part that's hardest to believe if you're not watching it closely.

In 2022, AI couldn't do basic arithmetic reliably. It would confidently tell you that 7 × 8 = 54.

By 2023, it could pass the bar exam.

By 2024, it could write working software and explain graduate-level science.

By late 2025, some of the best engineers in the world said they had handed over most of their coding work to AI.

On February 5th, 2026, new models arrived that made everything before them feel like a different era.

If you haven't tried AI in the last few months, what exists today would be unrecognizable to you.

+ Some extra ...

Amodei has said that AI models "substantially smarter than almost all humans at almost all tasks" are on track for 2026 or 2027.

AI is now building the next AI

There's one more thing happening that I think is the most important development and the least understood.

On February 5th, OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Codex. In the technical documentation, they included this:

"GPT-5.3-Codex is our first model that was instrumental in creating itself. The Codex team used early versions to debug its own training, manage its own deployment, and diagnose test results and evaluations."

Read that again. The AI helped build itself.

This isn't a prediction about what might happen someday. This is OpenAI telling you, right now, that the AI they just released was used to create itself. One of the main things that makes AI better is intelligence applied to AI development. And AI is now intelligent enough to meaningfully contribute to its own improvement.

...

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Monroe
add,

[NotHereToPlayGames]

The "improving steadily" and at "faster pace of progress" is NOTHING NEW, in my opinion.  So this should really surprise NO ONE.

Think of a 1985 computer compared to a 1995 computer compared to a 2005 computer compared to a 2015 computer compared to a 2025 computer.

Think of a 1935 refrigerator compared to a 1945 ... 1955 ... 1965 ... 1975 ... 1985 ... 1995 ...  2005 ... 2015 ... 2025 refrigerator.

Here's one that I've always laughed at - think of a 1965 clothes dryer compared to a 1975 ... 1985 ... 1995 ...  2005 ... 2015 ... 2025 clothes dryer.
Now think of "lint fires" and a clothes dryer burning down your house.  MYTHS ASIDE, if your house fire is traced to your laundry room, YOU ARE INVESTIGATED FOR FRAUD.
Because this isn't 1965 and clothes dryers simply do NOT catch your house on fire!  No matter how loudly your grandmother claims that they do!
Ask any fireman, ask any insurance claims adjuster.

Think of any 1935 automobile compared to a 1945 ... 1955 ... 1965 ... 1975 ... 1985 ... 1995 ...  2005 ... 2015 ... 2025 automobile.

Think of any 1935 <insert name here> compared to a 1945 ... 1955 ... 1965 ... 1975 ... 1985 ... 1995 ...  2005 ... 2015 ... 2025 <insert name here>.

[EliraFriesnan]

2005 - 2015 computers quality was good. Newer and older ones are poorly built, outright garbage.

@Monroe, thanks,  interesting!

[NotHereToPlayGames]

I'd submit that "quality" is a different argument altogether.
Quality is a function of price relative to inflation.

If you build it CHEAPLY because the "market" only wants to spend so much, then of course the end result is going to be GARBAGE.
"Junk In = Junk Out!"  "You get what you pay for."  Both apply.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

8 hours ago, Monroe said:

I do know that my electric bill went up last year

Um...  Not sure what to read &/or infer into this, to be honest.
On one hand, IT IS SUPPOSED TO GO UP EACH AND EVERY YEAR !!!
No, it won't be an "exact" amount each and every year, won't be strictly "linear".
But over the course of time, IT IS SUPPOSED TO GO UP.

I can only speak for my own electric bill (Midwest USA).
Here is each and every year's annual cost of electricity dating back to 2008 (the year after I bought this house since the first year wasn't a full year).
I could even do previous home or apartments if you really want me to.  I'm a spreadsheet nerd, I have these dating back to when I moved out of parents' home.

Just going by the linear regression y-intercept trend line, that's $769.69 paid for electricity in 2008 and $1,087.03 paid for electricity in 2025.
Annualized, that's only a 2.052% increase per year.  That's below annualized inflation for the same time span of 2.940% per US CPI.

Now then, on the other hand, just WHERE is your increase relative to that 2.940% US Consumer Price Index?  Below?  Above?  By how much?
But as far as "went up last year", I for one would personally HOPE SO.
Because deflationary is years like 1926-1933, 1938-1940, 1949-1950, and 1954-1955 - I would NOT want to live through those years!

That's REAL LIFE NUMBERS but I can only speak for Midwest USA.

 

(ps - that was FUN!)

Edited 59 minutes ago by NotHereToPlayGames