Researcher: AI progress comes from unlocked small problems nobody tracks—until it becomes algorithmic search
RexDouglass · x · 2026-09-08
Researcher Rex Douglass distills an awkward truth about measuring AI research progress: asked "how do you know you're making progress—solving big problems?", the honest answer is "actually a bunch of small problems get unlocked"; asked whether those are tracked, the answer is "lol, also no."
He argues any systematic effort on this inevitably becomes computational formalization, which becomes algorithmic search in all its current and future flavors—explaining why search-based methods keep returning as the core engine of AI progress.
More from AGI Musings
- Microsoft's reported 60,000 voluntary exits spark essay asking who AI is really for — _jaydeepkarale · 2026-10-27
- PHP2Shell exploits confirmed in the wild, attackers may use agentic AI for post-exploitation — AravSrinivas · 2026-10-27
- LukeW: Technology Limits Are Temporary — and AI Skeptics Are Already Feeling It — LukeW · 2026-10-27
- GiveDirectly pilots an optional AI chatbot alongside cash aid in Rwanda — NathanpmYoung · 2026-10-27
- Ex-Anthropic employee essay: the org optimizes for power 'constrained by being seen as the good guys' — RichardMCNgo · 2026-10-27
- Investor: model version numbers are a mirage, only datacenter margins are real — StewartalsopIII · 2026-10-27