we hit the checkpoint

it feels like we are entering a different phase of the ai era.. e.g. - frontier models are still improving, but improvements are increasingly measured in reliability, latency, memory, cost, tool use, & workflow completion rather than holy shit benchmark jumps. - the labs are starting to look less like research projects & more like mature platform companies who are now going public which means quarterly earnings. - distribution is becoming way way more important than raw intelligence. - product design matters again. taste matters again. trust matters again. always did but now there isn't that much differentiation at the model layer for the most part. - the releases are slowing down to a normal pace instead of the frenzy. - no one in their right minds is questioning the tech at all anymore. - it feels less like 1995 internet & more like 2004 internet. kinda like a checkpoint in a video game where your game gets auto saved