The trick: Lab Not Field
An Anthropic co-founder told the IMF the singularity has begun.
His evidence is test scores and anecdotes, and his own speech calls them first signs.
An Anthropic co-founder says the singularity is underway.
Before you read on. Your call?
TRUE, BUT
67.7
Jack Clark said it in an IMF lecture on 17 October. His evidence is benchmark scores, examples of AI-assisted research and more code at Anthropic. The same speech calls these first signs. A Princeton-led study found agents still short on original research.
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The trick has a name
We call it Lab Not Field: it works in the test conditions, not the deployed ones. You'll see it again. Learn to spot it →
Receipts
- Supports jack-clark.net:
I believe that this year we have gained convincing evidence that it has now begun.
- Context jack-clark.net:
Here’s a speech I gave on Saturday the 17th of October at the IMF meeting in Bangkok.
- Context jack-clark.net:
In 2026, we have got the first signs that AI systems may be capable of doing science at the frontier
- Supports jack-clark.net:
As of this week, the highest scoring system is Claude Opus 5.5 with 67.7%.
- Context jack-clark.net:
our researchers now produce almost 10 times the amount of code than they did for the first four years of the company’s life
- Context jack-clark.net:
I find myself both a narrator of what is happening in AI, a principle agent behind what is
- Context bta.bg:
Anthropic Co-founder Jack Clark delivers this year's Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture on AI
- Refutes technologyreview.com:
lacked the judgment and creativity to produce original research at the caliber of papers accepted by a top machine-learning conference
- Context technologyreview.com:
led by Peter Kirgis and Sayash Kapoor at Princeton University
- Context the-decoder.com:
Clark builds his case mainly on benchmark trends.
- Context the-decoder.com:
What he means specifically is a system that can train a more powerful successor on its own
- Context the-decoder.com:
He pegs the odds at roughly 60 percent by the end of 2028, and 30 percent by 2027.
- Refutes the-decoder.com:
Herbie Bradley, who recently wrote about automated AI researchers on his blog AI Pathways , pushes back on parts of Clark's argument.
Open the Receipts Pack → What each source proves, every figure traced, and what would change our verdict.
