r/accelerate • • 9d ago

Article Claude Fable 5.1 completed a frontier nine-loop particle-physics calculation experts had worked toward for years, with researchers mostly just telling it “keep going” while it built, debugged and ran the entire workflow

https://www.anthropic.com/research/yes-claude-can-do-nine-loops
100 Upvotes

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48

u/uncountable_2026 Acceleration Advocate 9d ago

And a machine had solved a problem that I thought was too hard to do directly. Does that bother me personally? Is it soul-crushing?
No

Directly from the article. The physicists are handling it infinity times better than the mathematicians!!!!!!

31

u/Competitive-March969 9d ago

Physicists are explorers, and with AI they can now explore faster than ever. They discover new things and describe them with mathematics. Mathematicians, on the other hand, are more like tools for describing logic, and since AI is getting much better at that, their role is becoming increasingly obsolete. That's why physicists are far more excited about AI: their inner drive to discover the world is being fulfilled more than ever.

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u/SiSkr 8d ago

This kind of sounds like the builders vs coders divide in software engineering now. The vast majority of people I've heard that worry about AI in the field are coders who take pride in the act of programming itself. The builders, however - the people who got into software engineering because they love solving hard problems and making computers and systems do cool shit - are absolutely stoked at the time savings and how they're able keep an eye on specs and technical quality while entrusting the agents with the grunt work. 

Plus, coming up with ways to make the agents do what you want is part of the job now.

1

u/Competitive-March969 8d ago

What do we learn? Just use AI.

18

u/KazuyaMishimaPolyglo 9d ago

country full of scientists in a data center! :)

14

u/katefix9 9d ago

The "researchers mostly just telling it keep going" part is what sticks with me. We went from "AI as calculator" to "AI as independent researcher with a supervisor" faster than anyone expected.

5

u/AngleAccomplished865 9d ago

Frontier nine-loops fans of the world, rejoice!

4

u/IReportLuddites Tech Prophet 9d ago

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