PhD-level intelligence?
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A recent SMBC:
The mouseover title: "This is one of those jokes you make, then realize people in the field have probably been saying it verbatim for 20 years."
The Aftercomic:
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Mike Cracraft said,
May 28, 2026 @ 2:08 pm
The top cartoon reminds me of a sci-fi film that came out in the
early 60s (I think) : "The Forbin Project". Things don't work out so well at the end.
DCBob said,
May 28, 2026 @ 3:04 pm
In the words of the immortal Curly Howard: "Hey! I resemble that remark!"
languagehat said,
May 29, 2026 @ 6:33 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
bks said,
May 29, 2026 @ 6:41 am
I'll see your "Forbin Project" (1970) and raise you "Demon Seed"(1977):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_Seed
Jerry Packard said,
May 29, 2026 @ 7:56 am
Piled Higher and Deeper
Roscoe said,
May 29, 2026 @ 8:18 am
Via McSweeney’s: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/chatgpt-now-has-phd-level-intelligence-and-the-poor-personal-choices-to-prove-it
Stephen Goranson said,
May 29, 2026 @ 9:20 am
Though not entirely reliable, google books and hathitrust and worldcat appear to attest a text, probably an ad, in 1994 (July-Dec) Embedded Systems Programming vol. 7 page 55, and later in 1995, in Dr. Dobb's Journal: Software Tools for the Professional, snippet reading:
"PHD – LEVEL INTELLIGENCE COMBINE TO EASILY OVERPOWER THE MOST INSIDIOUS BUGS . SPECIALTY : SEARCH AND DESTROY USING PARADIGM DEBUG . NAME : KAT . ABILITY : NIMBLE MASTER OF TERRAIN . ADAPTS TO THE MOST GRUELING DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS …"
David Marjanović said,
May 29, 2026 @ 1:31 pm
Benefits? There are benefits outside?
Jonathan Smith said,
May 29, 2026 @ 7:20 pm
Well maybe in CS, although now these folks should probably sit tight given the brave new "AI" economy, and business schools, where faculty selflessly sacrifice financial comfort to educate the next generation of great "investment bankers."
Rodger C said,
May 30, 2026 @ 9:57 am
The Wikip article on Colossus: The Forbin Project doesn't mention (what I thought was) the fact that it's loosely based on two distinct novels, Colossus and The Forbin Project. Cf. The Towering Inferno.