Improvement in autonomous vehicles reminds us of Hemingway’s quote about how a man goes broke: “Gradually and then suddenly.”5 And self-driving cars are not an anomaly; they’re part of a broad, fascinating pattern. Progress on some of the oldest and toughest challenges associated with computers, robots, and other digital gear was gradual for a long time. Then in the past few years it became sudden; digital gear started racing ahead, accomplishing tasks it had always been lousy at and displaying skills it was not supposed to acquire anytime soon. Let’s look at a few more examples of surprising
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