Is AI Slowing Down? Nathan Labenz Says We're Asking the Wrong Question Don’t mistake smoother launches for slower progress. Nathan Labenz: “GPT-4 couldn’t push the frontier of human knowledge. GPT-5 sometimes can. That alone is a huge deal.” 00:00 Intro 01:14 Cal Newport’s “AI slowdown” argument 03:08 Are students getting lazy? 04:55 Nathan's 2x2 matrix of AI impact 07:00 Scaling laws, GPT-4.5, GPT-5 11:05 Longer context windows, better reasoning 17:05 AI as scientist and real discoveries 19:17 Why launch perception matters 26:10 The misunderstood METR study 36:20 Agents, recursive self-improvement 51:15 Multimodal AI and robotics 1:27:00 Why the future depends on a positive vision for AI @labenz @eriktorenberg(a16z)