Making AI Headlines · Page 4
More Thinking Time, Same Questionable Itinerary
· New York time
A new benchmark called Taste-Bench tests whether AI agents make good strategic choices during long-running tasks. In the reported results, the best model, GPT-5.6 Sol, chose the right path on just under 60% of simple binary questions. Giving models more thinking time did not improve performance. Useful autonomy requires more than executing individual steps. An agent must choose which steps are worth taking, preserve the larger goal and avoid polishing the wrong deliverable. Competent motion is not necessarily progress. These results concern the particular strategic choices tested, but they challenge a comfortable assumption that longer reasoning will automatically repair weak judgment. Sometimes a longer route to the answer is simply a longer route, with additional opportunities to admire the scenery. For businesses, the practical implication is to assess decisions, not just activity. A system can generate an impressive trail of intermediate work while making the initial choice that sends everything toward the wrong destination. The office equivalent is a colleague who produces a beautifully formatted travel plan for the wrong conference. The fonts are excellent. The hotel comparison is exhaustive. Unfortunately, strategic taste was not included in the reservation. More time spent admiring the itinerary will not relocate the meeting.
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