Scott examines reader tests and discussions of AI's GeoGuessr abilities, revealing that AIs perform best with tourist locations and are roughly on par with human professionals. Longer summary

This post discusses the comments and follow-up tests on Scott's previous article about AI's GeoGuessr abilities. Various readers tested Claude/o3's location-guessing capabilities, with mixed results. The key insight was that the AI performs better with tourist destinations that have lots of photos available. Scott addresses suspicions about the Nepal picture from his original post, showing the AI's reasoning was sound. The post also compares AI performance to human GeoGuessr champions like Trevor Rainbolt, and discusses formal AI GeoGuessr benchmarks that show AIs performing similarly to human professionals. The post concludes by considering whether this represents true intelligence or just specialized training, though noting that even OpenAI's leaders seem impressed by the capability. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reimagines Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' as a modern TripAdvisor review of Xanadu, blending classical poetry with contemporary tourism. Longer summary

This post is a creative writing piece by Scott Alexander, reimagining Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'Kubla Khan' as a modern-day TripAdvisor review. The poem humorously describes a tourist's visit to Xanadu, now commercialized with entry fees, guided tours, and attractions like white-water rafting and an IMAX theater. It maintains much of the original poem's structure and imagery while infusing it with contemporary tourism elements. The piece ends with a playful 5/5 rating, mimicking a typical online review format. Shorter summary