This puzzle shows just how far LLMs have progressed in little over a year

A geometric puzzle that stumped GPT-4o for two hours last June now takes the latest AI model just five seconds to crack.

The challenge involves a grid of dots where each node sits exactly one unit away from its neighbors. What once required extensive back-and-forth prompting and multiple attempts with GPT-4o now gets solved almost instantly by Anthropic's newest Sonnet 4.5 model.

This dramatic leap illustrates just how rapidly large language models are advancing, though the specific improvements often feel abstract until tested against concrete problems. The same geometric reasoning that forced researchers to guide GPT-4o through lengthy trial-and-error sessions now happens seamlessly.

The transformation highlights a broader shift in AI capabilities. Where previous models required careful human guidance to navigate complex spatial reasoning, newer versions demonstrate intuitive problem-solving that mirrors human mathematical thinking.

This isn't just about speed. It represents a fundamental improvement in how AI systems process and manipulate abstract concepts, suggesting we may be witnessing the emergence of genuinely sophisticated reasoning abilities in artificial intelligence.