James Bridle's essay explores the origin of "benchmarking" from literal surveyor marks on St. John's Church in Liverpool (1840) used as reference points for measurement, to its modern usage for establishing baselines in software performance, product quality and other metrics. Bridle connects this historical practice to contemporary AI discourse, reflecting on how the "AI revolution" is less about technological breakthroughs and more about accumulated power and data concentration.
Bridle recounts using OpenAI's GPT-4 to design a chair with his partner Navine, drawing on Enzo Mari's 1974 "Self-design proposal" catalogue which democratized furniture-making through basic wood-and-nail constructions. The experiment aimed to test whether AI could function as a "smart carpenter's mate"—handling calculations and suggestions while humans do the physical work—rather than replacing human creativity.
The essay critiques current AI applications that "beat us at games," "supercharge predatory capitalism," "extract and burn fossil fuels" and "conflate images with art." Bridle argues for AI as a collaborative tool enabling new possibilities rather than a master/slave dynamic. The historical benchmark metaphor serves as a reminder that measurement should connect rather than separate, understanding the whole earth as "a continuous, indivisible field" rather than establishing hierarchies.