I am genuinely curious to know what kind of genuine problems people are solving with opus that cant be done with sonnet or the free models. If there are problems that people are working on that only opus 5.5 can solve then were we not touching such problems last year at all (because last years best model was inferior to sonnet 5.5). And if people are solving such problems now, why cant I see any meaningful improvement in even a single software I use everyday?

Not trying to diss on anything or anybody. I want to know.

I took a few months out and it’s noticeable quite how much better opus is at least in respect of the quality of understanding. It’s a step change for me.

[delayed]

I don’t think OP is proposing using a local model?

Why do you limit yourself to mac?

You can run larger flash models on a modern PC using strata. These models perform pretty good even on low quants.

Furthermore, next generation open weight models will swap some compute for storage, making them more accessible for masses.

Maybe he doesn't want to wear earplugs constantly and/or doesn't generate his own electricity?