---
title: "HLE: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/hle
description: "HLE: A benchmark of expert-written questions across many fields, written to be hard for the best models."
---

# HLE

What does “HLE” mean?

HLESee Humanity’s Last Exam.

[Humanity’s Last Exam](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/humanity-s-last-exam) A benchmark of expert-written questions across many fields, written to be hard for the best models; row 8 of the Scorecard reads the best model’s score on a text-only subset of its questions, and the Scorecard writes it HLE. *The Scorecard.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

## Where the record uses it

- Scorecard indicator [Humanity’s Last Exam](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard#row-8)

## Sources that use it

- Artificial Analysis, “Humanity’s Last Exam Benchmark Leaderboard,” accessed 30 August 2026 (Claude Fable 5, Adaptive Reasoning/Max Effort with Opus 4.8 fallback, scored 55.5% on Artificial Analysis’s 2,158-question text-only HLE evaluation; an independently preserved 15 August 2026 snapshot was not located). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/research#wiki-hle)
- Artificial Analysis, “Intelligence Benchmarking Methodology,” Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2, September 2026 (HLE is graded by an equality checker using GPT-5.6 Luna at its medium setting; read 27 September and 3 October 2026). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/research#aa-methodology-sep26)

## Related terms

- [Humanity’s Last Exam](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/humanity-s-last-exam)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)