Can AI design circuit boards yet?
Summary
The article discusses OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra demo in KiCad and introduces EEBench, a benchmark that measures AI-driven electronics design under real-world constraints. It highlights how models understand electronics beyond their GUI outputs, explains how EEBench evaluates design quality through declarative circuit descriptions and SPICE simulations, and notes real-world trade-offs like component tolerances and manufacturability. While some models perform well on benchmark tasks, the piece emphasizes that AI-aided hardware design is not yet ready for full product development and points to future work and broader evaluation efforts.