🔗 A PDF parser from the 80s beats Claude (and they use it internally)

Tesseract, an OCR tool from 1985, outperformed modern AI models when parsing complex PDF files, as highlighted in Fayner Brack's article. After struggling with a scanned CIA PDF using advanced models like those from Google and Anthropic, Brack discovered that Tesseract was ten times faster and more accurate. The article reveals how Claude integrates Tesseract via PyTesseract, relying on a combination of heuristics and manual engineering to achieve optimal results when dealing with different types of PDFs. The best practices for PDF parsing, including diagnostic checks and choosing the right tools for scanned versus born-digital documents, underscore the importance of selecting appropriate technologies. Ultimately, Brack demonstrates that sometimes the oldest tools can be the most effective, challenging the notion that newer models always outperform them. Engineers know the value of utilizing the right tool for each specific task, rather than uniformly applying AI solutions everywhere.