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AI in my plasma physics research didn’t go the way I expected
I used AI in my plasma physics research and it didn’t go the way I expected.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,091 posts.
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Diffusion models explained simply
Transformer-based large language models are relatively easy to understand. You break language down into a finite set of “tokens” (words or sub-word components…
1233
Gemini figured out my nephew’s name
I wrote an MCP server to give LLMs read-only access to my emails. Here is the chat log.
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Behind Silicon Valley and the GOP’s campaign to ban state AI laws
Inside the effort to de-democratize AI
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After months of coding with LLMs, I'm going back to using my brain
I've been building MVPs and SaaS products for 15 years. Let's work together on your next project.
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Remarks on AI from NZ
Last week I participated in a panel discussion on AI as part of a private event in New Zealand.
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Coding agent in 94 lines of Ruby
“It’s not that hard to build a fully functioning, code-editing agent.” Thorsten Ball
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Build your own Siri locally and on-device
That doesn’t spy on you
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In 2025, venture capital can't pretend everything is fine any more
Venture capital is screwed. A bubble in AI is their last hope, and they’re betting everything on Sam Altman. It’s heartwarming. Today, we have the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor for Q1 2025. This i…
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A critical look at MCP
"MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI applications. Just as USB-C provides a standardized way to connect your devices to various peripherals and accessories, MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data…
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Writing an LLM from scratch, part 13 – attention heads are dumb
A pause to take stock: realising that attention heads are simpler than I thought explained why we do the calculations we do.
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Absolute Zero Reasoner
Current reasoning models trained with Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) often rely on manually curated datasets, raising scalability concerns and potentially limiting future AI growth beyond human-defined tasks. To address this, we propose the Absolute Zero paradigm, where a single model…
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As an experienced LLM user, I don't use generative LLMs often
But for what I do use LLMs for, it’s invaluable.
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AI Meets WinDBG
Because manually squinting at hex dumps is so last century. Let me show you how AI-assisted debugging is leaving WinDBG's command line in the dust.
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I'd rather read the prompt
I have literally never seen LLM writing that actually improved my life.
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xAI dev leaks API key for private SpaceX, Tesla LLMs
An employee at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI leaked a private key on GitHub that for the past two months could have allowed anyone to query private xAI large language models (LLMs) which appear to have been custom made for working with internal data from Musk’s companies, including SpaceX , Tesla and…
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Towards the Cutest Neural Network
I recently needed to use a microcontroller to estimate the pose (translation and orientation) of an object using readings from six different sensors. Since the readings were non-linear and coupled with each other, an explicit analytical solution was out of the question.
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"AI-first" is the new Return To Office
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
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Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment
The numbers clearly show this is a pointless distraction for the climate movement
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O3 beats a master-level GeoGuessr player, even with fake EXIF data
In Which I Try to Maintain Human Supremacy for a Bit Longer
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Is outbound going to die?
HN Discussion
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Reality Check
Like this newsletter? Why not listen to the podcast version on Better Offline? Part 1 is out now (here're other links), and Part 2 comes out Friday May 2nd! I'm sick and god-damn tired of this! I have written tens of thousands of words about this and
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Naur's "Programming as Theory Building" and LLMs replacing human programmers
In this essay, I will perform the logical fallacy of argument from authority (wikipedia.org) to attack the notion that large language model (LLM)-based generative "AI" systems are capable of doing the work of human programmers.
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AI Coding assistants provide little value because a programmer's job is to think
I've long had a fraught relationship with ToDo lists, because they're very much a double edged sword, but I'm convinced that much of the problem is t ...
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Watching o3 model sweat over a Paul Morphy mate-in-2
A breakdown of how an AI model attempts to solve a complex chess puzzle, showcasing its human-like reasoning, problem-solving attempts, and eventual reliance on external information.