Humanity’s Best Invention
Language itself is why LLMs are a big deal
Apple at 50
Apple is 50. (And, hey, me too!) It’s kind of a stunning number really, when you consider how tumultuous the tech industry can be. What a 50 years, though. It feels weird to pay tribute to a corporation, so instead I want to think of this post as appreciating
Anthropic is winning against DoD
As predicted, Anthropic has the obviously superior legal argument and Judge Lin has granted a preliminary injunction shutting down (for now) the Government's actions agains the company. Here's an excellent and detailed overview from Zvi Mowshowitz. Quoting Zvi, who's quoting the judge: At bottom,
My Favorite Youtube Channels About AI
Hands down, the current best platform for learning about AI is Youtube. The challenge is finding the channels that have substance to them rather than promising how to vibecode your way to a six-figure side hustle. I just put this list together for my students, and thought that it
What if we teach students how to use AI critically (instead of teaching them not to use it)?
I don't see our choice as "AI or no AI" any more than past generations could halt the spread of the printing press — that widely decried threat to scholarship. Children born today will never know a world without AI. The majority of U.S. teens already
The Age of Living Software
What if software doesn't have to be take-it-or-leave-it?
Anthropic Will Win Against DoD
Regarding what I wrote yesterday, this piece is an expert overview of the laws at stake and why DoD’s supply chain risk designation for Anthropic is doomed to fail. From the government's perspective, Claude does pose some concerning vendor reliability issues. But the specific actions Hegseth and
Anthropic doesn’t have to work for anyone, including the government
I’ve seen enough takes on the Anthropic/DoD conflict since it all went down last week, and I’m surprised at how often this important principle is being left out of the conversation: There are many freedoms enjoyed by Americans—and therefore American businesses. One of them is that
More Provo Street Photography
A fun morning wandering downtown Provo with some great people.
If AI companies were consumer tech from a decade ago
Late night noodling, but even in the light of day this still feels right to me. If we mapped current #AI companies to consumer tech from the 2010s: Anthropic = Apple. Focused on high quality for a smaller market. Stubborn and opinionated in annoying ways, but innovating in important ones. Sets
Why Love-Work Is Different Than Hate-Work
A great read, and not just because of how deeply I felt the distinction between love-work and hate-work. I also really enjoyed how Horton described research eras in psychology. All fields have this sort of thing, and knowing them helps make sense of how we got to our
AI verifiability, but compared to what?
Much of the advice around using AI is that if you use it, then you need to verify what it produces. This is presently good advice. But I'm doubtful it will be good advice in the long-run. Consider how little verification happens in large institutions by leaders