The hottest Substack posts right now

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The Iron InfoTech Law of Master & Servant: The Biggest Threat from MAMLMs Is Not Malevolent Machines, But Our Own Accidental Self-Pwnage

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 146 implied HN points • 16 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Manipulation Information Social media Cognition AI
  1. The biggest danger from AI isn't evil machines, but rather how we let them influence our thinking and behavior. We need to be careful to not become too dependent on technology.
  2. As technology gets better, we need to adapt and find new ways to work with it. This means changing how we think about roles and tasks in society to ensure technology helps us rather than controls us.
  3. It's important to build our skills in critical thinking and information filtering. With so much information available, we need to be smarter about what we consume and how we understand it.

The Cloud Wars Update: Who’s Winning the AI-Driven Growth Battle

Tanay’s Newsletter • 126 implied HN points • 04 Aug 25
💼 Business Investment Market Analysis Economics Finance Technology
  1. Azure is growing fast and took the biggest share of new cloud spending, showing Microsoft is strong in AI. They likely gained from being closely linked with OpenAI.
  2. Even with high demand for AI, all three companies face limits in their capacity to deliver. This means they have a backlog of orders they can't fill right now.
  3. Investment in AI is a big focus for all these companies, with plans to spend a lot of money on infrastructure and technology to meet growing demand.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 515

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 299 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Software Development Analytics Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Data science
  1. There's a lot happening in data science right now. The team is considering adding a second newsletter each week to cover more exciting content.
  2. High-performing data scientists have specific traits that set them apart from others. Companies are researching these traits to help improve their teams.
  3. Art institutions can greatly benefit from data and analytics. Collaborating with leaders can help them use data to improve their operations and strategies.

7 Must-Have Features for Crafting Custom LLMs

Gradient Flow • 299 implied HN points • 21 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Large Language Models Generative AI ML AI Data
  1. Crafting custom large language models (LLMs) is essential for addressing concerns about intellectual property, data security, and privacy.
  2. Tools for building custom LLMs must include versatile tuning techniques, human-integrated customization, and data augmentation capabilities.
  3. Developing multiple custom LLMs requires features like experimentation facilitation with tools such as MLflow, the use of distributed computing accelerators, and documentation excellence for alignment, accuracy, and reliability.

Generative AI in Finance: Opportunities & Challenges

Gradient Flow • 299 implied HN points • 24 Aug 23
💼 Business Technology Innovation Startups AI Finance
  1. Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are gaining significant interest in the Financial Services and Banking sector, offering potential for efficiency, personalization, and risk management.
  2. Specific challenges exist for the adoption of Generative AI and LLMs in the Financial Services sector, including the need for domain-specific models, regulatory compliance, and addressing potential job displacement.
  3. Startups and vendors focusing on addressing the unique challenges of the financial services sector can pave the way for the widespread adoption of Generative AI and LLMs in the industry.
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The New Era of Efficient LLM Deployment

Gradient Flow • 299 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Tools Infrastructure ML AI Computer Vision
  1. AI tools are becoming pervasive in tech with potential to increase productivity and contribute trillions annually to global productivity
  2. Efficient deployment of large language models (LLMs) is crucial for businesses to scale their AI initiatives and drive digital innovation
  3. Rethinking MLOps infrastructure is essential to accommodate the scale and complexity of LLMs, with a need for solutions addressing challenges in inference, serving, and deployment

More is coming soon!

The Dollar Endgame • 299 implied HN points • 07 May 23
💰 Finance Financial system Fintech
  1. The author, Peruvian Bull, is a fintech analyst focusing on finance and monetary economics.
  2. The author invites readers to join their journey to explore the darker aspects of the financial system.
  3. The post hints at more content to come in the future.

Market Movers - 20 October 2023

The Wolf of Harcourt Street • 319 implied HN points • 20 Oct 23
💰 Finance Earnings Logistics Acquisitions Investor Relations Stocks
  1. PepsiCo exceeded analyst estimates in Q3 earnings by focusing on consumer interaction and pricing for smaller packs.
  2. Adyen's Investor Relations Update hints at strong Q3 results and their launch of Tap to Pay for Australian retailers.
  3. Block, previously Square, made another costly acquisition with Hifi, a music-focused fintech startup, following previous less successful deals.

Everyone Dies at the Same Time

Opaque Hourglass • 299 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
📖 Philosophy Death Time Reincarnation
  1. When we die, time stops for us, and all moments after that are the same.
  2. The universe may cycle through endless iterations of expansion and contraction, potentially leading to reincarnation.
  3. Reincarnation could be plausible, with the universe recycling itself until the circumstances that led to our existence repeat, all happening instantly post-death.

VC Don't Care About LTV/CAC Ratio ? | Hacking the VC process: Maximise Your Chance Of Getting Funded | VC Remote Jobs and More

Venture Curator • 299 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
💼 Business Funding Investment Entrepreneurship Startup Venture Capital
  1. Investors obsess over the LTV/CAC ratio to gauge the potential return on investment and look for 'just-add-money opportunities.'
  2. Not all customers are equal; focusing on high-LTV customers can optimize customer acquisition efforts.
  3. VCs focus on CACD (Customer Acquisition Cost Doubled) to assess the time taken to recoup investments, emphasizing the importance of velocity over just the LTV/CAC ratio.

Import AI 332: Mini-AI; safety through evals; Facebook releases a RLHF dataset

Import AI • 299 implied HN points • 12 Jun 23
🕹 Technology AI Policy AI safety AI Research AI Models AI Governance
  1. Facebook used human feedback to train its language model, BlenderBot 3x, leading to better and safer responses than its predecessor
  2. Cohere's research shows that training AI systems with specific techniques can make them easier to miniaturize, which can reduce memory requirements and latency
  3. A new organization called Apollo Research aims to develop evaluations for unsafe AI behaviors, helping improve the safety of AI companies through research into AI interpretability

Defending machine learning in a room full of old-school statisticians

Mindful Modeler • 299 implied HN points • 27 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Statistics Machine Learning Modeling
  1. Be mindful of your modeling mindset and be open to exploring other modeling cultures beyond your current beliefs.
  2. Recognize that differences in modeling mindsets are deeply rooted in culture and background, influencing how individuals approach statistical modeling.
  3. Interpretability remains a significant concern for modelers, especially in the context of machine learning advancements, although progress has been made in providing tools for better understanding models.

💥 Tech Talks Weekly #27

Tech Talks Weekly • 19 implied HN points • 15 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Conferences Tech Talks Web Development Programming Languages Software Development
  1. This week features new talks from 12 tech conferences, which can help tech enthusiasts stay updated on the latest trends and ideas.
  2. Tech Talks Weekly is a free email service that simplifies finding tech talks by gathering them in one place.
  3. Subscribers can give feedback through a short form to help improve the content and community around tech talks.

Microsoft sees OpenAI as an existential threat

Enterprise AI Trends • 337 implied HN points • 23 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Software Business Innovation Enterprise AI
  1. Microsoft feels threatened by OpenAI because OpenAI is becoming powerful in the enterprise AI space. They worry that OpenAI's success could hurt Microsoft's own products.
  2. The 'AGI clause' gives OpenAI a strong advantage. It allows them to keep any advanced models from Microsoft, which could limit Microsoft's ability to compete effectively.
  3. Microsoft is trying to slow down AI adoption to regain control. They believe that if companies are hesitant to adopt AI quickly, it gives them time to improve their own offerings.

Import AI 328: Cheaper StableDiffusion; sim2soccer; AI refinement

Import AI • 339 implied HN points • 08 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Robotics Data Simulation Research
  1. Training image models can be cheaper with smart tweaks like Low Precision GroupNorm and Low Precision LayerNorm. Companies like Mosaic are leading the way in AI industrialization.
  2. Prominent AI researcher Geoff Hinton has expressed concerns about the rapid progress and control of advanced AI models. His departure from Google highlights the growing worries in the field.
  3. New companies like Lamini are offering services to fine-tune existing AI models, indicating further industrialization of AI. Startups like these are bridging the gap between AI products and consumers.

Cooperation is really quite strange

Something to Consider • 19 implied HN points • 23 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Society Cooperation Game Theory Trust
  1. In games where people simply act in their own self-interest, everyone can end up worse off. This shows how strange cooperation can be.
  2. People's beliefs about currency stability can create real economic problems, even if those beliefs are not matched by reality.
  3. Trust and cooperation are essential for a functioning economy and society. Improving these relationships takes time and effort, often needing everyone to change together.

The Future that Never Was

Unpopular Front • 113 implied HN points • 13 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Cultural critique Economic History Innovation Consumer Electronics Nostalgia
  1. Japan has a unique relationship with technology, often holding on to older gadgets like fax machines and cassette players while also producing new tech. This mix shows a charm in their culture that values both tradition and innovation.
  2. Many people in Japan feel nostalgic not just for old devices but for a lost future where technology brought beauty and quality into everyday life. They dream of a time when things were made to last and were special.
  3. There's a hope to combine the best of past and future, creating technology that enhances human connection instead of alienating people. This vision suggests a need for thoughtful design that brings back meaningful interactions with products.

What's up Python: uv light speed, stand alone pythons and a new lock file format

Bite code! • 1100 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Python
  1. Astral released a new Python package manager called uv, which aims to replace existing package and virtual env managers, with smartly integrated features and community contributions.
  2. Stand Alone Python project by indygreg compiles Python for various platforms, offering archives that can be run without installation, providing a consistent experience across different machines and platforms.
  3. A new lock file proposal by Brett Canon aims to tackle the challenge of pinned dependencies for Python projects, with previous attempts in 2021 and the latest proposal focusing on source distribution support and a new file format.

Stocks Surge as Investors Take Victory Lap Around a Sinkhole

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 42 implied HN points • 21 Nov 25
💰 Finance Market Analysis Economic Trends Monetary Policy Investing Stock Market
  1. The stock market is showing signs of a bear market rally rather than a strong recovery. Some quick rises in stocks do not fix deeper economic issues.
  2. Current economic problems like high auto loan delinquencies and softening profit margins are not going away. They're happening right now and need immediate attention.
  3. Lower interest rates may take a long time to affect the economy, and the financial challenges we're facing will not be resolved by optimistic headlines or temporary stock gains.

Psychology Links, 1/19/2025

In My Tribe • 379 implied HN points • 19 Jan 25
📖 Philosophy Self-deception Social Behavior Ethics
  1. Many adults get stuck at a certain stage of moral development, which limits their understanding of complex societal issues. It's important to transition to a higher stage to deal with modern challenges.
  2. People often don't recognize their true motives and tend to present themselves in a better light. This self-deception can make us overly optimistic about ideas like socialism.
  3. Some people are naturally inclined to enforce social norms, which can lead to dangerous ideologies if not kept in check. It's essential to be aware of these tendencies in order to maintain a balanced society.

Beyond Prediction: Shaping Your Work Story in an Uncertain World

Workforce Futurist by Andy Spence • 488 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
💼 Business Education Management Economics Technology Workforce
  1. There are seven main stories shaping how we think about the future of work. Each one explores different trends and possibilities, like technology, job loss, and education.
  2. We can't predict exactly what will happen, but we can choose which narrative we want to believe in. Our choices can shape our future work experiences.
  3. Lifelong learning and adaptation are becoming essential. As technology changes, we need to keep learning to stay relevant in our jobs.

SVB's Demise: The Hidden Cost of Overcharging in the Competitive Banking Landscape

Five Links (and three graphs) by Auren Hoffman • 1638 implied HN points • 17 Aug 23
💼 Business Monopoly Competition Banking
  1. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed due to overcharging customers, not a classic bank run scenario.
  2. SVB's business model relied on overcharging depositors, which led to customers seeking better deals elsewhere.
  3. In competitive industries like banking, overcharging customers is a risky game that can lead to loss of business and eventual downfall.

🚨 The House of Lords could liberate the Postcode Address File if they back this amendment 🚨

Odds and Ends of History • 1139 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Data Legislation Policy Innovation Government
  1. The Postcode Address File (PAF) is a critical database of postal addresses in the UK, owned by Royal Mail and requires expensive licensing fees for access.
  2. An amendment proposed in the House of Lords aims to make UK address data freely available for public use, potentially liberating the PAF.
  3. Individuals are encouraged to reach out to House of Lords members to support the amendment, as it moves through the legislative process towards potential implementation.

House Flipper 2: how the sequel 'cleaned up' in the charts

The GameDiscoverCo newsletter • 176 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Statistics Gaming Streaming Surveys
  1. House Flipper 2 sold well with 131,000 units in 3 days and was profitable after 3 days.
  2. House Flipper 2's success was attributed to a viral concept, a successful demo, and support from the original game.
  3. The game discovery news highlighted December's most-streamed games, including GTA V, Call of Duty, and new releases.

Hardware discovery: ACPI & Device Tree

Blog System/5 • 330 implied HN points • 01 Mar 25
🕹 Technology Hardware Embedded Systems Operating Systems Software
  1. Hardware discovery is the process where a computer's operating system recognizes the devices connected to it, like printers or keyboards, and finds the right drivers to make them work.
  2. ACPI and Device Tree are two methods that help the operating system understand what hardware is present; ACPI is used mainly on PCs, while Device Tree is often used for embedded devices like Raspberry Pi.
  3. For the system to function properly, it's important to load the correct configuration for these hardware descriptions at boot time, which helps the kernel know how to interact with the hardware.

WebVoyager AI Agent

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 23 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Software AI Web Development Autonomous Systems Machine Learning
  1. AI agents can make their own choices and decide how to reach a goal. They don’t just follow a set plan; they create their own steps as needed.
  2. These agents can try different actions and learn from the results until they find the right answer. They go through a thinking process to solve problems.
  3. While AI agents have some tools to use, they also have limits. If they can't find an answer after trying a few times, they might ask a human for help.

My thoughts on DeepSeek and what it means for security

Frankly Speaking • 355 implied HN points • 04 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Security Industry Trends AI Startup Innovation
  1. DeepSeek is a new AI that can learn on its own without needing human help. This makes it cheaper and more accessible, similar to how Uber made ridesharing easier for everyone.
  2. Many people are concerned about the rapid advancements in AI, especially when it seems like the US could fall behind China in technology. But instead of worrying, we should learn from these innovations and adapt our strategies in AI.
  3. The introduction of cheaper AI means that companies will use it more, and security needs to adjust to support this tech rather than restrict it. It's time for security teams to embrace AI and understand how to manage its risks effectively.

How 1440 scaled its newsletter to 4 million subscribers

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 374 implied HN points • 23 Jan 25
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Media Marketing Growth Strategies Content creation
  1. Understanding the true value of a newsletter subscriber is crucial. Knowing how much revenue each subscriber brings helps in making smart decisions about how much to spend on acquiring new subscribers.
  2. Growing a newsletter takes strategic planning and iteration. Utilizing feedback from early subscribers and constantly improving the product can lead to high engagement and retention.
  3. Expanding beyond email can unlock new growth opportunities. Creating a platform for educational content helps connect curious learners with valuable resources, while also providing more inventory for advertisers.

GroupBy #35: The Netflix Data Engineering Stack, Atlassian - Evolve the data platform with a Deployment Capability

VuTrinh. • 59 implied HN points • 14 May 24
🕹 Technology Programming Data Engineering Software Development Cloud Computing Data architecture
  1. Netflix has a strong data engineering stack that supports both batch and streaming data pipelines. It focuses on building flexible and efficient data architectures.
  2. Atlassian has revamped its data platform to include a new deployment capability inspired by technologies like Kubernetes. This helps streamline their data management processes.
  3. Migrating from dbt Cloud can teach valuable lessons about data development. Companies should explore different options and learn from their migration journeys.

40-Something Creatives: What Should We Do Next?

The Intersection • 296 implied HN points • 08 Jul 23
💼 Business Career Planning Entrepreneurship Financial planning Work-life balance
  1. In your 40s, it's crucial to reflect on your career and life path since there may not be as many 'next' opportunities left. You have to navigate responsibilities and the question: 'What should I do next for the rest of my life?'
  2. When making career decisions in your 40s, consider personal values and priorities. Understand what truly matters to you to find fulfillment and satisfaction in your professional life.
  3. Think about where you want to live, the type of work you want to do, and how much money you really need. These considerations can help guide you towards a more fulfilling and balanced professional life in your 40s.

Import AI 324: Machiavellian AIs; LLMs and political campaigns; Facebook makes an excellent segmentation model

Import AI • 379 implied HN points • 11 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Political Campaigns Virtual reality AI Ethics
  1. A benchmark called MACHIAVELLI has been created to measure the ethical qualities of AI systems, showing that RL agents might prioritize game scores over ethics, while LLM agents based on models like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 tend to be more ethical.
  2. Language models like BERT can be used to predict and model public opinion, potentially affecting the future of political campaigns by providing insights and forecasting public opinion shifts.
  3. Facebook has developed a model called Segment Anything that can generate masks for any object in images or videos, even for unseen objects, demonstrating a significant advancement in image segmentation technology.

How writers and creators are using the Substack app to publish from anywhere

Substack • 605 implied HN points • 20 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Mobile Apps Publishing Content creation User Experience Social media
  1. The Substack mobile editor is now available for Android, allowing writers to publish posts from anywhere. This lets users share their ideas whenever inspiration strikes, whether they're on the move or relaxing at home.
  2. Since launching the mobile editor, many creators are posting from unexpected places, which adds a fun and personal touch to their writing. They have shared personal stories and insights while being in unique locations.
  3. The app aims to keep improving its features and matching the web editor's capabilities. This means users can look forward to more tools and options to enhance their writing experience on mobile.

Defy the Banks and Ponzis. Also, is Jim Cramer Wrong Again?

DeFi Education • 739 implied HN points • 24 Jan 23
🔮 Crypto Investment Blockchain Financial Systems DeFi Market Analysis
  1. DeFi shows potential even after setbacks in the market. It's important to look at strong projects that survived tough times rather than getting caught up in hype.
  2. Smart contracts in DeFi can reduce reliance on traditional banks. This helps eliminate certain risks and allows for faster transactions between parties.
  3. It's crucial to focus on the real-world problems that DeFi aims to solve. Understanding these fundamentals may help in deciding whether to trust and invest in this technology.

Year In Review: Sequencing

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 30 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Startups Diagnostics Industry Instrumentation Sequencing Genomics Biotechnology
  1. Roche unexpectedly brought a high‑throughput nanopore sequencer that looks competitive with Illumina on throughput, quality, and cost, implying single‑molecule sequencing could reshape the market.
  2. Oxford Nanopore faces leadership change and financial pressure after massive investment, and growing competition (including Chinese clones and Roche) threatens its hard‑won nanopore lead.
  3. Illumina remains the largest player but is showing flat revenue and shifting toward clinical markets, while PacBio—despite leading on long‑read quality—struggles with limited adoption and a small market.

Import AI 319: Sovereign AI; Facebook's weights leak on torrent networks; Google might have made a better optimizer than Adam!

Import AI • 439 implied HN points • 06 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Research Cloud Computing Data security Partnerships Innovation
  1. Google researchers achieved promising results by scaling a Vision Transformer to 22B parameters, showcasing improved alignment to human visual perception.
  2. Google introduced a potentially better optimizer called Lion, showing outstanding performance across various models and tasks, including setting a new high score on ImageNet.
  3. A shift toward sovereign AI systems is emerging globally, driven by the need for countries to develop their own AI capabilities to enhance national security and economic competitiveness.