The hottest Automation Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Patterns and Predictions for 2024

The Intersection • 98 implied HN points • 20 Dec 23
🕹 Technology AI Interfaces Creativity Automation Predictions
  1. Creativity is now decentralized, allowing anyone with the will and tenacity to create, thanks to technology advancement.
  2. Platforms still hold power over creators, and AI will continue to deindustrialize various types of work, transforming the landscape.
  3. The future holds doing more with less, the 10-80-10 rule of AI in content creation, and an interface shift in areas like search, commerce, and automotive.

A Webhook Love Story

Sarah's Newsletter • 3 HN points • 17 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Automation APIs Workflow Integrations Operations
  1. Webhooks provide a plug-and-play interface for event-driven workflows, making automation in marketing efficient and scalable.
  2. Webhooks are useful when immediate automated responses are needed to events from the outside world, and relying on batch implementations would be inefficient.
  3. Effectively implementing webhooks requires observability through alerts, in-depth logs, centralized deployment, and proper scale to avoid operational challenges.

🧰 Steal My Content Distribution Machine

Cagri's Newsletter • 39 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Content Distribution Automation SEO Digital marketing Tech Tools
  1. Automating content distribution can significantly boost visibility and reach for your articles.
  2. Utilizing tools like Google Indexing API, Omega Indexer, and platforms like Medium and social media can streamline the distribution process.
  3. Consistent visibility for content is key in the digital content realm, and automation can help achieve that efficiently.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Trending topics and word salad

Conspirador Norteño • 18 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Social media Cryptocurrency Spam Algorithm Automation
  1. Trending topics on social media can be manipulated by spam posts containing random words instead of coherent sentences.
  2. Accounts participating in spam trends can show signs of being hijacked and may switch focus from personal topics to spam suddenly.
  3. Past spam campaigns involving hashtags and random word mashups have been successful in manipulating social media trends.

Job Cuts Due to AI: What to Make of Them?

Last Week in AI • 294 implied HN points • 28 Jul 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Jobs Economy Innovation
  1. Some workers are losing jobs due to advancements in AI technology like ChatGPT.
  2. Predictions vary on the impact of AI on future jobs, with some foreseeing significant automation that could affect millions of jobs globally.
  3. We are still in a transitional phase with AI technology, and the impact on the workforce is heterogeneous, with job cuts stemming from various economic factors.

Language is not enough

Erika’s Newsletter • 412 implied HN points • 11 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Automation Programming AI
  1. Writing code is a major barrier in lab automation, often leading to less sophisticated protocols created through GUI interfaces.
  2. Natural language is insufficient to accurately represent complex biological protocols, resulting in trial and error to get experiments working.
  3. Programming robots in English may improve user interfaces, but additional challenges remain in making lab automation more effective than human scientists.

Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster

Altered States of Monetary Consciousness • 160 HN points • 04 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Impact Automation Ethics Innovation Digitalization
  1. Tech is not designed to make our lives easier, but to make them faster and more packed with tasks.
  2. Our use of technology often leads to systemic acceleration, where we do more in the same amount of time, instead of enjoying leisure.
  3. To break free from the cycle of constantly speeding up, we need to value balance, build power structures that protect us, and question the illusion that more technology equals easier lives.

MLOps Basics - For Data Engineers.

Data Engineering Central • 393 implied HN points • 15 May 23
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Data Engineering MLOps Training Automation
  1. Working on Machine Learning as a Data Engineer is not as hard as it seems - it falls somewhere in the middle of difficulty.
  2. Machine Learning work for Data Engineers focuses on MLOps like feature stores, model prediction, automation, and metadata storage.
  3. The key aspects of MLOps include automating tasks, using tools like Apache Airflow, and managing metadata for a stable ML environment.

Automation at BYD Factory

TP’s Substack • 13 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Automation Robots Artificial Intelligence Manufacturing
  1. China has seen a significant increase in the use of industrial robots, with over half of the world's installations by 2022.
  2. BYD, a prominent Chinese company, has highly automated factories with impressive features like 97% automation and self-developed tire grabbing machines.
  3. Embracing Industry 4.0 and automation, BYD factories showcase advanced technologies like robots for assembly, painting, and welding, achieving high levels of efficiency and productivity.

How to Learn Like Humans Do

Cybernetic Forests • 199 implied HN points • 06 Aug 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Artificial Intelligence Creative Process Automation
  1. AI is designed to learn and make art the way humans do, as AI models are replicas of the human brain.
  2. The process of creating art historically involved specific, defined steps that have been automated by AI, making art production more efficient and accessible.
  3. AI has streamlined the traditional artistic process, removing inefficiencies and making art creation more uniform and universally accessible.

AI Isn’t Good Enough

Irregular Ideas with Paul Kedrosky & Eric Norlin of SKV • 172 HN points • 23 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Productivity Tools Data
  1. There is a significant shortage of workers in the U.S. across various industries, leading to the need for automation.
  2. Current AI technology has limitations and is not yet capable of addressing the workforce shortage effectively.
  3. To avoid economic disruptions, future automation needs to focus on delivering high productivity gains that outweigh worker displacement.

Y Combinator S23 Demo Day: AI & Dev Tools Dominate

Golden Pineapple • 158 implied HN points • 30 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI Developer Tools Automation Fintech Data security
  1. 70% of the top YC S23 companies are focusing on AI and Developer Tools.
  2. Key trends from the YC S23 batch include AI and automation, developer-centric solutions, and financial compliance platforms.
  3. Top companies are showcasing a mix of AI-driven solutions, developer tools, fintech platforms, and a focus on user experience.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate a VIP Account that has Multiple Failed Logons within a Threshold with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 99 implied HN points • 17 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Security Microsoft Cyberattacks Cloud Automation
  1. Microsoft Sentinel helps in detecting and mitigating brute-force attacks on VIP accounts, which are high-level privileged user accounts in organizations.
  2. Brute-force attacks involve trying multiple passwords to gain unauthorized access to accounts or systems, making VIP accounts attractive targets.
  3. Organizations can use Microsoft Sentinel to set thresholds for failed logon attempts, create custom detection rules, investigate alerts triggered by VIP accounts, and take necessary response actions.

An unbelievable opportunity

Charles Eisenstein • 12 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Digital Media Automation Artificial Intelligence Tech Ethics
  1. Investing in low-tech enterprises can be a unique and profitable opportunity, even in a world dominated by high-tech innovations.
  2. The rise of AI-generated content poses challenges in different sectors like academia, legal writing, and cultural preservation, questioning the authenticity of digital information.
  3. Engaging with physical artifacts like typewriters can offer a tangible connection to reality and a break from the isolation often experienced in the digital world.

How GPT killed then saved my startup

How Software "Sells Itself" • 10 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Startups Artificial Intelligence Software Development Innovation Automation
  1. Before ChatGPT, the startup's product seemed impossible, automating meeting recordings into highlight videos.
  2. The introduction of more advanced AI like GPT4 raised the bar for intelligence, leading to a major overhaul of the startup's technology.
  3. Despite the initial setback, utilizing GPT-based pipeline enabled the creation of more flexible highlight videos in a simpler, streamlined process.

Entrust mis-issues a certificate, Refuses To Follow CA/B Rules

Musings about WebPKI and Public Trust • 8 HN points • 15 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Certificates Automation Incident Response
  1. Certificate Authorities can face incidents like misissuance or non-issuance, with misissuances often caused by human error or software bugs.
  2. Baselining Requirements set by the CA/B forum provide rules for dealing with certificate misissuances, including the timeline for revocation.
  3. Entrust's recent incident highlights a misissuance dilemma, where they continued misissuing certificates and refused to follow the proper revocation process, impacting thousands of Extended Validation certificates.

Generating a Human Response to Artificial Intelligence on The Future of Work

Workforce Futurist by Andy Spence • 244 implied HN points • 22 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Workplace Ethics Future Impacts
  1. ChatGPT is a powerful generative AI tool that is rapidly developing and has various applications in automation and work tasks.
  2. The impact of AI on work is significant, with potential job task implications for the workforce, especially in white-collar professions.
  3. Society needs to address challenges related to AI regulation, digital access divide, bias prevention, and reimagining the future of work that balances human and machine capabilities.

Flashback Friday: Taxi!

Conspirador Norteño • 18 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Social media Automation Data Analysis
  1. A network of taxi and real estate-themed social media accounts were used to boost political content on Twitter through automation.
  2. The botnet consisted of at least 98 Twitter accounts with automated posting schedules that operated 24/7.
  3. The botnet retweeted content based on hashtags, focusing on small accounts and political tweets rather than popular ones.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate Malware Attacks with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 99 implied HN points • 20 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Security Threat Detection Threat intelligence Incident Response Automation
  1. Malware attacks can result in data breaches, financial losses, and damage to an organization's reputation, underscoring the importance of robust security measures and tools like Microsoft Sentinel.
  2. Microsoft Sentinel offers customizable anomaly detection and User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) anomalies to identify and respond to potential threats effectively without complex tuning.
  3. Threat intelligence integration, data connectors, and built-in analytics rule templates in Microsoft Sentinel help organizations import, centralize, and leverage threat indicators to proactively detect and respond to malware attacks.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate Phishing Attacks with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 99 implied HN points • 19 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Data Analysis Automation Threat Detection Cloud Computing
  1. Phishing attacks are a significant threat that targets human vulnerabilities and can lead to identity theft or financial fraud.
  2. Organizations can mitigate phishing attacks by adopting a 'defense in depth' strategy that includes user education, email filtering, and incident response planning.
  3. Utilizing Microsoft Sentinel, Kusto Query Language (KQL), and integrating with Microsoft 365 Threat Protection can enhance proactive threat hunting and response capabilities against phishing attacks.

How I made Quickview, my AI-based Crypto Newsletter

Implementing • 19 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Crypto Database Automation
  1. Quickview is a newsletter created to share AI-based summaries of YouTube videos from crypto creators, helping subscribers stay informed and connected with the crypto community.
  2. Database modeling for this project involves tables for videos, creators, categories, languages, summaries, and newsletters on Substack, creating a structured system.
  3. Automation in the process includes collecting YouTube videos, generating summaries with ChatGPT, and publishing a new post daily using scheduled tasks and Heroku, optimizing efficiency.

The Wide and Wondrous World of Centaurs and Agents

Future History • 170 implied HN points • 23 Jun 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Software Applications Machine Learning
  1. Centaurs and Agents are a new type of software that blend human input with autonomous decision-making capabilities.
  2. Individuals benefit more from Centaurs than companies due to easier adoption and productivity gains.
  3. Small, specialized AI applications will be in high demand, bridging the gap between different software systems and reducing tedious tasks.

Labour in the middle layer

imperfect offerings • 139 implied HN points • 20 Jul 23
🕹 Technology AI Labor Automation Tech industry
  1. Human work plays a crucial role in maintaining the illusion of intelligence in AI models by performing tasks like reviewing outputs and assigning ratings.
  2. The human labor in the middle layer of AI development is extensive, complex, and ongoing, despite being often overlooked by the industry.
  3. Students and graduates are increasingly becoming involved in platform data work, which can impact their job satisfaction and well-being, raising questions about the future of labor in the AI industry.

New newsletter, as suspicious of technology as ever

Technology, Environment, and Art • 39 implied HN points • 14 Dec 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Content creation Digital ethics Technological Impact
  1. The author warns against AI and advocates for a cautious approach towards technology, believing AI is a significant danger to humanity
  2. Not all AI developments are beneficial; the author strongly objects to AI taking over creative tasks and emphasizes the importance of human connection over AI-driven efficiency
  3. The author calls for resistance against the advancement of AI, encouraging individuals to avoid AI tools and take a stand against the pervasive use of technology for the sake of genuine human interaction and creativity