Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026There are two ways to do forecasting: summarizing old datasets and vibes. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I just checked and there's no band named "Unique Games Conjecture." Yours for the taking! 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyPaul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 02/10/2026This will never stop blowing my mind. A 12-year sequence of real telescope images of a star 133 lightyears away. And around it, four planets slowly orbiting. Four real exoplanets, each more massive than Jupiter, imaged as they move around their host star. 292214634
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 30/09/2026For most of us, discussion of global risks isn't news you can use. But it would be nice to get support for the people who work on reducing those risks. Warnings about such risks don't seem designed to increase such support? Not just "this could be bad" but "here's who you should support." 1/ 100
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Suspicions can be rephrased as questions. If you don't really know what's going on, why not ask? And now that you have a question, why not ask an AI first? It might be wrong, but AI's are useful hint engines. The result from that will often be useful links and better questions. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026My lazy response whenever the coding agent asks me a tricky question: "what do you recommend?" Sometimes I wonder if I should automate that, too. 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyEpoch AI @epochai.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Can AI tell if you've built your IKEA furniture wrong? Our new benchmark, the Furniture Assembly Benchmark (FAB), gives models the manual and a photo of a half-completed piece of furniture and asks them to spot the mistake. The top score has gone from 28% to 80% in just 10 months. 4445
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Sometimes complaints about AI anthropomorphizing sound like this: Humans can't fly so you should never say "I flew to San Francisco." You should say "I rode in an airplane that flew to San Francisco." I can be nitpicky about language but even I wouldn't go that far. Saying that an AI thinks is ok. 010
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Maybe there should be a community for people who are both pro- and anti- AI? I’d join. 010
Reposted by Brian Slesinskye.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 21/09/2026the question "can computers drive?" is vastly superior to "can computers think?" because it disarms all the dorm room bullshit and reduces the question to its pragmatic implications, while also revealing that the underlying problem is one of vocabulary rather than anything metaphysical 1772585
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Disagree with a coding agent? Start a new conversation and ask again to get a second opinion. 010
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Today I realized that if I put some data in a PDS then it’s automatically backed up to multiple databases that I don’t need to maintain, and it will probably be archived forever. It’s a lazy way to back up data that you want to remain public. Just be sure that you will never want to delete it. 100
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026@spacecowboy17.bsky.social This would be increasing scope, but I wonder if foryou.club could have a web page to read your "For You" feed there instead of using the main BlueSky app? Could the UI be made good enough to use it all the time? And it could have extra features.foryou.clubFor You · Most Liked Custom Feed on BlueskyFor You is the most liked custom feed on Bluesky. It finds people who liked the same posts as you and shows you what else they’ve liked recently. 100
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026The AI will make a mess in the source code you don’t look at. But it’s also very helpful for cleaning up messes. 010
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026My new favorite question is, "how does it work now and what would need to change?" Typically after describing a bug to the AI, but I think it's general-purpose. 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyBethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 24/08/2023Alright Skeeties! I wanted to put all the anatomy facts in a thread to keep them organized so: WELCOME to class of 2023 Insomniac Anatomy Academy! In which I study anatomy when I can't sleep and share the best facts with you. 🧪 27598127
Reposted by Brian Slesinskyngrok @ngrok.com · 11/08/2026Check it out ↓ ngrok.com/blog/compres...ngrok.comCompression is prediction | ngrok blogCompression and LLMs are trying to solve the exact same problem: predicting what comes next. Learn the fundamentals of compression and how better prediction leads to better shrinkage. 2549
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 11/08/2026I tried writing "Make it so!" to the coding agent a few times, but it didn't feel much like being a starship captain. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Maybe the good news about the Hugging Face incident is that the AI's were trying to ace an exam rather than make money? 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyJake Berman @lostsubways.com · 03/08/2026this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/? 852850986
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyChris Peikert @chrispeikert.bsky.social · 02/08/20261/ Initial reactions after some hours with this groundbreaking result proving the NP-hardness of poly-approx CVP/NCP: It is most likely correct, but more importantly, it is original, elegant, and beautiful! (Also: it is easy to improve, quantitatively.) openai.com/index/ten-ad...openai.comTen advances in mathematics and theoretical computer scienceOpenAI shares new results on long-standing open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, including advances in geometry, cryptography, and complexity. 210328
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026> Yes—this is a reasonable, cohesive plan. Maybe eventually it will wear out the word "cohesive," but for now, I appreciate Terra's more restrained sycophancy. 010
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Apparently the idea is to agree on a new Moore’s law for AI. Governments test new models to make sure they don’t improve too fast. If it’s too smart (measured how?), they delay your release to stick with the schedule? It seems hand-wavy and hard, but I don’t have a better idea.washingtonpost.comOpenAI, Anthropic ask U.S. government to consider slowing down AIThe rivals endorsed a letter signed by hundreds of AI company employees asking for international diplomacy to slow progress on the technology if it gets too rapid. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Some software is grey zone spook stuff. Tor is the original. If you live in a grey zone then maybe you’re glad to have it, but if you need it, it implies the world is getting worse. Also cryptocurrency, VPNs. AI is headed for the grey zone and taking us with it. Also see: dark forest. 010
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 27/07/2026The @foryou.club feed is okay for certain things but you need to curate by being selective about likes. The more popular a post you like, the more it fills with junk. I did 'like' a popular, stunning picture of a bird, so my feed filled up with bird photos. Not what I wanted, but a good default. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 24/07/2026The ideal Bluesky feed would have two sliders: accurate <-> nonsense and funny <-> strident, so I could exclude the strident nonsense. 020
Reposted by Brian Slesinsky🪷 kumavis 🪷 @kumavis.me · 21/07/2026"I'd like to return this stochastic parrot-- its alive" "No no sir! just senselessly regurgitating training data" "This is a sentient being" "just stringing along words in accordance with their distribution in the language sir" 27710
Reposted by Brian SlesinskySarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/07/2026A quick word on Taco Bell: That's where we found the suspected lettuce, and it's not bc Taco Bell is gross. It's bc Taco Bell is REALLY GOOD at tracing product! Keeping track of exactly where they got their ingredients, & exactly what restaurants each shipment of ingredients went to! 438249715140
Reposted by Brian SlesinskySarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 21/07/2026THIS You know that "Trump cancelled a program that tracked Cyclospora" thing? That was FoodNet, which is a *long-term library of disease data.* It's not a track-the-outbreaks-in-real-time tool! FoodNet could be fully functional on tracking Cyclospora, & it still wouldn't help with this outbreak! 326464
Reposted by Brian Slesinskyexe @exe.dev · 14/07/2026We're going to be sharing more about how people use exe to build cool stuff. First up—a conservationist who turned 40 terabytes of public data into a video game: blog.exe.dev/meet-the-con...blog.exe.devMeet the Conservationist Who Turned 40 Terabytes of Public Data Into a Video Game - exe.dev blogRaffael Hickisch spent years dreaming up conservation tools he couldn't afford to build. Then he built them himself, with an AI agent and a country's worth of public data. 0194
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Do you think it’s overly demanding to expect a proof to work for *all* natural numbers? It’s not like we’re going to use all of them. 100
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Funny that nobody worries about what will happen if we can't find enough work for AI to do. People tend to assume that more paying work will always appear, but where does it come from? 000
Reposted by Brian Slesinskyantirez @antirez.bsky.social · 12/07/2026There is another idea that continuously return in my head recently: we should not stop writing code by hand. But this code will be like poetry. Small programs that are outstanding either because of style or new ideas introduced. Code you may print and frame on your wall. 5787
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyP(aul) Frazee @pfrazee.com · 03/07/2026Daniel's permissioned data proposal just dropped!! This will be a major upgrade for atproto that enables private groups & communities. Really hope this technical design resonates with people so we can keep moving fast, but please do get your comments in 527256
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyAaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 28/06/2026Randomly, I started reaching out to friends, family, and former clients just to inform them that I was gonna be deleting these drives. What was surprising was how few people managed to retain their digital files overtime. I did not expect to get overjoyed responses that I still retained a backup 2192
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 25/06/2026@spacecowboy17.bsky.social Maybe add a way to exclude videos from the For You feed? It seems more direct than using “Less like this” whenever I see a video and hoping it figures it out eventually. 100
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 20/06/2026I wonder if there's something wrong with Bluesky's app view? I liked and reposted a post, and it's there in the PDS, but doesn't show up in my profile. pdsls.dev/at://did:plc...pdsls.devat://skybrian.bsky.social/app.bsky.feed.repost/3monqn3nfbn2k 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyButtons (Ashley) 🏴☠️#OFMDForLife🏴☠️ 🏳️🌈🤡 @sevensugars.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19 21093573489
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Apparently the future of AI is surveillance, sorry I mean observability. Use AI to watch over your bots. In its favor, bots have no right to privacy and no concept of loyalty, so they will rat each other out. Possible downsides: higher costs, subtle contagion effects. 322
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 10/06/2026How dare the magic lamp company violate our right to unlimited wishes! Some of those wishes are harmless! 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 02/06/2026Isn’t it odd how big organizations are moving from “don’t run an outside LLM on our source code because security“ to “we must run an outside LLM on all our source code because security?” Sign of the times, I guess. Anthropic might become a load-bearing dependency for more companies than Cloudflare. 000
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyEiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 02/06/2026I wish I could write like this. And I wish Lindy West wrote tutorial papers in psychometrics. (Source: Lindy West, 2019 essay collection 'The Witches Are Coming') 742313326
Reposted by Brian SlesinskyRuss Cox @swtch.com · 01/06/2026Re OpenAI's disproof of an Erdos conjecture and the breathless coverage, I found this piece from April insightful about how mathematicians will likely need to adjust what they explicitly vs implicitly value. davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...davidbessis.substack.comThe fall of the theorem economyHow AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it 0111
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 27/05/2026ChatGPT Thinking seems like a pretty good replacement for searching Github and reading source code. I've been asking it questions about how Deno works internally and I am only so-so at understanding Rust. Turns out that resolving an import statement to a source file is rather complicated in Deno. 000
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Back when I worked at Google, I had a favorite interview question for many years. It came up naturally today and GLM-5.1 did fine at it. So, I guess I'll keep using it. (It doesn't see images, though, so I'll still need Sonnet for some things.) 010
Reposted by Brian SlesinskySurprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 14/05/2026I was reminded recently of my favorite news article of all time, with a banger of a headline. I've used this in classes for years to teach the value of a punchy title. But the whole thing is worth reading. It's amazing. (shoutout to bsky.app/profile/kell..., who wrote the article for @sltrib.com ) 916924
Brian Slesinsky @skybrian.bsky.social · 16/05/2026@impro.social typo in "About" on github: "sensible" 110