Guest Post – AI Founders are Obsessed with Taste, they’re Missing the Point.

The American pope wants to take artificial intelligence down a notch. Is he challenging the tech companies, or will tech take over the papacy?

The backlash was inevitable. For the past year, Silicon Valley has been telling us that software development is on the verge of becoming a prompt-and-ship exercise. You know, just describe what you want and let an AI coding agent build it. Sure, maybe you could keep a few token senior engineers around to bless the output…or maybe not. I mean, Google’s Sundar Pichai says 75% of its new code is now AI-generated and reviewed by engineers, up sharply from earlier levels. Hurray! Right??? Well… The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted warnings from Mario Zechner and Armin Ronacher, two engineers behind core pieces of the popular OpenClaw AI agent, who argue that AI coding tools are flooding software with what they call “vibe slop.” Their complaint is that too many people are using AI to skip the parts of software development that actually matter: design, judgment, testing, ownership, and deep understanding of the system being changed. This is worth taking seriously. When people who help

The backlash was inevitable. For the past year, Silicon Valley has been telling us that software development is on the verge of becoming a prompt-and-ship exercise. You know, just describe what you want and let an AI coding agent build it. Sure, maybe you could keep a few token senior engineers around to bless the output…or maybe not. I mean, Google’s Sundar Pichai says 75% of its new code is now AI-generated and reviewed by engineers, up sharply from earlier levels. Hurray! Right??? Well… The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted warnings from Mario Zechner and Armin Ronacher, two engineers behind core pieces of the popular OpenClaw AI agent, who argue that AI coding tools are flooding software with what they call “vibe slop.” Their complaint is that too many people are using AI to skip the parts of software development that actually matter: design, judgment, testing, ownership, and deep understanding of the system being changed. This is worth taking seriously. When people who help

Insider Brief Kawasaki Heavy Industries has launched a development hub in San Jose, Calif., “for the social deployment of physical AI” while expanding collaboration in AI and semicondictors between Japanese and U.S. technology firms. The facility will initially focus on healthcare and elder care applications before expanding into sectors including semiconductors, mobility and manufacturing, according […]

Fenwick & West LLP, the Silicon Valley law firm that served as lead outside counsel for collapsed crypto exchange FTX, agreed to pay $54 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit filed by former FTX customers. Lawfirm Cuts $54M Deal With FTX Customers After Lead Counsel Allegations The proposed settlement was filed this week in […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has floated a policy idea that’s getting attention in Silicon Valley: let workers own a piece of technology disruption.

OpenAI would be one of the most highly anticipated potential initial public offerings, in what is set to be a major year of I.P.O.s for Silicon Valley.

Almost 50 years after he first got his hands on a computer, the Oxford professor still believes in the power of technology. Can his beloved game theory explain why Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs consistently misuse it? Michael Wooldridge is like the teacher you wish you’d had: approachable, able to explain difficult things in simple terms, neither dauntingly highbrow nor off-puttingly cool, and genuinely enthusiastic about what he does. “I love it when you see the light go on in somebody, when they understand something that they didn’t understand before,” he says. “I find that incredibly gratifying.” He comes across a regular sort of guy, which, as an Oxford professor with more than 500 scientific articles and 10 books to his name, he clearly isn’t. Typically, his favourite work is his contribution to Ladybird’s Expert Books – an update of the classic children’s series – on artificial intelligence. “I’m very proud of this,” he says, as he hands me a copy from his bookshelf. We’re in hi