Tetris and the art of software development
Jon Ayre What has playing Tetris got to do with software development? Quite a lot as it turns out, and not just as something to kill time while you're waiting for your…
2026
That’s not code – it’s hopes and prayers
Regardless of the language you're using, if what you write describes accurately and unambiguously what a machine needs to do, you're writing code.
Emulation or plagiarism? That is the question.
I was browsing LinkedIn, and came across a post in which the writer asks an important question. If you give an LLM a sentence and it provides you with paragraphs…
A personal statement about why it matters
"Jon, why do you care what happens to companies? They're just corporate beasts with no feelings. If they follow bad advice or fall for the hype that's on them. Rich…
Run as fast as you can, says the AI adoption man
People keep telling you AI is moving so fast you've got to keep up. If you don't, you'll be left behind for good. They're wrong of course. The reality is…
SaaS providers and the Jekyll & Hyde dilemma
Companies like Anthropic have one advantage in the world of SaaS. They're developing a product that serves their own Industry sector. This is a very rare situation and it's why…
An AI is for life, not just for Christmas
So, you're thinking of adopting an AI? That's a big commitment. Some of you are still busy with that Digital Transformation Programme you kicked off a few years back. Are…
The man who saw God in the plagiarism machine
It would appear Richard Dawkins believes Claude (or Claudia as he likes to call it) is conscious and self aware. It seems he believes this, not because he has proof,…
Clichés, clichés everywhere – the AI albatross
Why do posts written by AI stand out so badly and say so little? It's obvious if you look at what an LLM does. It encodes the probability of words…
So many words but so little meaning
It may come as a surprise to discover that vision models and text models trained on apparently different sets of inputs converge in the same model, but it really shouldn’t.…