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  5. crawshaw - 2025-06-08

generated: June 14, 2025 at 00:15:36

  1. June 13, 2025
    1. đź”— dagger/container-use v0.0.1 release

      container-use v0.0.1

      Download the pre-compiled binaries from the assets below.

      Changelog

      Full Changelog : v0.0.0...v0.0.1

    2. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.37 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    3. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.36 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    4. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.35 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    5. đź”— Mr. Money Mustache How to Navigate the Tariff Circus rss

      -

      Quite accidentally, it looks like we timed our last talk about the stock market pretty darned well. Back in February 2025, the market put the perfect cap on a multi year climb before stepping onto the wild roller coaster we’re currently riding. Since then it has seen some of the steepest drops and recoveries in history, losing a full 20% of its value at the bottom while somehow managing to end up right back near the peak as I’m writing this.

      And although stock market volatility doesn’t always come with an easily labeled explanation, this time the reason seems pretty clear: it’s the Tariffs.

      As our financial world has been whipped around like a circus tent in a hurricane for the last several months, almost everyone who has a stake in this country has been wondering what to make of it.

      • Can our president really unilaterally impose 145% tariffs on almost everything from our biggest supplier?
      • And if so, is it really going to happen?
      • And if so, what is the point? Aren’t free trade and low prices a good thing?
      • And perhaps most importantly, what would the long-term effects on our economy and stock market be under varying levels of tariffs?

      As I write this, we still don’t know the outcome of the worldwide tariff and trade battle that our unpredictable government has unleashed upon the world. But we’re already seeing the results: businesses are bracing for massive changes, currencies and interest rates are reacting, and regular investors like you and me are wondering what the future holds for our early retirement funds. Surveying my own group of friends, the reactions span the whole range of emotions from “this is a giant Nothingburger” to “we’re all totally screwed.”

      So what’s the real answer? To get closer to that, we should start with the most basic question of:

      What is a Tariff?

      A tariff is just a sales tax charged by our government on goods which are imported into the country. They are paid by whoever is doing the importing - meaning you if you order something like an e-bike directly from a company in China, or by companies like Amazon, Walmart, or Apple which import products from other countries by the shipload.

      But in the end, the tariffs aren’t paid by China or Amazon or Apple. They are paid by you , the end consumer, because if their cost of goods increases, a retailer is of course going to raise their prices to continue to make a profit.

      Tariffs also affect companies directly: if Home Depot wants to build a new store or Chevron needs a new oil rig, the tariffs on imported steel, copper, lumber and a million other components will raise the cost of these construction projects. And they raise the cost of housing, because most of the building materials in houses come from multiple countries as well.

      On average, tariffs will result in higher prices for everything just like any other broad-based sales tax. And just like most other taxes, the overall effect is to slow the economy and reduce our spending power. On the positive side, all that tax money flows into the government’s pocket which could help fund the national budget and even reduce the deficit.

      Of course, every government needs at least some tax revenue to function, so it makes sense to use some mix of sales, income and corporate taxes to get there. The most important part is that the levels need to be as low as possible while still keeping the country running well, and as fair and predictable as possible, so that people and businesses have an incentive to work hard and the ability to plan far into the future.

      And that’s where our current tariff regime gets it completely backwards. Donald Trump is throwing around random, extremely high tariff numbers as threats, then walking them back and changing them on an almost daily basis..

      Whoa, that Sounds Mostly Bad - Is There a Good Side of Tariffs?

      Sometimes, a country will use tariffs to protect their own domestic industries. For example, if you put a tax on imported Hondas, then General Motors cars will gain a competitive advantage - so GM will make more money. In this example, most consumers end up losing due to increased prices and decreased selection. But at least domestic auto manufacturers and their employees are happy.

      This can be strategic (for example we might want to slap a tax on imported fighter jets to make sure Boeing and Lockheed can remain in business, for national defense purposes.) Or it can be corrupt (a politician might receive funding from kingpins in the steel industry, and in return then push through tariffs on imported steel to protect the profits of US steelmakers.)

      And this isn't just a Trump or Republican thing either - Joe Biden used tariffs during his terms in an attempt to please swing-state voters. One of the worst examples was a tax on imported solar panel components (which Trump has since raised even further, proving that Boneheadedness can be Bipartisan). These are sheets of cheap glass that literally pump the cheapest energy and easiest wealth into your country for 30 years as soon as you plug them in. Cheap energy lowers everyone’s cost of living while also boosting industry. There is no good reason to block such wealth from flowing across your borders.

      Can Tariffs Bring Us More Jobs?

      Let’s go back to that hypothetical tax on Hondas, and let’s say it’s a big one like $5000. At that level, many buyers will start heading over to the GM dealer next door to consider what he’s selling. Sure, the GM cars may not be as good, but for five grand some people are going to settle in order to save some money.

      Because of this, GM’s sales go up. So they hire more employees and build more factories. They might even develop some new models and new technologies in response to all that new demand. More people learn advanced skills and in the best case it becomes a virtuous circle.

      But in exchange for this boom in the auto industry, everyone else has to pay more for slightly shittier cars and trucks. Higher vehicle prices means Amazon will have to spend more on their delivery fleet, so they will raise prices slightly on everything they sell. Somewhere a startup company or a medical breakthrough will be just a bit less likely to happen, because they are operating in an environment that is just a bit more expensive and a bit less efficient.

      On top of that, with GM liberated from the hassle of competing with Honda, it will have less incentive to innovate and streamline itself. So its overall trajectory will be slower and less efficient even if its profits are higher.

      This big picture effect is why most economists agree that tariffs should be used very sparingly. They almost always cause unexpected damage, decrease overall employment and slow down an economy, but sometimes (like for food security or national defense) those costs are worth paying.

      So Why is Donald Trump Throwing Around Tariffs Like They Are The Best Thing Ever?

      This has been confusing to almost everyone. If you take him at his word, he appears to have a Bizarro Opposite Universe belief system about economics. Donald has claimed in speeches that the tariffs will somehow make us wealthier. He’s focusing on the first-order effects like GM hiring more workers, while completely ignoring the fact that everything else in the country gets less efficient in exchange.

      -

      But when he announces larger tariffs, share prices go down , because everyone who actually runs or invests in US __ companies knows that of course they will make less money on average. When tariffs are paused or reduced, share prices go back up. Yet he keeps wielding the threats and we go back and forth.

      It seems to be obvious to everyone except Donald himself that Tariffs are just a national sales tax rather than some clever sneaky strategic weapon, which leads to various theories that okay, maybe he knows that too but is just pretending in order to gain some influence.

      The basic theory goes like this:

      • Unfettered power: normally, a president can’t impose taxes without the approval of congress. But there’s a loophole to that: a president can unilaterally impose taxes under the disguised name of “tariffs” in the case of an “emergency”. Furthermore, another loophole exists: there’s no strict definition of “emergency” - so if you just invent a fake one you can start imposing tariffs until congress eventually catches up to you. Which may not be for years.
      • As a Negotiating tactic: although the primary victim of tariffs is US consumers and businesses, they can also harm our trading partners, because if you impose a high enough tax on Chinese goods, we’ll buy a lot less of them. So now you have unfettered power which you can wield against your foes, as a way of getting them to do stuff for you.
      • As a way of controlling domestic companies: if you can cut off the lifeblood of any company (their supply chain) with just a quick post on your Truth Social account, you’re suddenly in control of the whole economy. Nobody can oppose you because you can put them out of business immediately.

      So right now our entire economy is subject to the whims of a single person.. And as long as this is the case, we’re just the same as any other dictatorship - something our constitution was supposed to prevent with the whole “three independent branches of government” thing.

      But presidents have tried to break out of their constitutional cage and get more power many times in the past, and this is just the latest example. The real test will be if our system eventually manages to stop this abuse and put itself back in balance as it always has in the past. You can already see this fight beginning to play out in our court system, in this Economist article:

      -

      How Big are the Tariffs Right Now?

      Even without the 145% nonsense numbers that were thrown around a few months ago, they are still far higher than they have been in the last 75 years or more. While it would be hard to pin down the current numbers in a stationary blog post like this one, the key thing to remember is that our current US economy is built around very low tariffs and relatively free trade.

      175 years of Tariff history (source: The Economist)

      Why haven 't I noticed Prices Going Up Yet?

      While the US economy is fueled by a constant stream of cargo ships, as a whole we function like the biggest cargo ship of all: we have a huge inventory and it takes a while to change directions.

      So in normal times, we already have several months of inventory of most things in the country. And then when all this drama started, importers started placing even more orders to stockpile things in advance before the tariffs hit. And now that they are in place, we're importing a lot less stuff.

      Source: the super interesting Freightwaves Ocean Shipping index (OSI)

      For now, we're still using up the stockpiled inventory, but imports have dropped significantly so we're quickly running out of cheap goods. If that happens, we will probably start seeing shortages and price increases throughout this summer or fall. For some things like plastic party trinkets, we can do just fine without. But if we lose access to core useful things like tools and machinery, the economic consequences will be much less fun.

      The Dark Side and the Bright Side

      The most important phrase to remember in US politics and economics is the phrase “This too shall pass.” The only mystery right now is that we don’t know exactly how it will pass. So we could sketch out a few scenarios:

      1) The current crazy-high tariffs really do stick around:

      I personally think this is the less likely scenario because nobody really wants it. But just as a thought experiment, it might go something like this:

      • 2025 inflation would more than double as the tariffs add about 4% to prices
        (because imports are roughly 25% of our overall spending, and current tariffs are about 16% higher than before. 0.25 * 0.16 = 0.04)

      • Lots of companies will make changes. Those most dependent on cheap imports from China might simply go out of business. Some companies will shift to suppliers in lower-tariff countries.

      • In some cases, US factories will benefit. We’ll produce more steel and certain auto parts here, but you’re not going to see a million factories popping up to make Nike shoes or microwave ovens - those things will just get a lot more expensive to buy.
      • Demand for unpleasant, repetitive low-wage unpleasant factory work will increase, which should help raise the whole lower-income wage pool. But the cost of living for these people might more than outstrip these wage gains. Plus, those jobs will eventually phase back out as manufacturers continue to build robots to automate those jobs.
      • Other countries will continue to retaliate with tariffs on US goods, which means our exporting companies will lose revenue. For just one fun example, Canada recently imposed a 100% tariff on Tesla cars from the US, almost completely destroying that company’s Canadian sales overnight.
      • Government tariff revenue could go up by about $640 billion annually (about 15 percent of our total budget), but the reduction of economic activity and exports would reduce income tax revenue by an unknown amount - possibly an even bigger number.

      2) They do end up being just a negotiating tactic and we go back to mostly low tariffs.

      • The stock market would stage an enormous “relief rally”
      • Companies will gradually start to relax and go back to the way they were, allowing for more planning and hiring to resume
      • We will escape with just a few hundred billion dollars of lost economic activity and a moderately large hit to our credibility as a nation, which will fade over time just like everything in politics
      • Some of the “deals” which are part of the negotiations (for example, lower tariffs in other countries) may have benefits for US exporters, helping boost our future trade

      In other words, the best way to win the tariff game is not to play it.

      Just as much of US prosperity is built upon our huge population of 330 million people living in 50 states with open borders and no trade restrictions, all (friendly) countries of the world can benefit from the free exchange of goods, services and even people. We’re all human beings and if we treat each other with a collaborative respect, we all grow richer.

      Epilogue: Is it Almost Over Already?

      I started writing this article on April 2nd, when Donald announced his “Liberation Day” and the stock market reacted with the biggest drop since 1932. Some people panicked and locked in big losses despite decades of warnings from your favorite financial bloggers, like this unfortunate soul in the comments to a JL Collins post:

      Nooooo!
      -

      But as I watched over the next two months, we have bounced our way back up - with each drop in proposed tariffs triggering a corresponding increase in stock prices (a measure of investor enthusiasm of how bright our future looks).

      Right now, the US stock market is just about back to its all-time high. This doesn’t match with our current level of tariffs, which are still about seven times higher than they were before the circus opened. But it shows that investors believe it’s all going to end with a truce and a resumption of free- ish international trade.

      If they’re wrong, the roller coaster ride will still have some more fun in store for us. But as long as we eventually end our current experiment in “emergency” tariff dictatorship and get back to functioning as a democracy, things should be just fine in the long run. I’m still 100% invested myself, so that’s where I place my bet.

      The Biggest Lesson: Don’t Form Your Opinions Based on News Headlines

      Decades ago in a brighter age of journalism, there may have been a time when headlines were designed primarily to inform us, with just a bit of sizzle and spice to pull in our attention. Unfortunately, nowadays the priorities have flipped where the primary goal is attention, and accuracy carries little or no weight. Even a totally inaccurate article makes money for the publisher.

      Two media outlets, living in two different worlds
      -

      So while Democrats and Republicans like to do battle over which media sources are biased, in reality they’re all wrong: all click-funded commercial media is biased - sometimes politically but even more importantly biased towards generating outrage and fear, because those generate more money.

      There are two solutions to this:

      1) Either ignore the media completely and focus on your own life, or

      2) Become a subject matter expert on things you really care about, and then read the original sources whenever you want to learn about something.

      I mostly practice option #1, but as a science and technology nerd I get into

      2 in just the areas I find most interesting. And it’s amazing how the more

      deeply you understand a subject, the more you see just how wrong most media stories are about your area of expertise. Which means they’re probably pretty wrong about almost everything.

      So as always, with this lesson learned it’s time to shut down that phone and laptop, exhale all our worries and get back outside with your real-life family and friends. See you in a few months!

      Related:

      Why We Are Not Really All Doomed - the original all-purpose MMM article which explains why we never really have to worry about the long-term economic future.

    6. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.34 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    7. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.33 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    8. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.32 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
      • pin install script
    9. đź”— @cxiao@infosec.exchange Canadians in case you did not know, we have some No Kings protests tomorrow mastodon

      Canadians in case you did not know, we have some No Kings protests tomorrow here too in solidarity

      Vancouver BC, 11am, US Consulate
      Toronto ON, 12pm, US Consulate, and Queen's Park
      Ottawa ON, 2pm, US Embassy
      London ON, 12pm, Victoria Park
      Peterborough ON, 12pm, Confederation Square

      Lots of US border towns having them too. Check https://www.nokings.org for the full list

      #NoKings #canada #vancouver #toronto #ottawa #londonont #peterborough

    10. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.31 release
      • feat: claude 4 opus
      • Nord theme (#64)
      • Update README.md
    11. đź”— News Minimalist Israel attacks Iran + 4 more stories rss

      In the last 1 day ChatGPT read 26474 top news stories. After removing previously covered events, there are 5 articles with a significance score over 5.9.

      [6.6] Israel launches air assault on Iran —reuters.com[$] (+1194)

      Israel launched an air assault on Iran Friday, aimed at preventing them from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

      Netanyahu, who has long warned against Iran's nuclear program, authorized the strike after the International Atomic Energy Agency declared Iran in breach of non-proliferation obligations. He evoked the Nazi Holocaust, saying Israel learned the lessons of history.

      The strikes reportedly disabled Iranian air defense systems near a key nuclear site. This action comes as Netanyahu faces domestic challenges and amid stalled US-Iran nuclear talks.

      [6.0] World-first blood cancer therapy to be given on NHS —bbc.com(+5)

      A groundbreaking "Trojan horse" cancer therapy, which delivers toxic drugs directly into cancer cells, will be available on the NHS in England, offering significantly extended remission for blood cancer patients. This marks a world first.

      The new treatment targets myeloma, a blood cancer, and has shown to halt the disease for three years, nearly tripling the duration compared to existing therapies.

      The NHS decision follows positive clinical trials and a cost-effectiveness review. The therapy is expected to benefit around 1,500 patients annually.

      Highly covered news with significance over 5.5

      [5.5] Trump stops California's gasoline car sales ban — tagesschau.de (German) (+30)

      [5.5] Putin orders Russia to quickly develop drone forces — reuters.com [$] (+7)

      [5.5] AI tool helps couple conceive after 18 years — today.com (+2)

      Thanks for reading!

      — Vadim

      You can create a personal RSS feed with premium.

      Powered by beehiiv

    12. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.30 release

      No content.

    13. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.29 release

      wip: refactoring tui

    14. đź”— upstash/context7 v1.0.14 release

      What's Changed

      • docs: Adds instructions for Zencoder.ai by @viborc in #271
      • docs: add installation instructions for Amazon Q Developer CLI by @ryof in #273
      • Feat/replace env vars with cli args by @enesgules in #278
      • docs: add installation instructions for Visual Studio 2022 by @jongalloway in #287
      • fix: InitializeResult schema mismatch in Context7 server response by @nielthiart in #283

      New Contributors

      Full Changelog : v1.0.13...v1.0.14

    15. đź”— sst/opencode v0.1.28 release

      load API keys

    16. đź”— google/adk-python v1.3.0 release

      1.3.0

      (2025-06-11)

      Features

      • Add memory_service option to CLI (416dc6f)
      • Add support for display_name and description when deploying to agent engine (aaf1f9b)
      • Dev UI: Trace View
        • New trace tab which contains all traces grouped by user messages
        • Click each row will open corresponding event details
        • Hover each row will highlight the corresponding message in dialog
      • Dev UI: Evaluation
        • Evaluation Configuration: users can now configure custom threshold for the metrics used for each eval run (d1b0587)
        • Each eval case added can now be viewed and edited. Right now we only support edit of text.
        • Show the used metric in evaluation history (6ed6351)
      • Tool enhancements:
        • Add url_context_tool (fe1de7b)
        • Support to customize timeout for mcpstdio connections (54367dc)
        • Introduce write protected mode to BigQuery tools (6c999ca)

      Bug Fixes

      • Agent Engine deployment:
        • Correct help text formatting for adk deploy agent_engine (13f98c3)
        • Handle project and location in the .env properly when deploying to Agent Engine (0c40542)
      • Fix broken agent graphs (3b1f2ae)
      • Forward __annotations__ to the fake func for FunctionTool inspection (9abb841)
      • Handle the case when agent loading error doesn't have msg attribute in agent loader (c224626)
      • Prevent agent_graph.py throwing when workflow agent is root agent (4b1c218)
      • Remove display_name for non-Vertex file uploads (cf5d701)

      Documentation

      • Add DeepWiki badge to README (f38c08b)
      • Update code example in tool declaration to reflect BigQuery artifact description (3ae6ce1)
  2. June 12, 2025
    1. đź”— astral-sh/uv 0.7.13 release

      Release Notes

      Python

      • Add Python 3.14.0b2
      • Add Python 3.13.5
      • Fix stability of uuid.getnode on 3.13

      See the python-build-standalone release notes for more details.

      Enhancements

      • Download versions in uv python pin if not found (#13946)
      • Use TTY detection to determine if SIGINT forwarding is enabled (#13925)
      • Avoid fetching an exact, cached Git commit, even if it isn't locked (#13748)
      • Add zstd and deflate to Accept-Encoding (#13982)
      • Build binaries for riscv64 (#12688)

      Bug fixes

      • Check if relative URL is valid directory before treating as index (#13917)
      • Ignore Python discovery errors during uv python pin (#13944)
      • Do not allow uv add --group ... --script (#13997)

      Preview changes

      • Build backend: Support namespace packages (#13833)

      Documentation

      • Add 3.14 to the supported platform reference (#13990)
      • Add an llms.txt to uv (#13929)
      • Add supported macOS version to the platform reference (#13993)
      • Update platform support reference to include Python implementation list (#13991)
      • Update pytorch.md (#13899)
      • Update the CLI help and reference to include references to the Python bin directory (#13978)

      Install uv 0.7.13

      Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

      curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/releases/download/0.7.13/uv-installer.sh | sh

      Install prebuilt binaries via powershell script

      powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/releases/download/0.7.13/uv-installer.ps1 | iex"

      Download uv 0.7.13

      File | Platform | Checksum
      ---|---|---
      uv-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | Apple Silicon macOS | checksum
      uv-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | Intel macOS | checksum
      uv-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc.zip | ARM64 Windows | checksum
      uv-i686-pc-windows-msvc.zip | x86 Windows | checksum
      uv-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip | x64 Windows | checksum
      uv-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | ARM64 Linux | checksum
      uv-i686-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | x86 Linux | checksum
      uv-powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | PPC64 Linux | checksum
      uv-powerpc64le-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | PPC64LE Linux | checksum
      uv-riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | RISCV Linux | checksum
      uv-s390x-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | S390x Linux | checksum
      uv-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | x64 Linux | checksum
      uv-armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf.tar.gz | ARMv7 Linux | checksum
      uv-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | ARM64 MUSL Linux | checksum
      uv-i686-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | x86 MUSL Linux | checksum
      uv-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | x64 MUSL Linux | checksum
      uv-arm-unknown-linux-musleabihf.tar.gz | ARMv6 MUSL Linux (Hardfloat) | checksum
      uv-armv7-unknown-linux-musleabihf.tar.gz | ARMv7 MUSL Linux | checksum

    2. 🔗 The Pragmatic Engineer Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers” rss

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”

      Originally published in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.

      An eye-catching detail widely reported by media and on social media about the bankrupt business Builder.ai last week, was that the company faked AI with 700 engineers in India:

      • "Microsoft-backed AI startup chatbots revealed to be human employees" - Mashable
      • "Builder.ai used 700 engineers in India for coding work it marketed as AI-powered" - MSN
      • "Builder.ai faked AI with 700 engineers, now faces bankruptcy and probe" - India's Business Standard

      In the past week, I 've been talking with several engineers who worked at Builder.ai, and can confirm that this detail was untrue. But let's hold that thought for a second, and do a thought experiment about how we could make this headline be true! Something like it has been attempted before…

      Design challenge: a system with 700 devs pretending to be an AI

      Okay, we've put on our "evil hacker" villain mask and put ethical considerations in the bin: our goal is to build a system where 700 engineers pretend to be a working AI system, all without using any artificial intelligence. Also, it's the year 2024 in this experiment. So, how would we pull it off?

      The naive approach: have the devs write code and assume there will never be more than 700 parallel sessions in play:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”First attempt at a system where 700 devs can pretend to be an AI

      There is one immediate, major problem: latency. No user will believe it's a working AI if it takes 10-30 minutes to provide a response. In that scenario, the deception is likely to be quickly exposed. What's needed is faster response times, so customers could be fooled into believing they're interacting with a machine. Basically, what's called for is something akin to the Mechanical Turk:

      "The Mechanical Turk, also known as the Automaton Chess Player, or simply The Turk, was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in 1770, which appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. For 84 years, it was exhibited on tours by various owners as an automaton.

      The machine survived and continued giving occasional exhibitions until 1854, when a fire swept through the museum where it was kept, destroying the machine. Afterwards, articles were published by a son of the machine's owner revealing its secrets to the public: that it was an elaborate hoax, suspected by some, but never proven in public while it still existed."

      The Automaton Chess Player concealed a person inside the machine, which went unnoticed for more than 80 years:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”The Automaton Chess Machine in action

      Back to the current problem, and applying the inspiration of the 18th century chess machine containing a concealed human. To improve latency - and decrease users' suspicion - we could perhaps stream what the "assigned developer" typed:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”Reducing latency of the system by streaming typing

      This is better, but it remains a giveaway that the system is slow to complete basic tasks. So what about incentivizing our developers with a bonus for completing tasks under 3 minutes, and allowing them to use any tool they want? Incentives are powerful, so it's likely the following would be observed:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”Devs complete tasks much faster when they can use their tools!

      We did it! We managed to fake a good enough AI.

      But wait… how exactly did the devs complete their tasks within the arbitrary time frame of 3 minutes? To find out, questions are asked, and this what we see (remember, it's 2024):

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”How the "700 devs pretending to be AI" would actually work in 2024

      Wait… what?! "Devs pretending to be an AI would use an AI to deliver the outputs in time? This is a logical approach for 2024, when LLMs were already more than capable of generating high-quality code. And this is why it would be irrational to hire 700 developers to pretend to be AI last year, when there were already LLMs that did this much better.

      If you hired a competent engineer in 2024 to design a system that takes a prompt and pretends to be an AI, and they could use any tool they liked, and there were 700 devs for the project, what they built would look something like this:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”How to pretend to be an AI in 2024… just use an LLM!

      Spoiler: Builder.ai did exactly this as well!

      Natasha's tech stack

      Builder.ai first showcased the idea of Natasha in 2021, well before ChatGPT was announced. Back then, Natasha was positioned as a "personal app builder," and it was clear that the solution worked with a "network of geeks" who built apps to spec:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”" You tell us your idea, and me [Natasha] and my network of geeks build it, using building blocks that really work." Source: Builder.ai in 2021

      The product promised a cost estimate up front, and a schedule. The idea was that by taking on thousands of projects, the team behind Natasha could create reusable building blocks that speed up building websites and mobile apps.

      In December 2023, one year after ChatGPT was released, Builder.ai announced Natasha CodeGen as "your always-on software development partner". In April 2024, the company demoed Natasha CodeGen in a series of videos, which show code generation happening, as well. In the video, there's a cut, and the video returns when the React code is generated. I've confirmed with former engineers at the company that behind the scenes, the system ran for a few minutes before finishing code generation:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”Natasha 's log output in April 2024. Source: Builder.ai

      Natasha was aimed to be an AI tool for the whole software development cycle:

      • Idea : refine an idea with a visual UI of what the app's UI could look like
      • Planning : create user stories (tasks) inside a dedicated UI. Tasks include creating acceptance criteria.
      • Code generation planning : feed the task into an LLM to plan steps for code generation
      • Testing : have the AI add tests first, following a test driven development (TDD) approach, and create a PR only if the tests pass
      • Generate code: create the code, and run them against the tests
      • Create a PR : only do this if all the tests pass

      A team of 15 engineers worked on Natasha Codegen. Most engineers were based in the UK, with around 3 in India. At its peak, Builder.ai's AI team was circa 30 people. On top of building Natasha, the team was building and maintaining many AI products and services. One ex-engineer there told me they thought a lack of focus contributed to the company's demise.

      The tech stack behind Natasha:

      • Python : for the orchestrator that lines up steps that the agents took
      • Ruby on Rails : for parts of the backend and frontend
      • React : for a good part of the frontend
      • GPT and Claude for LLMs integrated for the code generation step

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers” The web components for Natasha were built using Ruby on Rails. Source:Builder.ai

      The team built a set of coding benchmarks that they ran whenever a new model came out, and chose the model that worked best for their use cases.

      Natasha had a grander vision than to just be a code generator tool: it was the codename for all AI projects inside Builder.ai, like Microsoft using "Copilot" for all its AI projects, not only GitHub Copilot. Other products using the Natasha brandname:

      • A chatbot that customers and developers at Builder.ai could talk to about their codebase, or instruct to implement certain features
      • A knowledge graph : a vector database storing relationships between features, the blocks that implement them and customer use cases
      • ML models: to predict how long it would likely take to implement a specification requested by a customer

      What about the 700 developers?

      Builder.ai had a working code generator platform built by around 15 engineers, so why did it need to hire hundreds more more in India? For one thing, Builder hired 300 internal engineers and kicked off building internal tools, all of which could have simply been purchased, including:

      • Builder Home (dashboard for customers)
      • Builder Meet (similar to Zoom)
      • Builder Tracker (similar to JIRA)
      • Builder Whiteboard (inspired based on Figma: designers would import Figma designs to Whiteboard, and then use these designs to create clickable wireframes and prototypes. Later, Whiteboard exported React code and components to the working folder of customer projects.)
      • Builder Chat (similar to Slack)
      • SenseiBot (review and merge PRs and deploy apps to Test/Staging/Prod environments)

      One reason Builder.ai failed to grow revenue as quickly as investors were told it was doing, was likely due to this lack of focus and rebuilding tools that already existed without building anything novel.

      Builder.ai also sold an "external development network", on top of Natasha. There were around 500-1,000 engineers employed through outsourcing companies like Globant, TatvaSoft, and others. These devs were based in places like Vietnam, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, and other countries, as well as India. Last year, the company was working on more than 500 client apps. This number of outsourced devs is likely to be the origin of the "700 developers in India" claim that went viral.

      Former engineers at Builder.ai told me there was internal conflict about what was the main product: was it the Natasha ecosystem, including the code generator, or the bespoke software development service that Builder.ai offered to customers?

      The company built Builder IDE with a team of internal 20 devs and Natasha to help the hundreds of outsourced developers build apps for customers. Builder IDE included facial recognition to verify that the developer matched the profile in the system. It also had a fraud detection system that monitored usage. That system flagged cases where contractors billed for 8 hours, but had been active in the IDE for less.

      Fraud around developer hours worked vs recorded was rampant for two years, according to Yash Mittal, former associate product director at Builder.ai. He wrote:

      "The primary bottleneck [of scaling the business] was with our external developer network. Another pioneering effort by Builder.ai involved onboarding developers globally to customize solutions on our platform using our IDEs. However, we didn't anticipate the significant fraud that would ensue, leading to a prolonged and resource-intensive 'cat and mouse' game lasting nearly two years before we finally got it under control."

      Downfall

      Builder.ai went bust after the emergence of allegations of accounting fraud. The Financial Times reported that lenders to the company seized remaining funds once a financial audit revealed the company had apparently misled investors about revenue:

      "Builder.ai submitted provisional accounts to its auditor showing large reductions to prior revenue estimates, according to people familiar with the matter.

      These figures showed that a prior $220mn estimate for 2024 revenues had been revised to around $55mn, while a previously reported 2023 total sales figure of $180mn would be restated to roughly $45mn, the people added."

      Lenders withdrawing their capital blew a hole in the accounts, and the fraud allegations ensured no new investors wanted to sink money into the business. The company's fate was sealed.

      I 've spoken with engineers who worked at Builder.ai, and they feel disappointed and a bit bitter about the experience. I talked with three engineers who were incredibly disappointed at the company's collapse, and said they didn't spot any warning signs. After all, Builder.ai raised money from Microsoft in April 2024 - which itself showed a strong vote of confidence. One dev told me he trusted Builder.AI's leadership because former CEO Sachin Dev Duggal won Ernst and Young's "World Entrepreneur of the Year" award as recently as last year.

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”A journey: entrepreneur of the Year in 2024, accused of misleading investors in 2025. Source:Ernst and Young

      These engineers did solid work, created an AI system that felt like it was on par in capability terms with the likes of Devin and Factory. Unfortunately, the viral claim that Builder.ai used human devs to pretend to be an AI, has them fearing an impact upon their career prospects.

      _This is why I want to share the truth about Builder.ai 's tech stack: that there was no conspiracy to deceive users into interacting with 700 devs in the mistaken belief they were working with a cutting-edge AI. The devs did solid work, and the company's demise was totally unrelated to their efforts. _

      Also, I find it hard to believe that devs joining the then-high flying AI company could have had knowledge of machinations taking place at the executive management level of the business.

      So, where did the viral claim about 700 devs pretending to be AI, originate. The Financial Times tracked it down to this post from an account on X:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”This post from a self-proclaimed crypto enthusiast with no reporting history turned out to be false

      The fake claim in this post caught people's attention, including finance newsletter writer Linas Beliūnas, who shared it with his more than 500,000 LinkedIn followers, and many publications quoted that post:

      Builder.ai did not “fake AI with 700 engineers”Shocking claims travel fast, even when untrue. Source: Linas Beli ūnas on LinkedIn

      This is a good reminder of the importance of checking sources, and to be extra sceptical about social media posts. This also applies to me because last week this publication was among those which reported the claim. This is why I consider it important to recognise the error, and to go get the full story by talking with people who worked at Builder.ai.

      If your team is looking to hire engineers with experience building real AI systems, the Builder.ai alumni group is likely a great source of such hires. It's sad to see a startup implode in the AI space over fraud allegations, and good luck to engineers who worked at Builder.ai in finding their next role!

      This was one of four sections from The Pulse #137. The full edition additionally covers:

      • Industry pulse. A big push to repeal Section 174, Meta throws money at fixing its AI problems, Google might be preparing for job cuts, ChatGPT could be eating Google Search market share, and Arc launches "AI-browser", Dia.
      • Stock vesting changes at NVIDIA and Anthropic. Stock grants at NVIDIA are becoming front-loaded, while Anthropic has gone from options to double-trigger RSUs.
      • A reminder of vibe coding 's security risks. Readers of this publication proved vibe-coded apps are a security nightmare, by bypassing the upvoting fingerprinting on a simple "vibe coded" app which I instructed an AI to make secure.

      Read the full issue here

    3. đź”— News Minimalist U.S. and China reach new trade agreement + 7 more stories rss

      In the last 2 days ChatGPT read 58785 top news stories. After removing previously covered events, there are 8 articles with a significance score over 5.9.

      [6.0] U.S. and China reach trade agreement —wcvb.com(+218)

      The U.S. and China reached a trade agreement Wednesday that includes a 55% U.S. tax on Chinese imports.

      The deal, announced by President Trump, still needs final approval. It also entails a 10% Chinese tax on U.S. goods, exchange of magnets and minerals, and continued U.S. study for Chinese students.

      [5.6] High Seas Treaty gains momentum as 18 new countries pledge support —wcvb.com(+22)

      The High Seas Treaty gained significant momentum Monday as 18 more countries ratified it, bringing the total to 49 and nearing the threshold for enforcement.

      The treaty, formally known as the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, requires 60 ratifications to enter into force and establish marine protected areas in international waters.

      This treaty aims to protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, addressing threats like overfishing and deep-sea mining.

      [5.5] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes rollback on rules limiting emissions from fossil fuel power plants —cbsnews.com(+18)

      The EPA proposed rolling back Biden-era emissions rules for fossil fuel power plants, targeting carbon dioxide and toxic air pollutants. The Trump administration claims this will protect the economy.

      EPA Administrator Zeldin stated the previous rules "suffocated" the economy. The rollback includes repealing limits on carbon dioxide emissions and loosening restrictions on mercury and other toxins. The EPA estimates the changes will save the power sector $1.2 billion annually.

      Critics argue the rollbacks endanger public health and the environment, citing potential increases in premature deaths and asthma incidents. Lawsuits from environmental groups are anticipated, challenging the EPA's legal justification.

      Highly covered news with significance over 5.5

      [6.0] Israel considers attacking Iran without U.S. support — news.sky.com (+133)

      [5.7] Meta to announce $15bn investment in bid to achieve computerised superintelligence — theguardian.com (+23)

      [5.5] Worldwide displacement nears 122 million, UN agency reports — abcnews.go.com (+17)

      [5.7] Islam grows fastest globally due to population increases — npr.org (+5)

      [5.7] Solar Orbiter reveals first images of sun's south pole — theguardian.com (+23)

      Thanks for reading!

      — Vadim

      You can create your own personalized newsletter like this with premium.

      Powered by beehiiv

    4. đź”— organicmaps/organicmaps 2025.06.12-3-android release

      • New OSM data as of June 8
      • Save planned routes as tracks
      • Display plant nurseries, traffic barriers, studios, firepits, ladders, cranes, and love hotels
      • Qingdao metro icons
      • Show azimuth when tapping on a small arrow with distance
      • Fixed crashes and white-on-white text on Android 5&6
      • Fixed search for Lithuanian and other languages
      • Fix location arrow jumps when navigation is active
      • Fixed Cancel Download button
      • Improved translations from Weblate

      …more at omaps.org/news

      See a detailed announce on our website when app updates are published in all stores.
      You can get automatic app updates from GitHub using Obtainium.

      sha256sum:

      d50462ca3f4a9eb727f97c41f86acc3e8bb153b4f5d7fe19a38f4960d95e4a55  OrganicMaps-25061203-web-release.apk
    5. đź”— Console.dev newsletter Somo rss

      Description: Socket & port monitoring on Linux.

      What we like: Alternative to Netstat with human-friendly output. Uses a table view with filtering options (protocol, ports, IP, program, PID, etc). Launches with common settings from Netstat by default. Built-in kill option based on an interactive ID selector. Available as a single binary (Rust).

      What we dislike: Linux only.

    6. đź”— Console.dev newsletter edamagit rss

      Description: Git manager for VS Code.

      What we like: Adds power features to managing Git through VS Code, inspired by Magit. Makes it more efficient to manage branches, stage changes, and create commits. Integrates with VS Code command palette, but is designed for fast keyboard actions. Can also interact with GitHub issues and PRs. Supports vim bindings.

      What we dislike: Not fully functional compared to Magit - missing advanced options for diffs, bisect, patch.

  3. June 11, 2025
    1. đź”— idursun/jjui v0.8.9 release

      What's Changed

      • docs: add Homebrew as an installation method by @lvignoli in #84
      • Update instruction on installation for archlinux-based linux distros by @TeddyHuang-00 in #85
      • feat: support ~/.config and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME on macOS by @PrayagS in #86
      • Automatically add --allow-new argument to new local bookmarks by @idursun in #88
      • fix(revisions): set selected item on refresh by @idursun in #103
      • fix: snapshot working copy less often by @Jollywatt in #96
      • fix: highlight background colour seq calculation by @idursun in #106
      • fix: add --remote argument to bookmarks with multiple remotes by @idursun in #107
      • perf: make the preview pane more responsive when switching commit by @glehmann in #108
      • Add compilation instructions and add /jjui to .gitignore by @ilyagr in #112
      • Abandon command passes --retain-bookmarks by default
      • New key binding: @ jumps to working copy revision #111
      • New key binding: J jump to parent of the currently selected revision
      • New key binding: ctrl+z suspends jjui and returns to terminal. Typing fg should resume it.
      • jjui won't start and print an error message if the configuration file is malformed #114
      • When typing a bookmark name, spaces will be automatically replaced with - and the input box will expand if it exceeds the initial size.
      • Git: git push commands will be repeated per remote and --remote argument is always displayed.

      New Contributors

      Full Changelog : v0.8.8...v0.8.9

    2. đź”— idursun/jjui v0.8.10 release

      What's Changed

      • docs: add Homebrew as an installation method by @lvignoli in #84
      • Update instruction on installation for archlinux-based linux distros by @TeddyHuang-00 in #85
      • feat: support ~/.config and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME on macOS by @PrayagS in #86
      • Automatically add --allow-new argument to new local bookmarks by @idursun in #88
      • fix(revisions): set selected item on refresh by @idursun in #103
      • fix: snapshot working copy less often by @Jollywatt in #96
      • fix: highlight background colour seq calculation by @idursun in #106
      • fix: add --remote argument to bookmarks with multiple remotes by @idursun in #107
      • perf: make the preview pane more responsive when switching commit by @glehmann in #108
      • Add compilation instructions and add /jjui to .gitignore by @ilyagr in #112
      • Abandon command passes --retain-bookmarks by default
      • New key binding: @ jumps to working copy revision #111
      • New key binding: J jump to parent of the currently selected revision
      • New key binding: ctrl+z suspends jjui and returns to terminal. Typing fg should resume it.
      • jjui won't start and print an error message if the configuration file is malformed #114
      • When typing a bookmark name, spaces will be automatically replaced with - and the input box will expand if it exceeds the initial size.
      • Git: git push commands will be repeated per remote and --remote argument is always displayed.

      New Contributors

      Full Changelog : v0.8.8...v0.8.10

generated: June 14, 2025 at 00:16:24