Xris Xeating

Dean Ball took a lot of heat this week for calling open source decelerationist. Many people read this as him being personally anti-open source. I don't think that's true. This was my interpretation of what he was saying: if open source is sufficiently capable and ubiquitous, it will eventually destroy the big labs business models. This means they would no longer have funding. To quote Ilya Sutskever from his testimony in the OpenAI vs. Elon Musk trial: 'If there is no funding, there is no big computer.' And without big computer, there can't be big model. In my opinion, what would happen next in this scenario is that the United States Government would step in, nationalize the leading labs, consolidate them into a single federal entity, and then fund it directly through the Department of War under national security. To put into perspective how easily they could do this, the proposed 2027 defense budget is $1.5 trillion. Most people who strongly support open source would probably not see that outcome as ideal, or this future as a pleasant one. This doesn't mean we should abandon open source or stop wishing for its success. It simply means we should take the middle path. There is fire on both sides of us now, and that will likely remain true for the foreseeable future.

Beginning July 20, Claude Fable 5 will be included in all Max and Team Premium plans, at 50% of limits. Pro and Team Standard users will continue to have access to Fable via usage credits, and will receive a one-time $100 credit. Demand for Fable has been challenging to predict, which is why we rolled it out to subscription plans in stages, extending access several times as we secured additional capacity.

Nearly 1 km wide.

Shower thought: It's become kind of a midwit take to attribute this to the invention of the word processor, which doesn't really make sense given that this process was clearly ongoing long before computerized word processing was invented... but not before *photocopying* was

🚨 NEW: Andy Burnham lists 5 changes he will make as Labour leader 1. End infighting within the party 2. End point-scoring 3. Set out a direction that is "distinctively Labour" by "being us" 4. Return power to people across the entire UK 5. Be a "pro-business leader"

Retired public sector workers were handed a record £56bn in “gold‑plated” pensions in 2025‑26 – roughly £2,000 torn out of the pocket of every household in the country. Not for schools, not for hospitals, not for policing or defence – for a guaranteed income stream to people who no longer work, under schemes that were never properly funded and never honestly explained to the public. The political class calls this “rewarding service”. What it actually rewards is being on the inside when the deal was written: final‑salary, inflation‑proofed pensions backed by the Treasury, completely insulated from the economic reality facing everyone else. Millions of younger private‑sector workers with fragile defined‑contribution pots, insecure work and no hope of retiring at 60 are being ordered to bankroll comfortable retirements for a state‑sector aristocracy who were promised more than the country ever put aside in cash. This isn’t some accident of history. Governments of all colours signed cheques they knew future taxpayers would have to cash, then buried the true scale of the obligation. Labour now sits on that broken model, refuses to reform it, and pretends the only answer is “tax the rich” – while quietly taxing the young, the renting and the working poor to maintain deals they never voted for and will never receive themselves.