Rob Stokes ⚡

A strong and secure open ecosystem is important for the world to benefit from AI. We’ve always supported and contributed heavily to open source and science from Jax to Transformers to AlphaFold to Gemma open models which have now been downloaded 300M+ times. And the standards framework we’ve proposed supports responsible deployment of both open and proprietary models.

Tonight’s FIFA World Cup final has left me genuinely divided. My admiration for Argentina comes from my lifelong love affair with Barcelona. From the magical days of Diego Maradona, through the genius of Ronaldinho, and ultimately the incomparable brilliance of Lionel Messi, Barcelona shaped my understanding of how beautiful football could be. Messi, La Masia’s greatest product, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and Argentina’s captain, has, in my view, already settled the greatest-of-all-time debate. He does not need another World Cup to prove his greatness. In the eyes of millions of football lovers, that argument was won years ago. Another triumph would simply crown an already unparalleled career. Yet my support for Spain also has deep roots. They play the kind of football I have always loved, one-touch passing, intelligent movement, patience in possession and complete command of the ball. Watching Spain often feels like watching the philosophy of the great Barcelona teams expressed through a national side. Lamine Yamal is the latest jewel of that footballing tradition. At just 19, he is already one of the game’s most exciting talents. Winning the World Cup tonight would surely place him at the front of the queue for his first Ballon d’Or and mark the beginning of what could become another legendary career. Perhaps that is the beauty of football. Sometimes there are no losers for the neutral. Part of me wants to see Messi write one final masterpiece and lift another World Cup at the age of 39, perhaps followed by one last Ballon d’Or. Another part wants to witness the dawn of a new era led by Lamine Yamal. And somehow, I suspect that deep down, Lamine himself would be happy to see his childhood idol, Lionel Messi, complete one last magical chapter before the torch is finally passed to the next generation. Tonight, my heart is split. But whatever the outcome, football will be the winner

Consistent with the simulation hypothesis. Like a video game, objects are randomly generated, with positional certainty only when observed.

"The fat was always the point. The salad was just keeping it company." I don't have a good word for the style (example above) of this fake-profound LLM last sentence in an essay structure, but it is driving me crazy. It is everywhere right now. 100x worse than em dashes

🚨 SUMMARY: The UK's social media ban for children from early 2027: - "User-to-user" apps where people create, share and interact with content (e.g. TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, X, Facebook) will be banned for under-16s - WhatsApp, Signal and YouTube Kids will be exempt - Under-16s will also be banned from livestreaming, messaging strangers on gaming apps like Discord and using disappearing messages - 16 and 17 year olds will face nightly social media curfews and limits on infinite scrolling with more details next month - AI "romantic companion" chatbots will be banned for under-18s - Adults can still access social media through age checks like facial recognition, digital IDs, passports and credit cards

Heard in the Nebius Inflect hallways: Elon charged Google 2x market for compute. Google still took it. No spare capacity until 2H27. 90-day segments. Zero leverage. AI compute isn’t a commodity anon