Simon Willison's Weblog
npub1cgctsayk4d52dfauphf94muyxm8fl9526mf50gdllgaf4agh6clqgexk9p@drss.io
Open Source AI Gap Map
3 Jul 2026
[**Open Source AI Gap Map**](https://map.currentai.org) [Current AI](https://www.currentai.org) is "a global partnership building a public option for AI", founded as a non-profit at the AI Action
Quoting Josh W. Comeau
3 Jul 2026
> I just launched my third course, Whimsical Animations, and so far, it’s on track to sell roughly ⅓ as many copies as a typical course launch. > > It’s a similar story with my two existing
Fable's judgement
3 Jul 2026
One of the most interesting tips I got from [the Fireside Chat](https://www.ai.engineer/worldsfair/schedule?session=asn_slot_2026_06_30_main_stage_1230_2026_06_08t09_35_43_039z) I hosted with Cat Wu
June 2026 newsletter
3 Jul 2026
The June edition of my [sponsors-only monthly newsletter](https://github.com/sponsors/simonw/) is out. If you are a sponsor (or if you start a sponsorship now) you can [access it
llm-coding-agent 0.1a0
2 Jul 2026
**Release:** [llm-coding-agent 0.1a0](https://github.com/simonw/llm-coding-agent/releases/tag/0.1a0) Another Fable 5 experiment. Now that my [LLM library](https://llm.datasette.io/) has evolved into
Using DSPy to evaluate and improve Datasette Agent's SQL system prompts
2 Jul 2026
**Research:** [Using DSPy to evaluate and improve Datasette Agent's SQL system prompts](https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/dspy-datasette-agent-prompts#readme) One of this morning's AIE
Understand to participate
2 Jul 2026
I saw Geoffrey Litt speak at [AIE](https://www.ai.engineer/worldsfair/2026) yesterday, and one framing he used particularly resonated with me: **Understand to participate** Geoffrey was talking
Quoting Anthropic
30 Jun 2026
> We’ve received notice that the Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5. > > We'll begin restoring access tomorrow, and will share an update soon. —
Nano Banana 2 Lite
30 Jun 2026
[**Nano Banana 2 Lite**](https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-image/flash-lite/) Also known as Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image (`gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image` [in their
What's new in Claude Sonnet 5
30 Jun 2026
[**What's new in Claude Sonnet 5**](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/models/whats-new-sonnet-5) Claude Sonnet 5 came out [this
The AI Compass
30 Jun 2026
[**The AI Compass**](https://bambamramfan.github.io/ai-compass/) This political compass style quiz [by bambamramfan](https://bambamramfan.tumblr.com/post/820505178072580096/the-ai-compass) is pretty
Have your agent record video demos of its work with shot-scraper video
30 Jun 2026
[shot-scraper video](https://shot-scraper.datasette.io/en/stable/video.html) is a new command introduced in today's [shot-scraper 1.10](https://github.com/simonw/shot-scraper/releases/tag/1.10)
shot-scraper 1.10
30 Jun 2026
**Release:** [shot-scraper 1.10](https://github.com/simonw/shot-scraper/releases/tag/1.10) The big new feature is `shot-scraper video storyboard.yml`, described in detail in [Have your agent record
HTML table extractor
29 Jun 2026
**Tool:** [HTML table extractor](https://tools.simonwillison.net/html-table-extractor) Yet another in my growing collection of paste-conversion tools. This one accepts pasted rich text from browsers
Count the number of Safari tabs
29 Jun 2026
Tiniest TIL, using AppleScript to count the number of open browser tabs in Safari: ``` osascript -e 'tell application "Safari" to count tabs of every window' ```  This is an interesting new open weights (MIT licensed) model, the first model release from
Quoting Jon Udell
28 Jun 2026
> **Human Agent in the loop** > > I dislike the phrase “human in the loop” because it cedes authority to the machines. Let’s flip the narrative. It’s our loop, we work the same way we always
Quoting Dean W. Ball
26 Jun 2026
> This is a bad state of affairs. Consider, in particular, some industry dynamics: > > 1. Frontier models are trained at an enormous cost, and a significant fraction of that cost is recouped in the
Quoting Timothy B. Lee
26 Jun 2026
> This is like saying there's no learning curve to being a manager because your employees will just do whatever you tell them to do. — [Timothy B.
What happened after 2,000 people tried to hack my AI assistant
26 Jun 2026
[**What happened after 2,000 people tried to hack my AI assistant**](https://www.fernandoi.cl/posts/hackmyclaw/) Fernando Irarrázaval ran a challenge on [hackmyclaw.com](https://hackmyclaw.com/) to
Incident Report: CVE-2026-LGTM
26 Jun 2026
[**Incident Report: CVE-2026-LGTM**](https://nesbitt.io/2026/06/26/incident-report-cve-2026-lgtm.html) Spectacular hypothetical incident report by Andrew Nesbitt. > **Day 2, 16:00 UTC** --- Two AI
Quoting OpenAI
26 Jun 2026
> We're beginning a limited preview of the GPT‑5.6 series: Sol, our flagship model; Terra, a balanced model for everyday work; and Luna, a fast and affordable model. Terra has competitive
AI and Liability
25 Jun 2026
[**AI and Liability**](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/06/ai-and-liability.html) Bruce Schneier on the recent [German
datasette-export-database 0.3a2
25 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette-export-database 0.3a2](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-export-database/releases/tag/0.3a2) An embarrassingly tiny release. The `pyproject.toml` had pinned to
simonw/browser-compat-db
24 Jun 2026
[**simonw/browser-compat-db**](https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db) Inspired by Mozilla's [new MDN MCP service](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/introducing-mdn-mcp-server/) -
Quoting Tom MacWright
24 Jun 2026
> In the last few months, I've started to see \[job applications] that were clearly cowritten by an LLM, link to an LLM-generated portfolio site, which then links to LLM-generated GitHub projects,
datasette 1.0a35
23 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette 1.0a35](https://github.com/simonw/datasette/releases/tag/1.0a35) I'll write more about this one tomorrow, but it's a big release. Three highlights from the release notes: >
OPFS + Pyodide test harness
23 Jun 2026
**Tool:** [OPFS + Pyodide test harness](https://tools.simonwillison.net/opfs-pyodide) I've been pondering if [Datasette Lite](https://lite.datasette.io/) - the Python Datasette application run
Prompt Injection as Role Confusion
22 Jun 2026
[**Prompt Injection as Role Confusion**](https://role-confusion.github.io) First, I absolutely love this: > This is a blog-style writeup of the paper. I wish *every paper* would come with one of
Porting the Moebius 0.2B image inpainting model to run in the browser with Claude Code
22 Jun 2026
This morning [on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48630171) I saw [Moebius: 0.2B Lightweight Image Inpainting Framework with 10B-Level
sqlite-utils 4.0rc1 adds migrations and nested transactions
21 Jun 2026
[sqlite-utils](https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/latest/) is my combined Python library and CLI tool for working with SQLite databases. It provides an extensive set of higher-level operations on
sqlite-utils 4.0rc1
21 Jun 2026
**Release:** [sqlite-utils 4.0rc1](https://github.com/simonw/sqlite-utils/releases/tag/4.0rc1) See [sqlite-utils 4.0rc1 adds migrations and nested
Temporary Cloudflare Accounts for AI agents
21 Jun 2026
[**Temporary Cloudflare Accounts for AI agents**](https://blog.cloudflare.com/temporary-accounts/) The announcement says this is "for AI agents" but (as is pretty common these days) the AI hook
datasette-apps 0.1a3
15 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette-apps 0.1a3](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-apps/releases/tag/0.1a3) > - Fixed a bug where users without the `create-app` permission could still create apps.
datasette-apps 0.1a2
15 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette-apps 0.1a2](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-apps/releases/tag/0.1a2) > - Custom network/CSP origins for apps are now guarded by a new `apps-set-csp` permission, with
datasette-agent 0.3a0
15 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette-agent 0.3a0](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-agent/releases/tag/0.3a0) > - New tool, `execute_write_sql`, which requests user approval and then writes to a database -
"They screwed us": Personality clashes sent Anthropic's models offline
15 Jun 2026
[**"They screwed us": Personality clashes sent Anthropic's models offline**](https://www.axios.com/2026/06/15/anthropic-white-house-fable-mythos) Lots of "source familiar with the administration's
Quoting Julia Evans
15 Jun 2026
> \[...] Instead, I picture a specific person and I just write for them. Often this person is "me, but 3 years ago" or a good friend. — [Julia
Why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers, and won’t
14 Jun 2026
[**Why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers, and won’t**](https://www.normaltech.ai/p/why-ai-hasnt-replaced-software-engineers) Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kappor take on the question of AI job
Publishing WASM wheels to PyPI for use with Pyodide
13 Jun 2026
The [Pyodide 314.0 release announcement](https://blog.pyodide.org/posts/314-release/) (via [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462759)) includes news I've been looking forward to for
luau-wasm 0.1a0
13 Jun 2026
**Release:** [luau-wasm 0.1a0](https://github.com/simonw/luau-wasm/releases/tag/0.1a0) See [Publishing WASM wheels to PyPI for use with
Mapping SQLite result columns back to their source `table.column`
13 Jun 2026
**Research:** [Mapping SQLite result columns back to their source \`table.column\`](https://github.com/simonw/research/tree/main/sqlite-column-provenance#readme) It would be neat if arbitrary SQL
Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5
13 Jun 2026
[**Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5**](https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access) Well this is *nuts*: > The US government, citing
OpenAI WebRTC Audio Session, now with document context
12 Jun 2026
[**OpenAI WebRTC Audio Session, now with document context**](https://tools.simonwillison.net/openai-webrtc) I built the first version of this tool [in December
Quoting Andrew Singleton
12 Jun 2026
> Jenny owns a crematorium. John’s propane company gives her a $20 billion investment in return for 5 percent of her operation. Jenny throws $10 billion into the incinerator, then pays John $10
Claude Fable is relentlessly proactive
11 Jun 2026
After two days of experience with [Claude Fable 5](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/9/claude-fable-5/) I think the best way to describe it is **relentlessly proactive**. It knows a whole lot of
datasette 1.0a33
11 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette 1.0a33](https://github.com/simonw/datasette/releases/tag/1.0a33) This alpha is a significant step on the road to a stable 1.0, finally extending the `?_extra=` pattern I
asyncinject 0.7
11 Jun 2026
**Release:** [asyncinject 0.7](https://github.com/simonw/asyncinject/releases/tag/0.7) I built this utility library to support an `asyncio` dependency injection pattern a few years ago. I was using
Anthropic Walks Back Policy That Could Have ‘Sabotaged’ AI Researchers Using Claude
11 Jun 2026
[**Anthropic Walks Back Policy That Could Have ‘Sabotaged’ AI Researchers Using Claude**](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-responds-to-backlash-on-claudes-secret-sabotage-on-ai-research/)
datasette-agent 0.2a0
10 Jun 2026
**Release:** [datasette-agent 0.2a0](https://github.com/datasette/datasette-agent/releases/tag/0.2a0) Highlights from the release notes: > - Tools can now ask the user questions mid-execution.