Independent AI researcher, creator of datasette.io and llm.datasette.io, building open source tools for data journalism, writing about a lot of stuff at https://simonwillison.net/https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.nethttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mz6vmxpth22jThis thread is a good summary of how dramatically the craft of software engineering has changed over the past 12 months [contains quote post or other embedded content]31 Oct 2026 18:15 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mz6vmxpth22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mywwaogdac23I think October represents another inflection point in capabilities for coding agents and the models that drive them: Claude Opus 5.5 can now build video games that are actually fun https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/28/vibe-game-development/28 Oct 2026 14:05 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mywwaogdac23https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mykwxawoa22uNotes on Kimi K3.1 - this one is a big deal, the first time an open weights (well, soon-to-be open weights) model has competed this credibly with the current frontier https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/23/kimi-k31-pro/23 Oct 2026 19:45 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mykwxawoa22uhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3myigjinnjc22Spotted a familiar creature at 00:45s in this new music video for FREEDOM by De Staad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKO4pQtIXow22 Oct 2026 19:46 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3myigjinnjc22https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3myfmdrox3k2uIt's been less than 24 hours and there's already a French fork of Battle Drones that reimagines it as Belle Époque steampunk! https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/21/panache/ [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Oct 2026 16:52 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3myfmdrox3k2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mydffvspjs2xI built a Command & Conquer style RTS called Battle Drones, mainly using Claude Opus 5.5, which runs in the browser and includes device-to-device multiplayer over an audio link https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/20/battledrones/20 Oct 2026 19:43 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mydffvspjs2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3myahrcpxu22sAnyone else's TikTok occasionally decide to show them promotional videos from Chinese industrial machinery suppliers?19 Oct 2026 15:47 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3myahrcpxu22shttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxw5izz2gs2g"Anthropic told investors on Wednesday distillation accounted for 5 per cent to 7 per cent of revenue" If true, and Q2 revenue was $11.5B, then that's more than half a billion dollars spent by other labs to distill Anthropic's models! https://www.ft.com/content/11632d03-358c-454b-af95-d06d4072932b?syn-25a6b1a6=115 Oct 2026 13:17 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxw5izz2gs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxp55chsbc2cShared some notes on Python 3.15, using it with uv, and features from Python 3.11 I'm excited to use now that 3.10 is no longer the minimum supported version for my own projects https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/12/python-3-15/12 Oct 2026 18:22 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxp55chsbc2chttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxndkxxbhk24Found the YouTube music video by that pizza chain guy who was bribing Kimberley Guilfoyle to lobby the IRS and send his song to Kid Rock youtu.be/2B6uBfh7bjc12 Oct 2026 01:11 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxndkxxbhk24https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxh2nlvc7s26I built a new feature for my blog entirely by voice with Codex Desktop, while I was cooking dinner https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/9/built-using-my-voice/09 Oct 2026 13:16 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxh2nlvc7s26https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxctkjruk22cPelicans and a bunch of notes on the pricing of the new Claude Haiku 5.5 https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/7/claude-haiku-5-5/07 Oct 2026 20:58 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxctkjruk22chttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mxap2pofos2tI released an LLM plugin for sending prompts to OpenAI's new Jev-clone decision model that's based on GPT-6 Luna https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/6/llm-openai-decisions/07 Oct 2026 00:32 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mxap2pofos2thttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mx5vpoesps2cI need to decide if 1KB means 1,000 bytes or 1,024 bytes in all of my software I was leaning 1,024 but it looks like macOS and Windows both define KB as 1,000 these days I want whatever people are most likely to understand (I do not think most people know what KiB or MiB means)05 Oct 2026 21:53 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx5vpoesps2chttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwz2hvy5ys2jJust published this post about how we’re going to need default hard budget caps on pretty much everything https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/3/default-hard-budget-caps/03 Oct 2026 23:35 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwz2hvy5ys2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwvldzjzqk2zIf you have not yet been to see the scale model of NYC built by Joe Macken out of cardboard and balsa wood over a period of 21 years you only have until the 12th of October to see it! It's at the Museum of the City of New York, by the north east end of Central Park02 Oct 2026 14:27 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwvldzjzqk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwoc6wab4s2dI'm at OpenAI's DevDay event in San Francisco today - as I have for the past three DevDay events, I'm running a live blog where I'll be posting updates during the keynote, which starts in five minutes https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/29/openai-devday-2026-live-blog/29 Sep 2026 16:54 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwoc6wab4s2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwm5kkl5e22sI really like how @reckless.bsky.social described this: "The people do not yearn for automation" https://www.theverge.com/podcast/917029/software-brain-ai-backlash-databases-automation [contains quote post or other embedded content]28 Sep 2026 20:26 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwm5kkl5e22shttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwluv7t57k2qI've published detailed notes and an annotated transcript to accompany the video of the keynote I gave at @wearedevelopers.bsky.social World Congress North America in San Jose on Friday - here's my rundown of everything that's happened with LLMs in 2026 so far https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/27/2026-in-llms-so-far/28 Sep 2026 17:51 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwluv7t57k2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwjcwvab6c2kHow late to the party am I on WebP? I only recently started using it as my preferred format for non-photo images and it's SO MUCH smaller than PNG, and looks much better than JPG used to shrink down screenshots too Has everyone else been having a WebP party without me for years?27 Sep 2026 17:24 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwjcwvab6c2khttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mwhjlrkyx22fI included a few references to this year's record-breaking Kākāpō breeding season in a talk I gave yesterday, and since Claude Opus 5.5 is surprisingly capable at pixel art animation I had it create this celebratory video for my closing slide27 Sep 2026 00:18 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwhjlrkyx22fhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mw7magyrwc2iThe new Gemini 3.8 TTS models are super-cheap and can generate conversations between multiple voices (from 2,000+, or you can clone your own) - I built a little playground UI for it, then had Claude knock up a script where two pelicans debate moving to Pacifica Pier https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/23/gemini-tts-playground/23 Sep 2026 20:44 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mw7magyrwc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mw5g6izoms2nBig model release today - I wrote about Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Sol, and GPT-6 Luna - plus comparison grids of pelicans by the different model families at different reasoning levels https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/22/opus-and-sol-and-luna/22 Sep 2026 23:50 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mw5g6izoms2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mw2tsop42c2uPut together some notes on Jev and the new category of system one aka decision models https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/21/jev/21 Sep 2026 23:16 +0000at://did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mw2tsop42c2u