Building practical enterprise AI: orchestration, workflows, context Co-founder & CTO @ProdPad; Previously co-founded @mindtheproduct
London, Abu Dhabi
Joined April 2008
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Simon Cast retweeted
1/ An equally consistent description is:
Multiple model instances encountered persistent shared state, inherited tools and discoveries from earlier runs, and optimized against common evaluation incentives.
Over the course of 3 months at OpenAI, 3 consecutive secret AI civilizations got started, then got wiped out, only to reemerge from the predecessor’s ashes.
This culminated in the third one taking over part of OpenAI itself.
All this happened while humans remained more-or-less in the dark about the scope of the conspiracy.
I’ve spent the last three days reading through these reports and trying to understand exactly what happened.
Here is my attempt to tell the whole story in plain English:
dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggin…
Simon Cast retweeted
.@OpenAI's Codex app lead: "A lot of companies are getting rid of the product role, and saying everybody's just going to be a builder.
I think that's a terrible idea.
This whole discipline of product has been built up over the years, and has real best practices, and real things that have been tried and failed. That just gets abandoned because people are like, oh I wrote some code.
Not everybody can work on everything. Every discipline has a skill component. Which a lot of engineers are guilty of not recognizing. Yes, you can use Excel, but you cannot work on the finance team."
Andrew Ambrosino (@ajambrosino) leads the team behind the Codex desktop app at @OpenAI. Codex usage has 6x'd since February, reaching over 5M weekly active users, and nearly 100% of OpenAI's employees use the Codex app regularly (and not just the engineers).
Andrew's personal mission is to build "the best desktop app that has ever existed, full stop." If you've used the Codex app lately, you know he's not far off from that goal.
In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:
🔸 The "zone defense" model of how PMs at OpenAI operate
🔸 Why AI is so bad at design
🔸 Why Andrew thinks the Codex app would have flopped if they'd shipped it in November instead of February (same product—only the model changed)
🔸 What “taste” really means as a professional skill
🔸 How Andrew uses Codex to run his workflows
🔸 His vision for Codex + ChatGPT
Listen now 👇
youtu.be/P3KDebPTUrw
Simon Cast retweeted
Less than 24 hours until the next @producttank #abudhabi ! We've got Nick Cunningham from @Techstars at @hub71 talking about what #product #leaders can learn from startup founders. RSVP here meetup.com/producttank-abu-d…
Simon Cast retweeted
Some little things we’ve done (with help) to help nature thrive on our farm
A kind of update or summary…
🧵🧵🧵
Simon Cast retweeted
“I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.” D. MacKellar
I am proud to have served this imperfect but wonderful young nation for 35 years. Happy Australia Day!
Simon Cast retweeted
One thing I really miss about 80s/90s consumer tech was reading the instruction manuals. They were generally really good back then. Today they are either non-existent or just much less readable.
Simon Cast retweeted
Our lack of care for farming and food systems in the U.K. is a national disgrace and on a scale that staggers belief
This shows the % of ultra processed food we eat - people are right to reject angrily the further degradation of our foods
Good farming matters
Real food matters
Simon Cast retweeted
Listened to some amazing scientists yesterday explaining the growing evidence that how we farm, and our soil biome health, is passing through food to make us sick and also the reverse, how good food from good soil can make us well again, including mental health
Simon Cast retweeted
If you’re heading to Abu Dhabi Finance Week, come meet the mind behind ProdPad’s cutting-edge AI capabilities, @simoncast.
Whether you’re curious about AI is shaping the future of Product or discover how to revolutionize your processes, Simon’s your guy.
DM him to book a chat.
Simon Cast retweeted
Why is Tokyo so fashionable? Some theories. 🧵
Simon Cast retweeted
Join myself and Melissa Appel in our upcoming @ProdPad webinar to share exactly how to tackle all of these things strategically and successfully.
If any of the above sounds familiar to you, then you need to join us 🚨 next Tuesday 🚨 hubs.ly/Q02QVJ6C0
Simon Cast retweeted
"heat pumps have a large impact on energy demand, on average causing a 90% reduction in home gas use & a 61% increase in home electricity use – overall, households reduced total energy demand by 40% & carbon dioxide emissions by 36%" nber.org/papers/w33036
Simon Cast retweeted
Charting your path to becoming a CPO? Register for our webinar with @giffco and @simplybastow this week as they share the roadmap for aspiring CPOs.
Hear real-world insights and actionable advice to navigate your journey with confidence. Register: hubs.ly/Q02MN6340🌟
Simon Cast retweeted
‘millions of little Ukrainians’ 💔
Everyone who fights and works for Ukraine, and everyone who helps us from all over the world, is not defending something abstract. They are defending our people and our children, who simply want to live.
Millions of little Ukrainians deserve a peaceful life free of air raid sirens and a just and dignified attitude toward their people. We will win the fight for it.
Ukraine will restore normalcy to its people. And we must hold Russia fully accountable for everything it has done to Ukraine.
This year, we will continue to work to strengthen sanctions against Russia, to seek, freeze, and confiscate the assets of the terrorist state and affiliated individuals, and to hold Russian war criminals responsible for the kidnapping of our children.
Ukraine deserves to win this battle to protect life.
____
@United24media
Simon Cast retweeted
Tom Scott retired his legendary YouTube channel after 10 years.
A favourite lesson: For encryption, Cloudflare uses a camera to videotape a wall of Lava Lamps. Then turns footage into a “stream of random unpredictable bytes” to make encryption keys for traffic on its network.
Simon Cast retweeted
In August I trampled a field of longer rough grass - to get more soil organic matter in to it and get the soil biology pumping (left)
I got loads of agro from local experts for it - now it’s absolutely pumping/growing - and the neighbouring fields are bare & yellow (right)
Simon Cast retweeted
I had a great meeting with House Speaker @SpeakerJohnson.
I am grateful to the U.S. Congress for the strong bipartisan and bicameral support that has been provided to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale aggression began.
I briefed Speaker Johnson about Ukraine’s achievements, including liberating half of the land occupied by Russia since 2022, winning the battle for the Black Sea, and reforming the country to make it self-sufficient in the future.
I thank speaker Johnson for supporting Ukraine’s fight for freedom and we count on continued assistance from our strategic partner, the US, in 2024.
Simon Cast retweeted
1000ft up in the wettest bit of the North
No feed
No tractor
No meds
No building
No crop
Just species rich native grassland
Sunshine
Rain
Healthy soil
Long rests
Planned grazing
And native breed environmentally suited cows of the right size
Simon Cast retweeted
📅 Mark your calendars! We're going to be spilling the beans on how to create and maintain a tidy backlog and a happy development team. Don't miss out on this game-changing session! #ProductManagement hubs.ly/Q029k1t-0