A Weekly Dose of AI, Data, LLMs & Tech - The Monkey Patching Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Atlassian agrees to acquire The Browser Company for $610 million https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/04/atlassian-the-browser-company-deal.html

Mistral AI raises €1.7B to accelerate technological activity https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mistralai_mistral-ai-raises-17b-to-accelerate-technological-activity-7371045632284971008-KOtm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAUumq8B49UW7m9VV5ijr01USsCOWMSQaGw

The Three Faces Of Generative AI https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/the-three-faces-of-generative-ai

Will AI Replace Human Thinking? The Case for Writing and Coding Manually https://www.ssp.sh/brain/will-ai-replace-humans/

Anthropic reaches $1.5 billion settlement with authors in landmark copyright case https://fortune.com/2025/09/05/anthropic-reaches-1-5-billion-settlement-with-authors-in-landmark-copyright-case/?utm_source=perplexity

Apple sued by authors over use of books in AI training https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-sued-by-authors-over-use-books-ai-training-2025-09-05/?utm_source=perplexity

Microsoft Says Azure Service Affected by Damaged Red Sea Cables https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-06/microsoft-says-azure-service-affected-by-damaged-red-sea-cables

Why language models hallucinate https://openai.com/index/why-language-models-hallucinate/

Tidbits:

AMD claims Arm ISA doesn't offer efficiency advantage over x86 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45168854

WiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed https://news.ucsc.edu/2025/09/pulse-fi-wifi-heart-rate/

The MIT-Pay Me Or Get The Fork Out License https://barts.space/the-mit-pay-me-or-get-the-fork-out-license/

Thanks for listening! ❤️

Nano Banana — https://blog.google/products/gemini/updated-image-editing-model/

China Has a Different Vision for AI. It Might Be Smarter. — https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/china-has-a-different-vision-for-ai-it-might-be-smarter-581f1e44

Bear is now source-available — https://herman.bearblog.dev/license/

A deeper look at AI crawlers: breaking down traffic by purpose and industry — https://blog.cloudflare.com/ai-crawler-traffic-by-purpose-and-industry/

Creators use AI to spark their music careers — https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-ai-music-suno-udio-551308748c84c774c3c5ecd89aa93904

The rise of the AI influencer — https://www.ft.com/content/cb859409-dd3d-400d-9225-4a14d351bd20

Python: The Documentary | An origin story — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfH4QL4VqJ0&ab_channel=CultRepo%28formerlyHoneypot%29

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence — https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publications/canaries-in-the-coal-mine/

Sorry, a bit of a late release due to some technical issues over at Riverside.
Ow yes, and Bart finally ordered a new mic after this episode.

Thanks for listening! ❤️

Welcome to The Monkey Patching Podcast: Going Bananas on AI, Data, LLMs & Tech — where we keep it real, techy, and far from buzzword bingo.

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts, or visit us at monkeypatching.io

🧠 Episode Topics & Links

• Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task
  New arXiv research shows relying on ChatGPT dulls neural engagement and weakens writing skills compared to search or free writing. EEG readings revealed the lowest brain activity among LLM users.
  Source: arXiv · June 10, 2025
• Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company’s corporate workforce
  Andy Jassy forecasts a future where generative-AI handles many office roles, trimming Amazon’s white-collar headcount: “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”
  Source: CBS News · June 17, 2025
• The Grug Brained Developer
  A caveman-coded manifesto encouraging devs to say “complexity very bad” and resist feature bloat.
  Source: grugbrain.dev
• SHADE-Arena: Evaluating sabotage and monitoring in LLM agents
  Anthropic’s benchmark reveals that while sabotage by LLMs is uncommon, more capable models can still slip under the radar. A reminder that complexity brings power — and risk.
  Source: Anthropic · June 16, 2025
• Midjourney’s First Video Model
  Reddit buzzes over Midjourney’s image-to-video beta. Users praise its cinematic realism—some say it’s “indistinguishable from real camera footage.”
  Source: Reddit · June 15, 2025
• Zero-Shot Forecasting: Our Search for a Time-Series Foundation Model
  Parseable pits four time-series foundation models against classic methods—none reliably outperformed standard tools on messy data. Zero-shot remains aspirational.
  Source: Parseable · June 3, 2025
• If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A Tediously Accurate Map of the Solar System
  An interactive scroll map scaling the Moon to a single pixel, forcing you to traverse near-endless blank space. As the author says: “It’s the empty space that’s a problem.”
  Source: JoshWorth.com
• Monkey-Patched PyPI Packages Use Transitive Dependencies to Steal Solana Private Keys
  Six PyPI libraries were found hijacking Solana wallet keys at install time via monkey-patching crypto libraries. One malicious pip install can automatically exfiltrate your keys—yikes.
  Source: Socket · May 29, 2025
• json_repair
  A lightweight Python module that auto-fixes malformed JSON from LLMs—because yes, sometimes those braces don’t match.
  Source: GitHub

Welcome to Episode 2!

We'd love to hear your feedback ❤️ 

DuckLake: SQL as a Lakehouse Format | DuckDB Blog (May 27 2025)
DuckDB’s new DuckLake format proposes shifting all lakehouse metadata into a regular SQL database so open-format data lakes can gain true transactional speed and simplicity. “DuckLake re-imagines what a ‘Lakehouse’ format should look like,” the authors write, arguing it eliminates the maze of JSON files and external catalog services. If adopted, DuckLake could let organizations treat Parquet-backed blob storage like a fast, ACID-compliant warehouse without vendor lock-in. (duckdb.org)

Magistral | Mistral AI (Jun 10 2025)
Mistral AI has unveiled Magistral, its first reasoning-centric language model, releasing a 24-billion-parameter open version alongside a more powerful enterprise tier. As the company puts it, “Magistral is designed to think things through — in ways familiar to us,” offering transparent, multilingual chain-of-thought and 10× faster replies in Le Chat. By open-sourcing the small model and touting competitive benchmarks, Mistral positions itself as a nimble challenger to the big LLM providers. (mistral.ai)

The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs | Quartz
A little-noticed tweak to U.S. tax code Section 174 that took effect in 2022 made R&D costs dramatically more expensive, quietly spurring hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs. One startled executive admitted, “I work on these tax write-offs and still hadn’t heard about this,” underscoring how the change blindsided companies large and small. With repeal efforts now winding through Congress, the episode shows how obscure fiscal fine print can ripple through innovation hubs and local economies alike. (qz.com)

Where we’re headed with the dbt Fusion engine | dbt Labs (May 28 2025)
Founder Tristan Handy lays out how the freshly launched Fusion engine—a complete rewrite of dbt Core—will speed parsing 30-fold, enable local execution, and one-day transpile SQL across data platforms. “Today, we launched the dbt Fusion engine, a complete rewrite of dbt from the ground up,” he explains, framing the overhaul as essential for scale. The roadmap suggests dbt could slash warehouse costs and free teams from vendor lock-in, marking a bold shift from incremental tweaks to deep platform bets. (getdbt.com)

Introducing Claude 4 | Anthropic (May 22 2025)
Anthropic’s Claude 4 family—Opus 4 and Sonnet 4—promises state-of-the-art coding, extended tool use, and improved memory for multi-hour agent workflows. The post touts that “Claude Opus 4 is the world’s best coding model,” citing a 72.5 percent SWE-bench score and new parallel tool execution. By keeping prices steady and expanding availability across AWS, Google, and its own API, Anthropic aims to cement Claude as developers’ go-to frontier model. (anthropic.com)

Scrapling | GitHub
Scrapling is an open-source Python library that claims stealthy, high-performance web scraping with automatic adaptation to site changes and anti-bot defenses. Its README highlights that “Scrapling is a high-performance, intelligent web scraping library for Python that automatically adapts to website changes.” With more than 5,000 stars and an April 2025 release, the project shows continuing demand for lightweight, developer-friendly scraping tools that outsmart detection. (github.com)

Apple Researchers Just Released a Damning Paper That Pours Water on the Entire AI Industry | Futurism (Jun 09 2025)
An Apple research team argues that leading “reasoning” language models plateau and even collapse on complex puzzles, challenging industry claims of true machine reasoning. Their study warns that “frontier [reasoning models] face a complete accuracy collapse beyond certain complexities,” calling current performance an “illusion of thinking.” The finding could temper expectations for next-gen LLMs and intensify scrutiny of benchmarking just as Apple readies its own AI features. (futurism.com)

Bill Atkinson Dies From Cancer at 74 | Daring Fireball (Jun 07 2025)
John Gruber reports that pioneering Macintosh programmer Bill Atkinson passed away at home on June 5 after battling pancreatic cancer. His family shared that “he was at home in Portola Valley in his bed, surrounded by family,” remembering him as “a remarkable person.” Gruber calls Atkinson perhaps “the most essential” coder on the original Mac team, noting his innovations in QuickDraw, MacPaint, and HyperCard still shape software today. (daringfireball.net)

Hey there! Welcome to the very first Monkey Patching Podcast. We're just kicking things off today, chatting about what we've got planned for this show – nothing too mind-blowing yet, but we're excited to get rolling. If you're into data and AI talk without all the buzzword fluff, hit subscribe and join us for the ride. Trust us, it gets better from here.

Ow yeah... while we said that we would start numbering at 0, our podcast hosting platform doesn't support it 🙈

Thanks for listening!

Much love,
Murilo & Bart

Creators & Guests

• Bart Smeets - Host
• Murilo Kuniyoshi Suzart Cunha - Host

Thanks for listening! ❤️

Chapters

• (01:55) - MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing
• (08:14) - AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard'
• (14:22) - DeepSeek-V3.1 Release
• (18:55) - Build vs Buy in the Age of AI
• (27:02) - Google says it dropped the energy cost of AI queries by 33x in one year
• (34:38) - Mirage: AI UGC game engine
• (39:58) - Beyond Sensor Data: Foundation Models of Behavioral Data from Wearables Improve Health Predictions
• (45:17) - AI Mode in Search gets new agentic features and expands globally
• (50:08) - imagestyles.ai
• (51:36) - Sick of Fancy (South Park S27E3)
• (53:56) - ElevenLabs V3 (most expressive TTS)

• MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing — https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/

• AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard' — https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/aws_ceo_entry_level_jobs_opinion/

• DeepSeek-V3.1 Release — https://api-docs.deepseek.com/news/news250821

• Build vs Buy in the Age of AI — https://www.svpg.com/article-build-vs-buy-in-the-age-of-ai

• Google says it dropped the energy cost of AI queries by 33x in one year — https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/google-says-it-dropped-the-energy-cost-of-ai-queries-by-33x-in-one-year/

• Mirage: AI UGC game engine — https://dynamicslab.ai/

• Beyond Sensor Data: Foundation Models of Behavioral Data from Wearables Improve Health Predictions — https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00191

• AI Mode in Search gets new agentic features and expands globally — https://blog.google/products/search/ai-mode-agentic-personalized/

Thanks again for listening!

Follow us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Discussed news articles

• GitHub just got less independent at Microsoft after CEO resignation — The Verge (Aug 11, 2025)
  Thomas Dohmke steps down; GitHub leadership folds more tightly into Microsoft’s CoreAI org.
  https://www.theverge.com/news/757461/microsoft-github-thomas-dohmke-resignation-coreai-team-transition
• FFmpeg 8.0 merges OpenAI Whisper filter for automatic speech recognition — Phoronix (Aug 13, 2025)
  Native Whisper (via whisper.cpp) arrives in FFmpeg with optional GPU accel and SRT/JSON outputs.
  https://www.phoronix.com/news/FFmpeg-Lands-Whisper
• Wikimedia Foundation challenges UK Online Safety Act regulations — Wikimedia Foundation (Aug 11, 2025)
  Court dismisses the challenge, but the ruling still pressures Ofcom; concerns remain for Wikipedia.
  https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/08/11/wikimedia-foundation-challenges-uk-online-safety-act-regulations/
• Claude Sonnet 4 now supports 1M tokens of context — Anthropic (Aug 12, 2025)
  Long-context support (public beta) enables huge codebases/docs in one go on API and Bedrock.
  https://www.anthropic.com/news/1m-context
• Introducing Gemma 3 270M: The compact model for hyper-efficient AI — Google Developers Blog (Aug 14, 2025)
  On-device-friendly model aimed at fast, low-cost fine-tuning; strong efficiency on Pixel 9 Pro.
  https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-gemma-3-270m/
• Genie 3: A new frontier for world models — Google DeepMind (Aug 5, 2025)
  Interactive, real-time world models generating diverse environments at 24fps/720p.
  https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/genie-3-a-new-frontier-for-world-models/
• NGINX introduces native support for ACME protocol — NGINX Community Blog (Aug 12, 2025)
  New ngx_http_acme_module brings built-in cert requests/renewals directly from NGINX config.
  https://blog.nginx.org/blog/native-support-for-acme-protocol
• OpenAI tweaks GPT-5’s tone on X — X (Aug 15, 2025)
  Tuning GPT-5/ChatGPT to sound warmer and less formal based on user feedback.
  https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1956461718097494196

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the episode please subscribe!

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble | Where’s Your Ed At

Technology writer Ed Zitron tears apart what he calls the overhyped generative-AI gold rush, warning it’s propped up by wishful thinking and unsustainable spending. As he bluntly puts it, “We’re in a god damn bubble,” prompting a no-holds-barred discussion on whether the boom will burst.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/

Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies, loosen environmental rules | Reuters

Washington’s latest AI blueprint combines export zeal with lighter green rules, aiming to outpace China by shipping full “AI stacks” to friendly nations. Kicking off the push, Trump proclaimed, “America is the country that started the AI race,” a line sure to spark global tech-power chatter.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-supercharge-ai-sales-allies-loosen-environmental-rules-2025-07-23/

Microsoft launches AI-based Copilot Mode in Edge browser | Reuters

Microsoft’s new Copilot Mode turns Edge into a chat-powered helper that can juggle tabs, organize research, and even take voice commands. The update greets users with “a single input box combining chat, search and web navigation features,” a neat cue for how browsing may soon feel.

https://www.reuters.com/business/microsoft-launches-ai-based-copilot-mode-edge-browser-2025-07-28/

China's AI startup Zhipu releases open-source model GLM-4.5 | Reuters

Beijing-based Zhipu has open-sourced GLM-4.5, pitching it as fresh fuel for intelligent agents and adding yet another model to China’s bulging roster. The company says the new release is “designed for intelligent agent applications,” a phrase hinting at growing ambitions beyond plain chatbots.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinas-ai-startup-zhipu-releases-open-source-model-glm-45-2025-07-28/

Short readings:

Hunyuan3D World Model 1.0 | X

Tencent’s Hunyuan team just dropped its first open-source engine for instant, explorable 3D worlds, stirring excitement across game and VR circles. Their launch tweet beams, “We’re thrilled to release & open-source Hunyuan3D World Model 1.0!,” inviting hosts to imagine the possibilities.

https://x.com/TencentHunyuan/status/1949288986192834718

Introducing Opal: describe, create, and share your AI mini-apps | Google Developers Blog

Google Labs has unwrapped Opal, a drag-and-drop playground where non-coders can chain models and prompts into bite-sized AI apps. The post kicks off with “We’re excited to announce Opal,” a line that invites makers everywhere to start remixing AI workflows.

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-opal/

Announcing Toad – a universal UI for agentic coding in the terminal | Will McGugan’s Essays

Developer Will McGugan has prototyped “Toad,” a flicker-free terminal UI meant to tame and turbo-charge agentic coding workflows. He quips, “I’m a little salty that neither Anthropic nor Google reached out to me before they released their AI coding agents,” throwing playful shade.

http://willmcgugan.github.io/announcing-toad/

Alibaba launches open-source AI coding model, touted as its most advanced to date | Reuters

Alibaba’s new Qwen3-Coder model enters the code-generation fray, claiming boosts that rival both domestic peers and Western heavyweights. The company pitches it as “its most advanced coding tool to date,” a boast that raises the stakes in China’s escalating model wars.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/alibaba-launches-open-source-ai-coding-model-touted-its-most-advanced-date-2025-07-23/

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• Announcing molab (marimo)
  Marimo debuts molab, a free, cloud‑hosted workspace for running and sharing reactive Python + SQL notebooks straight from the browser.
  https://marimo.io/blog/announcing-molab
• OpenAI LLM Claims IMO Gold
  Researcher Alexander Wei says an experimental OpenAI model solved 5 of 6 problems from the 2025 International Math Olympiad—good for a human‑level gold medal—and hints at new post‑RL training tricks.
  https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1946477742855532918.html
• Exposing the Unseen: Mapping MCP Servers Across the Internet (Knostic)
  Knostic scanned the web and found 1,862 publicly exposed Model Context Protocol servers, all leaking unauthenticated tool inventories.
  https://www.knostic.ai/blog/mapping-mcp-servers-study
• Honey, AI Capex is Eating the Economy (Paul Kedrosky)
  Kedrosky argues that runaway AI‑datacenter spending could reach roughly 2 % of U.S. GDP—enough to nudge macro growth on its own.
  https://paulkedrosky.com/honey-ai-capex-ate-the-economy/
• Do US Hyperscalers’ Sovereign Clouds Reduce the Risk of US Government Access?
  Cloud‑law scholars doubt whether new “sovereign cloud” offerings from AWS, Microsoft, and Google can truly shield European data from U.S. surveillance.
  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-us-hyperscalers-sovereign-clouds-reduce-risk-access-dave-michels-ulmcf
• AWS API MCP Server (Developer Preview)
  AWS opens a preview of an MCP server that lets foundation‑model agents translate plain‑English requests into scoped AWS CLI calls, guarded by IAM.
  https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2025/07/aws-api-mcp-server-available
• Agent Leaderboard (Galileo)
  Galileo’s open leaderboard pits LLMs against enterprise‑style agent tasks; current numbers show GPT‑4.1 leading with a 62 % Action Completion score.
  https://github.com/rungalileo/agent-leaderboard
• Introducing Amazon S3 Vectors (Preview)
  AWS adds native vector‑embedding storage and sub‑second queries to S3, claiming up to 90 % cost savings for vector search workloads.
  https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-amazon-s3-vectors-first-cloud-storage-with-native-vector-support-at-scale/
• Rethinking CLI Interfaces for AI
  Developer Ryan calls for redesigning CLIs and APIs—richer docstrings, structured outputs, smarter wrappers—so LLM agents stop looping and thrashing.
  https://www.notcheckmark.com/2025/07/rethinking-cli-interfaces-for-ai/

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the episode please subscribe!

MCP-B – Browser Model Context Protocol | mcp-b.ai
MCP-B proposes a “USB-C for AI,” letting agents call site functions instead of clumsy click-automation. “MCP-B gives AI direct access to your website's functions instead,” promising smoother bot-to-web handshakes for everyone.
 https://mcp-b.ai/

OpenAI’s next big launch could be an AI web browser | The Verge
OpenAI is reportedly cooking up a Chromium‑based browser with a built‑in Operator agent that can book tables or fill forms for you. As Reuters learned, “OpenAI is planning to launch an AI web browser in the ‘coming weeks,’” teeing up a fresh duel with Chrome and Comet.
 https://www.theverge.com/news/704162/opeani-ai-web-browser-chatgpt

A language model built for the public good | ETH Zurich
Swiss researchers will release an entirely open, supercomputer‑trained LLM fluent in more than 1,000 languages later this summer. Project lead Imanol Schlag says, “Fully open models enable high‑trust applications and are necessary for advancing research about the risks and opportunities of AI.”
 https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/07/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good.html

OpenAI’s Windsurf deal is off — and Windsurf’s CEO is going to Google | The Verge
OpenAI’s $3 billion bid collapsed, freeing Google to poach Windsurf’s leaders while Cognition raced in days later to buy the remaining startup. “OpenAI’s deal to buy Windsurf is off, and Google will instead hire Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan,” The Verge reports, igniting a three‑way tug‑of‑war for agentic‑coding talent.
 https://www.theverge.com/openai/705999/google-windsurf-ceo-openai

Elon Musk’s xAI launches Grok 4 alongside a $300 monthly subscription | TechCrunch
Musk rolled out Grok 4 and a pricey “SuperGrok Heavy” tier, touting multi‑agent reasoning and the steepest AI sub yet. During the stream he bragged, “With respect to academic questions, Grok 4 is better than PhD level in every subject, no exceptions,” even as the Pentagon signed a $200 million Grok contract.
 https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/elon-musks-xai-launches-grok-4-alongside-a-300-monthly-subscription/

Introducing Kiro | Kiro Blog
Kiro debuts as a spec‑driven, agentic IDE that shepherds code from first prompt to deployment with auto‑generated tasks and hooks. “I’m excited to announce Kiro, an AI IDE that helps you deliver from concept to production through a simplified developer experience for working with AI agents,” the team writes.
 https://kiro.dev/blog/introducing-kiro/

The EU wants to decrypt your private data by 2030 | TechRadar
Brussels’ ProtectEU roadmap sketches data‑retention, interception and decryption plans that could force encrypted services open within five years. TechRadar warns, “EU law enforcement bodies could be capable of decrypting your private data by 2030,” stirring immediate privacy backlash.
 https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/the-eu-wants-to-decrypt-your-private-data-by-2030

Cloudflare Just Became an Enemy of All AI Companies | Analytics India Magazine
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default, demanding payment before models feast on publisher content. The company says it “would start blocking AI crawlers by default, drawing a line in the open web where content is no longer a free fuel for AI.”
 https://analyticsindiamag.com/ai-features/cloudflare-just-became-an-enemy-of-all-ai-companies/

Kimi K2 is a state‑of‑the‑art mixture‑of‑experts (MoE) language model | Hacker News
A lively thread praises Moonshot’s open Kimi K2 for beating Claude on coding, though it needs GPU‑class muscle to run. One user enthuses, “I tried Kimi on a few coding problems that Claude was spinning on. It’s good,” sparking a debate over speed, cost and local deployment.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44533403