Author: safety

  • A gentle introduction to embeddings at the inaugural GenAI Network Melbourne meetup

    A gentle introduction to embeddings at the inaugural GenAI Network Melbourne meetup

    I was thrilled to help kick-off the GenAI Network Melbourne meetup at their first meeting recently. I presented a talk titled Semantic hide and seek – a gentle introduction to embeddings, based on my experiments with Semantle, other representation learning, and some discussion of what it means to use Generative AI in developing new products…

  • LLM WTF

    LLM WTF

    What Token Follows (WTF) when generating text with a Large Language Model (LLM)? This notebook (you can run in Colab) and companion slide deck is my perfunctory (don’t say tokenistic) attempt to demystify GenAI for a general technology audience, specifically: how text is generated by LLMs. The premise of the notebook is to demonstrate and…

  • Maths Whimsy with Python

    Maths Whimsy with Python

    At PyCon AU 2023 in Adelaide I delivered a talk titled Maths Whimsy with Python. It was a great chance to review a range of projects small and large I’ve already shared here. Check out the slides and video. In three years of the maths whimsy repo, I’ve covered a lot of ground, and got…

  • Perspectives edition #27

    Perspectives edition #27

    I was thrilled to contribute to Thoughtworks Perspectives edition #27: Power squared: How human capabilities will supercharge AI’s business impact. There are a lot of great quotes from my colleagues Barton Friedland and Ossi Syd in the article, and here’s one from me: The ability to build or consume solutions isn’t necessarily going to be…

  • Electrifying the world with AI Augmented decision-making

    Electrifying the world with AI Augmented decision-making

    I wrote an article about optimising the design of EV charging networks. It’s a story of work done by a team at Thoughtworks, demonstrating the potential of AI augmented decision-making (including some cool optimisation techniques), in this rapidly evolving but durably important space. We were able to thread together these many [business problem, AI techniques,…

  • A coding saga with Bard

    A coding saga with Bard

    Though but a footnote in the epic of coding with AI, I though it worth musing on my recent experience with Bard. Bard currently uses the LaMDA model, which is capable of generating code, but not optimised for it. The story might be different with Codey as protagonist (or is that antagonist?) I didn’t produce…

  • Humour me – DRY vs WRY

    Humour me – DRY vs WRY

    Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) is a tenet of software engineering, but – humour me – let’s consider some reasons Why to Repeat Yourself (WRY). LEGO reuse lessons In 2021, I wrote a series of posts analysing LEGO® data about parts appearing in sets to understand what it might tell us about reuse of software components…

  • Smarter Semantle Solvers

    Smarter Semantle Solvers

    A little smarter, anyway. I didn’t expect to pick this up again, but when I occasionally run the first generation solvers online, I’m often equal parts amused and frustrated by rare words thrown up that delay the solution – from amethystine to zigging. The solvers used the first idea that worked; can we make some…

  • I did it my way – hand-rolled navigation with open spatial data

    I did it my way – hand-rolled navigation with open spatial data

    Sure commercial maps app directions are great, but have you ever found the customisation options limited? What if you want to use bike paths and back streets when cycling, or avoid winding roads that might make backseat passengers car-sick on a road trip? The paved route OpenStreetMap and OpenRouteService do provide this type of functionality,…

  • End-to-end simulation hello world!

    End-to-end simulation hello world!

    I’ve talked to many people about how to maximise the utility of a simulator for business decision-making, rather than focussing on the fidelity of reproducing real phenomena. This generally means delivering a custom simulator project lean, in thin, vertical, end-to-end slices. This approach maximises putting learning into action and minimises risk carried forward. For practitioners,…