Things we're thinking about, written down.
Working notes, opinions, and the occasional long read. Posted when there's something to say, usually once a week.
Does your AI phone home? Our AI telemetry investigations
Jul 11, 2026AI for beginners: a new hands-on course from StrideNote
Jul 11, 2026AI privacy and data control: where StrideNote stands
Jul 11, 2026Google releases DiffusionGemma, an open model that generates text up to 4x faster
Jun 15, 2026Google DeepMind and partners open a $10M funding call for multi-agent AI safety
Jun 14, 2026Anthropic launches Claude Corps, a $150M fellowship placing 1,000 people in nonprofits
Jun 14, 2026
№ 017 · Press releaseDoes your AI phone home? Our AI telemetry investigations
Does your AI phone home? Our AI telemetry investigations show where popular tools send your data, and the method we…
№ 015 · Press releaseAI for beginners: a new hands-on course from StrideNote
AI for beginners, done the StrideNote way: a new hands-on course on StrideNote Education that teaches the basics with no…
№ 016 · Press releaseAI privacy and data control: where StrideNote stands
AI privacy and data control start with proof, not promises. Here is where StrideNote stands: verify what a tool sends,…
№ 014 · NewsGoogle releases DiffusionGemma, an open model that generates text up to 4x faster
Google's experimental open model swaps word-by-word generation for parallel diffusion, reaching 1,000-plus tokens a second on a single GPU.
№ 013 · NewsGoogle DeepMind and partners open a $10M funding call for multi-agent AI safety
DeepMind, Schmidt Sciences, the Cooperative AI Foundation, ARIA and Google.org are funding research into how large groups of AI agents…
№ 012 · NewsAnthropic launches Claude Corps, a $150M fellowship placing 1,000 people in nonprofits
Anthropic is committing $150 million to a national fellowship that will train 1,000 fellows and embed them full-time in nonprofits…
№ 011 · NewsUS export-control order forces Anthropic to pull Fable 5 and Mythos 5
A national-security directive has taken two of Anthropic's models offline for all users. The company is complying while contesting the…
№ 010 · OpinionAI subscription costs: how per-seat pricing eats your margin
For a person, an AI subscription cost is an annoyance. For a business it is structural, growing with every hire,…
№ 009 · OpinionThree checks before adopting any AI tool
New AI tools arrive every week and most are not worth your time. The three checks we run when evaluating…
№ 008 · OpinionLocal AI privacy: how to prove your data never leaves
Most privacy is a promise you have to trust. Local AI privacy is different: here is how to prove, with…
№ 007 · OpinionOpen weights vs open source: what the license actually lets you do
A model you can download is not a model you are free to use. Open weights vs open source: two…
№ 006 · OpinionWhy we run our LLMs locally instead of calling an API
Why run an LLM locally instead of behind an API? Nothing leaves the building, the cost is fixed, and the…
№ 005 · OpinionOwn your AI stack instead of renting it
Own vs rent: forget the AI bill for a moment. Renting your stack also rents your uptime, your data access,…
№ 004 · OpinionRun Local AI Without a GPU: Start on Your Laptop
Run local AI without a GPU: the hardware wall is mostly imaginary. A normal laptop runs useful models today, and…
№ 003 · OpinionInvisible AI: the most useful AI is the kind you don’t notice
The AI worth having is rarely the one you open a tab to talk to. It is the quiet kind:…
№ 002 · OpinionLocal AI is good enough now: what we run daily
The question is no longer whether it runs. Local AI as a daily driver is good enough for most work,…
№ 001 · OpinionStop paying monthly for AI: run it locally instead
Count your AI subscriptions, then count what the same work costs on hardware you own. Stop paying for AI monthly:…
One note from the studio, every other Friday.
What we shipped, what we killed, and the one thing we read this week. Unsubscribe anytime.