Blog
The (career) loop tour: What array programming can teach us about harness engineering
An array programmer’s journey from avoiding loops to designing them.
Blog
Blog
The economics of intelligence: AI and the efficient frontier
The contemporary narrative around AI is dominated by exponential capabilities: the emergence of reasoning, the human-level performance on standardized tests, the spectacular hallucinations. This focus on performance has obscured a far more fundamental and immediate constraint: the economics of production. We have industrialized a new class of cognitive labor,
Blog
ASICS on the track and ASICs in the data center: Specialization and the pursuit of record performance
I was in Tokyo this week for the STAC Summit. By coincidence, the World Athletics Championships were happening at the same time. One evening I was at the Japan National Stadium watching sprinters and distance runners push human limits. The next morning I was at our Summit, where firms shared
Blog
Fast and curious: Tsinghua researchers beat Dijkstra’s legendary shortest path algorithm, opening the door to faster routing everywhere
This week, a team led by Dan Qiao from Tsinghua University achieved something that seemed impossible: they broke through a computational barrier that had stood for four decades. Their breakthrough was a new shortest path algorithm that runs faster than the legendary Dijkstra's algorithm—the gold standard that&
AI
The global AI race: Chips, capital, and kilowatts
The AI arms race is shaping up like a three-way tug-of-war — and it’s not yet clear who’s going to fall in the mud first. The US, the Middle East, and China each bring something essential to the table. But none of them hold all the
Blog
The great unbundling of data: Open formats and composable platforms
The data warehouse is no longer the centre of gravity. It’s just one node in a growing constellation. Modern data strategies aren’t about centralising everything in one place. They’re about composability—the ability to mix and match components, adapt to change, and build around the edges. At
Blog
Fairness in the fast lane: As trading speeds hit new highs, is it possible to keep the playing field level?
In financial markets, fairness is easy to believe in but hard to define — especially when you're dealing with electronic trading systems that operate faster than the blink of an eye. For most of history, fairness in trading meant access: If you could make it to the floor of
Blog
Decoding the data lakehouse: Why apache parquet and iceberg matter
The data lakehouse is no longer an experiment. It’s fast becoming the blueprint for enterprise data architecture. At the center of this shift are two open technologies: Apache Parquet and Apache Iceberg. Understanding their role today — and where they’re headed — is critical for sizing the opportunity. Parquet: The
AI
Opening the black box: Explaining explainability in AI
I've often found explainability in AI to be an elusive concept—essential, yet difficult to pin down. It underpins trust, adoption, and regulatory compliance, but how does it actually work? A recent paper, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI): From Inherent Explainability to Large Language Models by Fuseini Mumuni and
Quantum
Quantum quests: Marching towards quantum, qubit by qubit
The world of quantum computing is experiencing a surge of momentum, with recent announcements from tech giants Amazon and Microsoft adding fuel to the already rapid pace of innovation. These developments, alongside ongoing research breakthroughs, signal a potential transformation in how we approach computation. One of the most significant trends
Crypto
Reserves and stockpiles: US cultivating crypto confidence
President Trump's recent announcement of a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" has set the cryptocurrency world alight. This initiative outlines plans for the U.S. government to actively engage in the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies, aiming to establish the nation as a global leader in the digital
AI
LLMs get their dance on: Bytedance open-sources Kubernetes-based LLM inferencing platform
ByteDance's release of AIBrix appears to be a significant advancement in the practical application of Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly within enterprise environments. This Kubernetes-based serving stack, specifically designed to augment vLLM, leverages ByteDance's extensive experience deploying LLMs at scale. The project addresses the critical