Year in Review (2025)
There are still another two weeks in 2025, but I’m ready to reflect already on how it went. Let’s dive in!
The Secret Prompts in GitHub Copilot CLI
GitHub Copilot is one of the original AI-assisted coding tools, introduced way back in February 2023, to add code completion to Visual Studio Code as well as chat, agent mode, and access to GitHub tools. But until last week, it didn’t have a standalone CLI, similar to Claude Code, Codex CLI from OpenAI, Gemini CLI, and others.
Resurrecting the Original Django Book
The original Django Book, first published online in 2006 at DjangoBook.com, is now available again at that same domain.
I Miss Tabs vs Spaces... And Other AI Musings
The other day, my Django Chat co-host Carlton Gibson and I were having yet another discussion about AI: how people are using it, whether it’s going to replace us all, and the ethical and economic implications of it. And he remarked in passing, “I miss tabs versus spaces.”
Empire of AI by Karen Hao - Book Review
I’ve spent this year reading as much as I can on AI and LLMs in particular, which means several books on the topic, innumerable online essays, posts, videos, and so on. This book is the single best resource I’ve found if you want to understand how LLMs like ChatGPT work and, more ominously, what the culture and people behind them are like.
ChatGPT Dark Arts: Make An Image with the Word 'Vote' In It
I recently wanted to generate an image on ChatGPT with a robot holding a sign that said “vote.” Seems innocent enough, right?
The Future of AI is Small (Language Models)
Lost amidst the rush of media excitement and corporate investment in Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Anthropic that consume billions of dollars in training and inference costs, is the question of whether this is the right approach in the first place. The Economist magazine had a recent post exploring this issue.
Prominent AI Researcher Leaving the U.S. for China
The Guardian recently published a very lengthy and excellent article on Why One of the World’s Most Brilliant AI Scientists Left the U.S. for China. It’s the best AI-related article I’ve read all year.
uv Livestream with Michael Kennedy
If you use Python you should know about uv, an extremely fast package manager written in Rust that truly seems to be the one tool to rule them all. Now I’ll be the first to admit that Python tooling is not, on the face of it, the most interesting topic. But it’s clear the Python ecosystem has had challenges for a while now around:
DjangoCon US 2025 Recap
DjangoCon US just wrapped up in Chicago last week, three days full of talks followed by two days of sprints on Django itself. Over 300 members of the Django community and sponsors attended at the Voco Hotel downtown.
Django for AI: My DjangoCon US 2025 Conference Talk
I recently presented my talk at DjangoCon US: Django for AI: Django for AI: Deploying Machine Learning Models with Django. Here is a text-based version of the talk.
An Insider's Guide to DjangoCon US 2025
DjangoCon US is happening next week in Chicago! This is my eighth DjangoCon event–six in the U.S. and two in Europe–so here are some tips for making the most out your own experience if you are able to attend.
Talk Python: Celebrating Django's 20th Birthday With Its Creators
I was recently a guest on the Talk Python podcast to celebrate Django’s 20th Birthday. Panelists included Simon Willison, Adrian Holovaty, Jeff Triplet, and Thibaud Colas. Simon and Adrian are two of the initial creators, Thibaud is the current President of the Django Software Foundation, and Jeff has been deeply involved in the Python and Django communities for many years.
The Thinking Machine - Book Review
AI is hard to miss these days. A ranking of the most valuable public companies in the world right now shows that nine of the eleven are directly involved in AI technologies, while the other two are state-controlled oil companies (Saudi Aramco and PetroChina, respectively). At the top of the list, having quadrupled in value in the past two years alone from a $1T to $4T as of July 2025, sits Nvidia.
How to Succeed as a Human in an AI World
Ignore the clickbait title for this video–The Only Trait for Success in the AI Era—How to Build It–Professor Po-Shen Loh from Carnegie Mellon University drops some real wisdom here for navigating AI.