The newsletter is back with a new format. Again!
Perhaps the only reason for my infrequent newsletter issues is the effort it takes to publish one. I have good experience with my blog writing setup, but the newsletter works on an entirely different stack.
So, I built an elaborate pipeline to write newsletters using my current setup (as someone would). Now I can write a new issue in my code editor, commit the file to the GitHub repo, and programming magic will deliver it to your spam folder (add my email to your contacts).
I will write more about this setup as I work out some kinks (I will overengineer this to an end).
What’s Happening?
Did I coin a new term?
Artificial Indialligence
The Indian government uncharacteristically remained calm during the superintelligent AI fear cycle while most others were scrambling to pass new legislation.
I remember being very happy with the government’s decision to “do nothing.” But all of that is going down the drain with their new “advisory” to require government approval for deploying any “under-trial” or “unreliable” platforms on the Indian public internet.
While this is an advisory, the IT minister assured that legislation would follow suit.
Government intervention to such an extent through gatekeeping policies has the potential to unintentionally hinder AI development in the country. India has a once-in-a-century opportunity to lead this emerging trend, and the best thing for the government might be to sit on the sidelines.
There are enough laws in place to deter these perceived safety issues, and knee-jerk reactions aren’t a way to add to those.
Musk-Sama Feud
I never imagined I would be sucked into so much drama while working in tech. Long story short, Elon sued OpenAI for not being open enough.
But the thing is, Elon already knew OpenAI’s plans, as these now published email conversations between Ilya Sutskever (co-founder of OpenAI) and Elon reveal.
Leaving the lawsuit aside, I find it interesting that OpenAI thinks it is necessary to keep these AI models closed source for the better good. This was also reflected in Sama's testification before the Congress.
Hasn’t history proven the benefits of open source? Isn’t that the way to go?
Open Source Oligarchies?
I haven’t paid much attention to the governance of open source foundations, even though I have worked extensively on their projects. But this tweet from Jim Jagielski begs for a deep introspection for foundations.
Who else is of the opinion that most boards of #opensource foundations are really just oligarchies nowadays, when it is the same people always elected in, usually holding multiple roles in multiple orgs? Really? Is the current open source leadership really that insular?
— Jim Jagielski (@jimjag) March 7, 2024
If this is indeed true, it will result in increasingly unsustainable, narrow-minded foundations, which would hinder the goal of open source collaboration.
Curated Links
This is where I bring you the best of the best from last week to the beginning of time.
Here’s what I sampled this time:
- The open source gift exchange: DHH talks about how open source doesn’t need to be driven by pure altruism.
- Financial sustainability for open source projects: Simon Willison’s presentation on how open source projects can sustainably make money.
- The Shirky Principle: The principle suggests that institutions tend to preserve the problems they are meant to solve.
- Do literally anything: When you feel overwhelmed by too many tasks or a general lack of direction, the best solution is to simply do anything.
- I'm Sorry I Bit You During My Job Interview: A humorous apology letter. I will leave you with it.
I must click more YouTube links.
Hot off the Press
I have been wanting to write about standards ever since I started working on the Kubernetes Gateway API.
In this article, I explain everything I learned about standards through the lens of the Gateway API in an attempt to understand how we can build better standards.
Read here: “How Standards Consolidate”
This week, I will be working on a new article on Nginx.