Arthur Clune
@clune.org
Geek. Likes bikes, climbing and tech
Work: IT at University of Sheffield
Work: IT at University of Sheffield
I am very taken with this argument, but I'm not sure anyone is ready for it - teach without LLMs and push heavily for LLMs in practical work but let the companies do most of the heavy lifting
The obvious counter is that it's stepping away, but unis will still have to embrace AI for research
The obvious counter is that it's stepping away, but unis will still have to embrace AI for research
University education as we know it is over
Take-home assignments are dead, "one prompt away" is one prompt too far, and what we should do next
inexactscience.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:08 PM
I am very taken with this argument, but I'm not sure anyone is ready for it - teach without LLMs and push heavily for LLMs in practical work but let the companies do most of the heavy lifting
The obvious counter is that it's stepping away, but unis will still have to embrace AI for research
The obvious counter is that it's stepping away, but unis will still have to embrace AI for research
Age yourself with gaming
November 12, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Age yourself with gaming
I now understand where Elon gets it from. The whole thread is great
Erroll believed he was so good at Roulette that he had created an "almost total solution to what is called randomness" that relied on the understanding that "there are no 'random events' or chance.' All events follow the Fibonacci Sequence like the Mandelbrot Set."
November 11, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I now understand where Elon gets it from. The whole thread is great
Two new posts about MCP and context engineering that seem very linked
1) Anthropic suggesting "Code Execution with MCP" but don't give examples www.anthropic.com/engineering/... but then I also came across
2) replacing playwright with js scripts mariozechner.at/posts/2025-1...
1/
1) Anthropic suggesting "Code Execution with MCP" but don't give examples www.anthropic.com/engineering/... but then I also came across
2) replacing playwright with js scripts mariozechner.at/posts/2025-1...
1/
What if you don't need MCP at all?
Got Bash and some code interpreter? Skip MCP.
mariozechner.at
November 6, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Two new posts about MCP and context engineering that seem very linked
1) Anthropic suggesting "Code Execution with MCP" but don't give examples www.anthropic.com/engineering/... but then I also came across
2) replacing playwright with js scripts mariozechner.at/posts/2025-1...
1/
1) Anthropic suggesting "Code Execution with MCP" but don't give examples www.anthropic.com/engineering/... but then I also came across
2) replacing playwright with js scripts mariozechner.at/posts/2025-1...
1/
Reposted by Arthur Clune
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Arthur Clune
Will be discussing ChatGPT with students this week - decided to populate my sidebar with a couple of silly queries for them to spot when I share the window. Have to say it knocked this one out the park - particularly point 2.
October 29, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Will be discussing ChatGPT with students this week - decided to populate my sidebar with a couple of silly queries for them to spot when I share the window. Have to say it knocked this one out the park - particularly point 2.
This is even worse than the headline makes it seem
Pretty extraordinary story here
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show - BBC News
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:04 AM
This is even worse than the headline makes it seem
Reposted by Arthur Clune
ladies and gentlemen...we got him
October 30, 2025 at 7:10 PM
ladies and gentlemen...we got him
Reposted by Arthur Clune
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
I did actually take a moment to check this rather than getting the joke. Which says a lot about something - either about me or the world!
Meta stock drops 10% after Q3 earnings call due to a $15.9B expense for hiring 4 AI researchers
October 30, 2025 at 8:39 AM
I did actually take a moment to check this rather than getting the joke. Which says a lot about something - either about me or the world!
Today's reminder that the internet has some very, very weird people on it and they will do bad things with your app
OpenAI might have a 'creeper problem' on its hands with Sora
Sora lets you make videos using other people's faces. Great! Except when your face is used in a "fetish" video, like one about feet or pregnancy.
www.businessinsider.com
October 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Today's reminder that the internet has some very, very weird people on it and they will do bad things with your app
October 14, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I wrote up my notes on creating Claude Code plugins
This is a very powerful system indeed. Still got some rough edges around installation/removal
This is a very powerful system indeed. Still got some rough edges around installation/removal
Creating Claude Code Plugins
On Friday Simon Willison published a look at Jesse Vincent’s1 Superpowers plugin for Claude
You can read Simon’s and Jesse’s posts to see what this super cool plugin does, but I wanted to understand h...
clune.org
October 12, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I wrote up my notes on creating Claude Code plugins
This is a very powerful system indeed. Still got some rough edges around installation/removal
This is a very powerful system indeed. Still got some rough edges around installation/removal
Reposted by Arthur Clune
Reposting this, because I found this short article an encouraging model of how one academic discipline is proactively engaging AI and reshaping it for disciplinary needs.
Mathematical discovery in the age of artificial intelligence
They consider how artificial intelligence tools are reshaping the way mathematical research is conducted and discuss how future developments of this technology will transform mathematical practice.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
They consider how artificial intelligence tools are reshaping the way mathematical research is conducted and discuss how future developments of this technology will transform mathematical practice.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mathematical discovery in the age of artificial intelligence - Nature Physics
In this comment, we consider how artificial intelligence tools are reshaping the way mathematical research is conducted and discuss how future developments of this technology will transform mathematical practice.
www.nature.com
October 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposting this, because I found this short article an encouraging model of how one academic discipline is proactively engaging AI and reshaping it for disciplinary needs.
Interview with the CEO of Google Cloud on AI and agents. He gives yet another definition of agents but also takes about “Office”, “O365” and “Outlook” while not mentioning Google Workspace once. Workspace is part of his empire.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on Gemini Enterprise, AI's Labor Implications, Investment Frenzy
What's going wrong in the AI enterprise rollout, and what fundamentals are needed to make it work, according to the Google Cloud chief.
www.bigtechnology.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Interview with the CEO of Google Cloud on AI and agents. He gives yet another definition of agents but also takes about “Office”, “O365” and “Outlook” while not mentioning Google Workspace once. Workspace is part of his empire.
I have two free hours on a train, so I'm using it to learn about SAP ABAP via Claude. I must have been bad in a previous life but I'm quite enjoying the crazy mix of COBOL, SQL and Pascal syntax and random German v English words
October 8, 2025 at 8:53 AM
I have two free hours on a train, so I'm using it to learn about SAP ABAP via Claude. I must have been bad in a previous life but I'm quite enjoying the crazy mix of COBOL, SQL and Pascal syntax and random German v English words
The tl;dr of this article is that Peter Theil is fucking weird. But also we should take it seriously - he has an driving philosophy and is in a position to make it happen
The antichrist is the rationale for creating the ultimate surveillance state, rooted in elite superiority
The antichrist is the rationale for creating the ultimate surveillance state, rooted in elite superiority
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession
Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.
www.wired.com
October 2, 2025 at 7:40 AM
The tl;dr of this article is that Peter Theil is fucking weird. But also we should take it seriously - he has an driving philosophy and is in a position to make it happen
The antichrist is the rationale for creating the ultimate surveillance state, rooted in elite superiority
The antichrist is the rationale for creating the ultimate surveillance state, rooted in elite superiority
"Make Argentina Gold Again" - this post only sets out co-incidence (by it's own admission) and I'm not totally sold, but it is quite the set of links between Trumpworld, Tether and Milei
Even if this is 2+2=5, it's a good reminder that Tether is both sketchy af and deeply linked to Trumpworld
Even if this is 2+2=5, it's a good reminder that Tether is both sketchy af and deeply linked to Trumpworld
Make Argentina Gold Again
Is the American taxpayer bailout of Argentina just a secret bailout of the crypto industry?
cryptadamus.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"Make Argentina Gold Again" - this post only sets out co-incidence (by it's own admission) and I'm not totally sold, but it is quite the set of links between Trumpworld, Tether and Milei
Even if this is 2+2=5, it's a good reminder that Tether is both sketchy af and deeply linked to Trumpworld
Even if this is 2+2=5, it's a good reminder that Tether is both sketchy af and deeply linked to Trumpworld
Reposted by Arthur Clune
Okay so let's talk through this:
1. He's 80 years old. He doesn't know how to embed a video. So this was likely a staffer.
2. Why would a staffer post this? It's likely just chum for his base, since traditional media has given up on even covering him.
3. That's arguably worse than him posting it.
1. He's 80 years old. He doesn't know how to embed a video. So this was likely a staffer.
2. Why would a staffer post this? It's likely just chum for his base, since traditional media has given up on even covering him.
3. That's arguably worse than him posting it.
September 28, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Okay so let's talk through this:
1. He's 80 years old. He doesn't know how to embed a video. So this was likely a staffer.
2. Why would a staffer post this? It's likely just chum for his base, since traditional media has given up on even covering him.
3. That's arguably worse than him posting it.
1. He's 80 years old. He doesn't know how to embed a video. So this was likely a staffer.
2. Why would a staffer post this? It's likely just chum for his base, since traditional media has given up on even covering him.
3. That's arguably worse than him posting it.
The logic is irresistible - med beds must exist because otherwise q breaks down. Lit crit as the new essential life skill and AI generated slop for ever
Trump tonight appears to have pushed the false "medbed" conspiracy theory, which has spread in the far-right internet over the years. www.yahoo.com/news/qanon-c...
September 28, 2025 at 6:54 AM
The logic is irresistible - med beds must exist because otherwise q breaks down. Lit crit as the new essential life skill and AI generated slop for ever
Reposted by Arthur Clune
How not to illustrate the similarity of bone structures between humans & horses.
September 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM
How not to illustrate the similarity of bone structures between humans & horses.
Reposted by Arthur Clune
I'm at an ERP event for a big German ERP provider and their UK partners. ERP is not exciting, but the keynote went big on "hyper", "lightspeed", "10x automation" and that we should "calculate our hyperdrive jump". The presenter was wearing an astronaut suite. Argh!
September 23, 2025 at 11:31 AM
I'm at an ERP event for a big German ERP provider and their UK partners. ERP is not exciting, but the keynote went big on "hyper", "lightspeed", "10x automation" and that we should "calculate our hyperdrive jump". The presenter was wearing an astronaut suite. Argh!
Some really, really good news on solar.
Solar and batteries are getting very cheap indeed, and can be built at massive scale.
Solar and batteries are getting very cheap indeed, and can be built at massive scale.
Chartbook 409 Beyond the "Marshall Plan": China's solar boom as world-changing industrial policy.
In the first six months of 2025 China installed more than 250GW of solar power capacity.
adamtooze.substack.com
September 19, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Some really, really good news on solar.
Solar and batteries are getting very cheap indeed, and can be built at massive scale.
Solar and batteries are getting very cheap indeed, and can be built at massive scale.