Alex Nichol
@unixpickle.bsky.social
Code, AI, and 3D printing. Opinions are my own, not my computer's...for now. Co-creator of DALL-E 2. Researcher @openai.
Today I've been trying out a new concept for a programming language. Everything is an object; there's no separate notion of "functions". All fields of an object are lazy, and you can patch fields arbitrarily. A "function call" is just overriding "argument" fields.
November 11, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Today I've been trying out a new concept for a programming language. Everything is an object; there's no separate notion of "functions". All fields of an object are lazy, and you can patch fields arbitrarily. A "function call" is just overriding "argument" fields.
I recently claimed in a conversation that Apple doesn't have a leg up in the AI race because no consumer cares about running models locally.
Maybe what I said will turn out to be as wrong as the 1970s sentiment that no normal person would want their own computer.
Maybe what I said will turn out to be as wrong as the 1970s sentiment that no normal person would want their own computer.
November 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I recently claimed in a conversation that Apple doesn't have a leg up in the AI race because no consumer cares about running models locally.
Maybe what I said will turn out to be as wrong as the 1970s sentiment that no normal person would want their own computer.
Maybe what I said will turn out to be as wrong as the 1970s sentiment that no normal person would want their own computer.
I asked ChatGPT who the most famous person in the world is. It guessed Cristiano Ronaldo. Never heard of him. I feel very American right now.
October 17, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I asked ChatGPT who the most famous person in the world is. It guessed Cristiano Ronaldo. Never heard of him. I feel very American right now.
Alexa+ is nice, but it did hallucinate almost immediately.
October 8, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Alexa+ is nice, but it did hallucinate almost immediately.
Did I beat the game? I got it to admit it was wrong.
September 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Did I beat the game? I got it to admit it was wrong.
Made an agent that generates 3D models by writing Go code (which uses my model3d package as a foundation).
September 27, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Made an agent that generates 3D models by writing Go code (which uses my model3d package as a foundation).
Before hiring a contractor, ask them how they keep track of how much you owe them and how much you've paid so far. The answer should be clear and simple (e.g. "I use a spreadsheet"). It should NOT be "I have a bunch of different versions of a doc in iCloud".
September 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Before hiring a contractor, ask them how they keep track of how much you owe them and how much you've paid so far. The answer should be clear and simple (e.g. "I use a spreadsheet"). It should NOT be "I have a bunch of different versions of a doc in iCloud".
If the whole "put a fake bug in the urinal" thing works, why aren't there fake bugs in every urinal now that it's years later? Seems to me like nudge theory is either BS or impractical for various reasons?
September 23, 2025 at 12:37 AM
If the whole "put a fake bug in the urinal" thing works, why aren't there fake bugs in every urinal now that it's years later? Seems to me like nudge theory is either BS or impractical for various reasons?
I'm starting to believe that ExitStack() is a code smell.
September 22, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I'm starting to believe that ExitStack() is a code smell.
I made an agent that unsubscribes you from spam. It controls a web browser to navigate an unsubscribe page. The agent runs JavaScript to perform actions on the page, and gets to see a screenshot after each action it takes.
Blog post: blog.aqnichol.com/2025/09/20/u...
Blog post: blog.aqnichol.com/2025/09/20/u...
September 20, 2025 at 11:14 PM
I made an agent that unsubscribes you from spam. It controls a web browser to navigate an unsubscribe page. The agent runs JavaScript to perform actions on the page, and gets to see a screenshot after each action it takes.
Blog post: blog.aqnichol.com/2025/09/20/u...
Blog post: blog.aqnichol.com/2025/09/20/u...
Don't use floats for money.
September 16, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Don't use floats for money.
Damn birds are striking again?
September 11, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Damn birds are striking again?
There was a ~month where, instead of opening this app, I was learning graph theory. My mind felt so much more at peace. What should I learn next?
September 11, 2025 at 4:38 AM
There was a ~month where, instead of opening this app, I was learning graph theory. My mind felt so much more at peace. What should I learn next?
I don't understand laws around music.
👎 copy a few words from someone else's song.
👍 re-record your entire album word-for-word so the old version that you sold to a company for millions of dollars becomes worthless to them.
👎 copy a few words from someone else's song.
👍 re-record your entire album word-for-word so the old version that you sold to a company for millions of dollars becomes worthless to them.
September 9, 2025 at 5:03 AM
I don't understand laws around music.
👎 copy a few words from someone else's song.
👍 re-record your entire album word-for-word so the old version that you sold to a company for millions of dollars becomes worthless to them.
👎 copy a few words from someone else's song.
👍 re-record your entire album word-for-word so the old version that you sold to a company for millions of dollars becomes worthless to them.
Why don't we have a programming language for deep learning where dtypes and shapes are part of the type system?
September 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Why don't we have a programming language for deep learning where dtypes and shapes are part of the type system?
The "baseball Karen" has a narrow opportunity to start a podcast and scam millions of people with a memecoin.
September 7, 2025 at 4:01 PM
The "baseball Karen" has a narrow opportunity to start a podcast and scam millions of people with a memecoin.
completely messed up that I can try to type `10.9.0.4` and instead type `10.9.04` and it still works.
September 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
completely messed up that I can try to type `10.9.0.4` and instead type `10.9.04` and it still works.
Pure evil: "you just checked out, you have exactly two minutes to get 20% off something else"
September 6, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Pure evil: "you just checked out, you have exactly two minutes to get 20% off something else"
Had a dream the other day that I met someone who went insane after being unable to pin down a memory corruption issue in a Flash game 10 years ago.
I tried to help them by digging up the old code, and the first step was even figuring out how to run Flash games anymore.
I tried to help them by digging up the old code, and the first step was even figuring out how to run Flash games anymore.
September 5, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Had a dream the other day that I met someone who went insane after being unable to pin down a memory corruption issue in a Flash game 10 years ago.
I tried to help them by digging up the old code, and the first step was even figuring out how to run Flash games anymore.
I tried to help them by digging up the old code, and the first step was even figuring out how to run Flash games anymore.
The other day I noticed that a service I wrote (and self-host) has a memory leak and has been getting OOM killed once every ~15 days for the last six months.
I only noticed because my server was slower than usual, and I found that almost all memory and swap was full.
I only noticed because my server was slower than usual, and I found that almost all memory and swap was full.
September 1, 2025 at 10:42 PM
The other day I noticed that a service I wrote (and self-host) has a memory leak and has been getting OOM killed once every ~15 days for the last six months.
I only noticed because my server was slower than usual, and I found that almost all memory and swap was full.
I only noticed because my server was slower than usual, and I found that almost all memory and swap was full.
Apparently I am anonymous.
September 1, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Apparently I am anonymous.
Tbh, I don't even know how to get to a chat UI where I can interact with Gemini. Never looked into it and was never presented with it. Google completely failed with this.
August 28, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Tbh, I don't even know how to get to a chat UI where I can interact with Gemini. Never looked into it and was never presented with it. Google completely failed with this.
Neural networks with multiple features dimensions aren't safe. What happens when one feature disagrees with the other 511 of them? Which feature wins? That's why we only use one-dimensional neural networks here at ...
August 26, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Neural networks with multiple features dimensions aren't safe. What happens when one feature disagrees with the other 511 of them? Which feature wins? That's why we only use one-dimensional neural networks here at ...
In elementary school, we were given a list of electives to sign up for. I was the only person to choose "Solitaire". The teacher asked if I still wanted to do it, and I remember saying something like "isn't it *supposed* to be a solitary game?"
August 26, 2025 at 5:01 AM
In elementary school, we were given a list of electives to sign up for. I was the only person to choose "Solitaire". The teacher asked if I still wanted to do it, and I remember saying something like "isn't it *supposed* to be a solitary game?"