AI models are now beginning to make progress in solving unsolved
problems. It is so good that strong engineers are now handing their
coding to AI
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TLDR 2026-01-27
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BIG TECH & STARTUPS
APPLE'S AIRTAG 2 IS EASIER TO FIND THANKS TO NEW CHIP (2 MINUTE READ)
[5]
Apple's new AirTag, simply dubbed 'the new AirTag', features a new
Bluetooth chip that offers substantial improvements. It can work with
the Precision Finding feature in the Find My app to find items up to
50% farther away. The speaker is also 50% louder. The new AirTag
doesn't introduce any major new features, only updates to the device's accuracy, volume, and range.
MICROSOFT INTRODUCES NEWEST IN-HOUSE AI CHIP (5 MINUTE READ) [6]
The Microsoft Azure Maia 200 is a new in-house AI server chip
designed for inferencing AI models with ludicrous speeds. It is the
most efficient inference system Microsoft has ever deployed. The chip
gives 30% more performance per dollar and 50% higher TDP than the
first-gen Maia 100. It can hit up to 10 petaflops of FP4 compute,
three times higher than Amazon's Trainium3.
🚀
SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY
BUILDING BRAINS ON A COMPUTER (40 MINUTE READ) [7]
Before we simulate human brains, we first need to demonstrate mastery
at the sub-million-neuron-brain level. Achieving this goal will depend primarily on more and better data, which is bottlenecked by funding
and the achievement of some key technological breakthroughs. It will
soon be feasible thanks to a couple of recent advances. We are nearly
capable of overcoming such bottlenecks at the scale of insect-sized
organisms.
SEEING LIKE A SEDAN (40 MINUTE READ) [8]
Tesla robotaxis navigate using an array of cameras, while Waymos uses
LIDAR technology along with a suite of complementary sensors. Tesla
challenged convention, but it has quietly reintroduced radar, and it
is possible it may bring in other modalities. The paths for the two
companies seem likely to converge in the future. This means that
instead of debating whether cameras or LIDAR is better, regulators
should be asking whether robotaxis in general are as safe as human
drivers.
💻
PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE
[DATADOG EBOOK] 6 STEPS TO DIAGRAM YOUR CLOUD ARCHITECTURE (SPONSOR)
[9]
If you can't see how traffic moves, you can't truly calculate cost or
detect latency issues — especially if you use dozens of services. In
this eBook, Datadog & AWS Solutions Architects provide 6 steps to
diagramming your cloud architecture [9] at the infra and traffic
levels. Download your copy [9]
A FEW RANDOM NOTES FROM CLAUDE CODING QUITE A BIT LAST FEW WEEKS (7
MINUTE READ) [10]
AI agent capabilities crossed a threshold at the end of last year.
This has caused a phase shift in software engineering. The
intelligence part is a bit ahead of integration, so there is a need
for new organizational workflows and processes. This year will be a
high-energy year as the industry digests the new capability.
37SIGNALS ISN'T SMARTER THAN YOU, BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT (3 MINUTE
READ) [11]
37signals' engineering strategy results in good code. The company
stays small, cuts scope ruthlessly, and hires well. Its strategy
creates a flywheel where developers maintain less code, allowing them
to apply more fixup/review cycles, creating a cleaner code base, which
helps to reduce headcount. Most companies can't adopt the strategy
because they think more features equals more money.
🎁
MISCELLANEOUS
THE ADOLESCENCE OF TECHNOLOGY (142 MINUTE READ) [12]
AI models are now beginning to make progress in solving unsolved
mathematical problems. It is so good that strong engineers are now
handing their coding to AI. Similar improvements are occurring across biological science, finance, physics, and a variety of agentic tasks.
If progress continues, it will only be a few years before AI is better
than humans at essentially everything. This could result in a serious civilizational challenge that will require decisive and careful
action.
THE BEHAVIORAL COST OF PERSONALIZED PRICING (7 MINUTE READ) [13]
Today's personalized pricing is different. The average person
probably doesn't even know that haggling is an option or the factors
that contribute to personalized pricing. In the future, people will
cultivate their digital representations so they can get the lowest
prices and best treatment. This access could even be sold to others
who aren't so careful.
⚡
QUICK LINKS
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If you are an IT leader interested in writing for us, please send your
resume or LinkedIn to
itcurator@tldr.tech!
CLOSING THE SOFTWARE LOOP (5 MINUTE READ) [14]
The Holy Grail of software development is full self-improvement, and
the key to building this is a system that can autonomously generate
bug reports and understand features that users will want.
PERFORMANCE HINTS (58 MINUTE READ) [15]
This post is a review of a blog post written by Jeff Dean and Sanjay
Ghemawat, the power duo who arguably made Google what it is today.
SPACEX STARSHIP V3 GETS LAUNCH DATE UPDATE FROM ELON MUSK (1 MINUTE
READ) [16]
Starship Flight 12 will launch in six weeks.
SAAS, WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD (15 MINUTE READ) [17]
Replacing SaaS with AI would cost more and deliver a lower-quality
product in almost all scenarios, so it makes no sense from an economic
or product perspective.
TSMC RISK (16 MINUTE READ) [18]
The only way to actually meet demand in 2028 and beyond is to have
competition in the foundry space.
LIFE ON CLAUDE NINE (26 MINUTE READ) [19]
Claude makes problems that used to take hours take minutes,
automating every tedious task away.
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