Notes
Short pieces about the methodology and architecture decisions behind the AI systems I ship — specs, evals, multi-agent orchestration, LLM integration, and the discipline of directing coding agents.
June 12, 2026
The AI deciding what you pay
There's a quiet thing AI made possible that most people don't know is happening: the price you see may have been set just for you, from your own data — your location, your browsing, whether an algorithm thinks you're a stressed new parent who'll pay more. It's called surveillance pricing, and it's different from normal dynamic pricing. Regulators are now moving hard against it — New York makes you disclose it, Maryland banned parts of it, two dozen states have bills. Here's what it is, why it matters to you, and the line every builder should think about.
- business
- security
June 11, 2026
“AI is tearing my company apart”
A survey of 1,200 executives found that 54% say adopting AI is tearing their company apart — power struggles, IT-versus-everyone tension, a chaotic free-for-all. We keep framing AI as a technology decision: which model, which tools. But the people running these companies are telling you the real fight is organizational, not technical. AI doesn't just add a capability; it redraws who has power, hits before anyone wrote the rules, and changes roles faster than HR can keep up. That's a change-management problem wearing a technology costume.
- business
- careers
June 11, 2026
Shadow AI is your real breach
When companies picture an AI security incident, they imagine a rogue model or a compromised agent. The leak actually happening at most companies is far more boring: their own employees pasting confidential data into AI tools nobody approved. 71% of workers have used unapproved AI at work, 57% actively hide it, and one in five organizations has already had a breach tied to it — at about $670,000 a pop. The fix isn't a ban. Bans are why it's hidden in the first place.
- security
- business
June 11, 2026
You can't tell what's real anymore
A new survey found that 85% of people say they can no longer tell real content from AI-generated content — up from 66% a year ago. 84% say 'convincing video evidence' no longer feels like proof. The default assumption the entire internet ran on — what I see is real — just broke for nearly everyone. That's not only a scam problem. It quietly changes what every product has to do: when authenticity can't be assumed, trust stops being free and becomes something you have to build.
- security
- business
June 10, 2026
“Managed agents” are convenient until you can’t leave
Google, Anthropic, and others are pushing the easiest pitch in AI: one API call and we'll run your whole agent — the sandbox, the tools, the memory, the state — on our infrastructure. It's genuinely convenient, and for a prototype it's great. But notice what you just handed over. A managed model API rents you the brain, which stays swappable. A managed agent rents you the entire nervous system of your product, and that's a much deeper hook. Convenience and lock-in are the same purchase here — and the bill comes later.
- business
- architecture
June 9, 2026
Disrupted or dead — did you sell the thing AI now gives away?
More than 220 startups that once hit billion-dollar valuations are now worth less than half their peak, and a former DoorDash leader put it bluntly: workflow SaaS will be 'disrupted or dead' within a decade. At the same time, ~80% of the new 'AI wrapper' startups are expected to fail. Two opposite kinds of company are dying for the exact same reason — they sold the thing AI now provides. The survival test is one honest question, and it's worth asking about whatever you're building.
- business
- careers