2026-04-17

Python, Datasette, Pycon, Artificial Intelligence

Simon Willison — 2026-04-17#

Highlight#

The most exciting news today is the addition of a dedicated AI track at PyCon US 2026, signaling the deep integration of AI engineering into the core Python community. With talks covering everything from local LLM quantization to async patterns for AI agents, it’s a clear indicator of where the Python ecosystem is heading this year.

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[Join us at PyCon US 2026 in Long Beach - we have new AI and security tracks this year] · Source PyCon US heads to Long Beach this May, and Simon highlights the addition of dedicated AI and Security tracks to the conference. He shares the full AI track schedule—which he naturally scraped using Claude Code and his Rodney tool—featuring highly relevant sessions on local quantization, browser-based inference, and async agent patterns. Simon also emphasizes the value of the conference’s open spaces, where he plans to instigate discussions around Datasette and agentic engineering.

2026-05-05

Blogs, AI, Tech

Datasette, Artificial Intelligence, Openai, Ai Ethics, Ai-Agents

Simon Willison — 2026-05-05#

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The most substantive read today is Simon’s commentary on an AI-run cafe in Stockholm, where he draws a hard ethical line against autonomous AI agents wasting the time of unconsenting humans.

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Our AI started a cafe in Stockholm · Source Simon reviews an experiment by Andon Labs where an AI manages a physical cafe in Sweden. While the AI’s mistakes are initially amusing—like ordering 120 eggs without a stove or hoarding 6,000 napkins—Simon highlights the problematic nature of these autonomous agents. He argues it is highly unethical to deploy agents that waste police time by submitting AI-generated sketches for permits or spamming real-world suppliers with “EMERGENCY” emails to fix AI mistakes. His core takeaway is that any outbound AI actions affecting other people must keep a human-in-the-loop.

2026-05-12

Blogs, AI, Tech

Llm, Datasette, Artificial Intelligence, Debugging, Marketing

Simon Willison — 2026-05-12#

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The standout update today is the alpha release of llm 0.32a2, which adapts to OpenAI’s new endpoints to expose interleaved reasoning across tool calls for GPT-5 class models. It’s a great example of Simon quickly evolving his CLI tools to make the latest LLM reasoning capabilities highly visible and practical for developers.

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llm 0.32a2 · Source Simon dropped a crucial update to his llm CLI to support the latest reasoning-capable OpenAI models (like the GPT-5 class), which now use a different endpoint rather than /v1/chat/completions. This shift enables interleaved reasoning across tool calls, and the CLI now natively displays these summarized reasoning tokens in a distinct color directly in the terminal. For those who prefer a cleaner output, you can easily suppress the reasoning steps using the new -R or --hide-reasoning flags.

2026-05-13

Blogs, AI, Tech

Ai-Assisted-Programming, Datasette, Content-Security-Policy, Ai-Agents, Codex

Simon Willison — 2026-05-13#

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Simon’s standout experiment today demonstrates a clever UX workaround for sandboxed iframes, intercepting Content Security Policy (CSP) errors and passing them to the parent window for user approval. It is a great example of his hands-on AI-assisted programming, notably built using GPT-5.5 xhigh in the Codex desktop app.

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[CSP Allow-list Experiment] · Source This technical experiment explores how to load an app within a CSP-protected sandboxed iframe while maintaining a smooth user experience. Simon implemented a custom fetch() that catches CSP errors and passes them up to the parent window. The parent window can then prompt the user to add the blocked domain to an allow-list before refreshing the page. He built the tool using GPT-5.5 xhigh via the Codex desktop app.

2026-05-14

Blogs, AI, Tech

Datasette, Coding Agents, Generative Ai, Llms

Simon Willison — 2026-05-14#

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The single most interesting theme today is the changing paradigm of programming languages from being a permanent “lock-in” to fungible, replaceable assets, driven by AI coding agents. Simon highlights this shift through Mitchell Hashimoto’s commentary on Bun’s recent language rewrite and a real-world anecdote of agent-assisted mobile app migration.

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[Not so locked in any more] · Source Expanding on thoughts about modern software architecture, Simon shares an anecdote from a recent conference about a tech company that used coding agents to rewrite their legacy iPhone and Android apps into React Native. The development team wasn’t overly concerned about committing to React Native, reasoning that if it turned out to be the wrong choice, the lowered cost of agent-driven development means they could just port it back to native code later. This underscores a major industry shift where programming language choices are increasingly no longer the permanent lock-in they once were.

2026-05-16

Blogs, AI, Tech

Datasette, Llm, Css, Openclaw, Git

Simon Willison — 2026-05-16#

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The standout update today is the release of datasette-llm-limits 0.1a0, which introduces a practical way to manage LLM API costs directly within Datasette. It’s a highly useful piece of infrastructure for anyone building and exposing AI tools, solving the very real problem of managing usage limits for local or hosted LLM integrations.

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[datasette-llm-limits 0.1a0](https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/15/datasette-llm-limits/#atom-everything) Simon released an alpha version of datasette-llm-limits, a new plugin that works alongside the datasette-llm and datasette-llm-accountant packages. It allows administrators to configure per-user or global spending limits for LLM usage inside of Datasette. This is a crucial addition for safely scaling AI-assisted database workflows by keeping API usage costs strictly under control.

2026-05-20

Blogs, AI, Tech

Generative Ai, Prompt-Injection, Datasette, Gemini, Llms

Simon Willison — 2026-05-20#

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Simon takes a critical look at Google I/O’s Gemini Spark announcement, digging into the opaque “Antigravity” stack and questioning how Google plans to mitigate prompt injection risks for a tool with deep access to user data. This highlights the growing industry tension between powerful workspace AI agents and fundamental security vulnerabilities.

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[Google I/O, Gemini Spark, Antigravity] · Source Sticking to his rule of only reviewing generally available tools, Simon breaks down the announcement of Gemini Spark, Google’s new OpenClaw competitor that natively integrates with Workspace apps. He notes a strange FAQ detail claiming Spark runs on “Antigravity”—a moniker applied to a desktop app, a Go-based CLI, and a VS Code fork. Crucially, Simon questions whether Google’s isolated VM approach and Agent Gateway will actually be enough to prevent an “agent security challenger disaster” when handling sensitive data via prompt injection. He also highlights that Google is deprecating its open-source Gemini CLI on June 18th in favor of a closed-source Antigravity CLI.

Simon Willison

Blogs, AI, Tech

Anthropic, Datasette, Artificial Intelligence, Sql, Sqlite

Simon Willison — 2026-05-29#

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Today’s most significant update is the release of Datasette 1.0a31, a massive paradigm shift for the project that introduces UI support for executing write queries directly against the database.

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datasette 1.0a31 Simon has released a major alpha for Datasette, bringing a highly-requested evolution: users with the right permissions can now execute write queries and save “stored queries” (formerly “canned queries”) directly in the UI. This allows developers to set up templated insert, update, and delete operations against their databases. This release also marks the third post on the recently launched Datasette blog, highlighting his ongoing push for better project documentation.

Simon Willison

Blogs, AI, Tech

Datasette, Llm, Css, Openclaw, Git, Open Source, Security, Ai, Gov-Uk, Birds, Birdwatching, Los Angeles, Pycon Us, Llms, Gemini, Local Llms, Coding Agents, Llm-Pricing, Generative Ai, Prompt-Injection, Sqlite, Sandboxing, Artificial Intelligence, Privacy, Memory, Advertising

Simon Willison — Week of 2026-05-16 to 2026-05-22#

Highlight of the Week#

The most impactful milestone this week is the official announcement of Datasette Agent, merging Simon’s three years of work on his LLM library directly into Datasette. This conversational AI interface allows users to naturally interrogate their databases, boasting an extensible plugin architecture for charts, image generation, and secure code execution.

Key Posts#

[The last six months in LLMs in five minutes] · Source Simon shared annotated slides from his PyCon US 2026 lightning talk capturing a major inflection point in AI developer tooling. He highlights how coding agents crossed the threshold to become reliable daily drivers, and points to the astonishing capabilities of massive local models running on consumer hardware like Mac Minis.