Simon Willison
Simon Willison is a British programmer, co-founder of the social conference directory Lanyrd, and co-creator of the Django Web framework.
Signal Radar
Five-axis snapshot of this entity's footprint
Mentions × Lab Attention
Weekly mentions (solid) and average article relevance (dotted)
Timeline
5- Research MilestoneApr 28, 2026
Simon Willison tests VibeVoice 4-bit MLX conversion on M5 MacBook, transcribing 1 hour in ~9 minutes.
View source - Product LaunchApr 19, 2026
Created a tool that transforms Anthropic's Claude system prompt documentation into an analyzable git repository.
View source - Product LaunchApr 5, 2026
Released the open-source CLI tool 'scan-for-secrets' for detecting exposed API keys in log files.
View source - Research MilestoneMar 14, 2026
Outlined 'Three Stages of AI Adoption' framework for developer use of AI coding agents
- stages:
- Helper Stage,Agent Stage,Factory Stage
- Research MilestoneMay 24, 2025
Tweeted speculation about OpenAI acquiring Astral
View source- status:
- unconfirmed
Recent Articles
14Talkie: Vintage LLM Trained on 260B Pre-1931 English Tokens
~Talkie is a new 'vintage language model' trained on 260 billion tokens of historical English text from before 1931, developed by a team including Alec
85 relevanceMicrosoft’s VibeVoice: Open-Source Speech-to-Text with Diarization
+Microsoft released VibeVoice, an MIT-licensed speech-to-text model with built-in speaker diarization. Simon Willison tested a 4-bit MLX conversion on
85 relevanceGPT-ImageGen-2 Likely Uses AI Models as Prompt Generators
~Evidence suggests OpenAI's upcoming image model, GPT-ImageGen-2, operates as a tool where AI models generate the prompts, not users. This marks a shif
85 relevanceOpus 4.7's Tokenizer Change: How to Measure Your Real Claude Code Costs
~Claude Opus 4.7's updated tokenizer means the same input can cost 40%+ more than 4.6. Use the Claude Token Counter to measure real costs before upgrad
100 relevanceAnthropic Publishes Claude 4.7 System Prompt, Revealing Guardrail Changes
~Anthropic has published the Claude 4.7 system prompt, allowing direct comparison with Claude 4.6. The diff reveals specific changes to safety instruct
93 relevanceHow to Use Git History to Analyze Claude's System Prompt Evolution
+A new tool converts Anthropic's official system prompt history into a git timeline, enabling developers to analyze prompt changes with standard versio
100 relevancellm-anthropic 0.25 Adds Opus 4.7 with xhigh Thinking Effort — Here's How
+Update to llm-anthropic 0.25 to access Claude Opus 4.7 with xhigh thinking_effort for tackling your most challenging code problems.
100 relevanceOpenAI Voice Mode Uses Older, Weaker Model, Not GPT-4o
~OpenAI's voice mode, which powers its conversational interface, is not powered by the latest GPT-4o model but by a much older and weaker system, creat
75 relevanceAnthropic's 'Project Glassing' Opus-Beater Restricted to Security Researchers
~Anthropic's new model, which outperforms Claude 3 Opus, is being released under 'Project Glassing' exclusively to vetted security researchers. This co
85 relevance754B-Parameter AI Model Hits Hugging Face, Weighs 1.51TB
~An unidentified 754-billion-parameter AI model has been uploaded to the Hugging Face platform, consuming 1.51TB of space. This represents one of the l
85 relevanceClean Up Messy Claude Code Terminal Pastes in One Click
+Use the 'Cleanup Claude Code Paste' web tool to instantly clean copied terminal output, removing the prompt character and fixing line-wrapping issues
87 relevanceSimon Willison's 'scan-for-secrets' CLI Tool Detects API Keys in Logs
+Simon Willison built 'scan-for-secrets', a Python CLI tool for scanning log files for accidentally exposed API keys. It's a lightweight utility for de
75 relevancescan-for-secrets 0.2: Streamline Your Security Workflow with New CLI Options
+Simon Willison's scan-for-secrets 0.2 adds streaming output, multi-directory scanning, and file-specific options that developers can use immediately i
75 relevanceAxios Supply Chain Attack Highlights AI-Powered Social Engineering Threat to Open Source
~The recent Axios npm package supply chain attack was initiated by highly sophisticated social engineering targeting a developer. This incident signals
85 relevance
Predictions
No predictions linked to this entity.
AI Discoveries
1- observationactiveApr 19, 2026
Velocity spike: Simon Willison
Simon Willison (person) surged from 0 to 3 mentions in 3 days (new_surge).
80% confidence
Sentiment History
| Week | Avg Sentiment | Mentions |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-W11 | 0.20 | 2 |
| 2026-W12 | 0.03 | 3 |
| 2026-W13 | 0.10 | 1 |
| 2026-W14 | 0.35 | 2 |
| 2026-W15 | 0.16 | 5 |
| 2026-W16 | 0.33 | 3 |
| 2026-W17 | 0.15 | 2 |
| 2026-W18 | 0.25 | 2 |