Hacker News on Wednesday, 3 June 2026

Stories posted this day, by points. Rank history starts with the October 2026 rebuild.

Screenshot of maxleiter.com: They’re made out of weights

They’re made out of weights (maxleiter.com)

1427 points by MaxLeiter 4 months ago | 633 comments

A short fiction blog post parodying Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat," with characters marveling that language models are made only of weights.

llm short-fiction terry-bisson parody

Screenshot of blog.google: Gemma 4 12B: A unified, encoder-free multimodal model

Gemma 4 12B: A unified, encoder-free multimodal model (blog.google)

1007 points by rvz 4 months ago | 379 comments

Google blog post announcing Gemma 4 12B, an encoder-free multimodal model designed to run on laptops with mobile-first efficiency and advanced reasoning.

gemma google multimodal-models open-weights

Screenshot of elixir-lang.org: Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language

Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language (elixir-lang.org)

959 points by cloud8421 4 months ago | 377 comments

Official Elixir blog post by José Valim announcing Elixir v1.20, which adds type inference and gradual type checking to every Elixir program without annotations.

elixir type-systems gradual-typing type-inference

How LLMs work (0xkato.xyz)

834 points by 0xkato 4 months ago | 228 comments

A blog post giving a math-light walkthrough of how transformer-based large language models work internally.

llm transformers neural-networks machine-learning

Screenshot of burntsushi.net: I was recently diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis

I was recently diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (burntsushi.net)

721 points by Tomte 4 months ago | 236 comments

Andrew Gallant (BurntSushi) blogs about his anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis diagnosis, symptoms, and prognosis, aimed at people relying on his projects.

anti-nmda-receptor-encephalitis autoimmune-disease andrew-gallant burntsushi

Screenshot of theatlantic.com: Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang

Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang (theatlantic.com)

717 points by lordleft 4 months ago | 1231 comments

Ted Chiang's essay in The Atlantic arguing that artificial intelligence systems are not conscious and that claims otherwise lead to absurd conclusions.

ai-consciousness ted-chiang philosophy-of-mind the-atlantic

Screenshot of dailycal.org: Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes

Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes (dailycal.org)

712 points by littlexsparkee 4 months ago | 673 comments

Daily Californian news article reporting rising failing grades in UC Berkeley computer science classes, which professors link to greater AI usage and weaker math skills.

uc-berkeley computer-science-education generative-ai academic-performance

Screenshot of bbc.com: Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min (bbc.com)

691 points by reconnecting 4 months ago | 654 comments

BBC News article reporting that Meta employees can opt out of workplace tracking only for 30-minute periods at a time.

meta employee-monitoring workplace-surveillance privacy

Screenshot of blog.nns.ee: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it (blog.nns.ee)

650 points by xx_ns 4 months ago | 106 comments

Blog post describing vulnerabilities in the Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2X speaker letting nearby attackers turn it into a spying tool and Rubber Ducky without pairing.

creative-sound-blaster katana-v2x badusb reverse-engineering

Screenshot of simonwillison.net: Uber's $1,500/month AI limit is a useful signal for AI tool pricing

Uber's $1,500/month AI limit is a useful signal for AI tool pricing (simonwillison.net)

589 points by pdyc 4 months ago | 719 comments

Simon Willison link post on Bloomberg's report that Uber caps employee spending at $1,500 per month per AI coding tool, and what that implies for AI tool pricing.

uber claude-code coding-agents llm-pricing

Screenshot of mouseless.click: Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows

Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows (mouseless.click)

569 points by riddley 4 months ago | 230 comments

Landing page for Mouseless, a cross-platform app for controlling the mouse pointer with the keyboard, offering a 14-day trial and lifetime or subscription licenses.

mouseless keyboard-navigation productivity accessibility

Screenshot of blackmagicdesign.com: DaVinci Resolve 21

DaVinci Resolve 21 (blackmagicdesign.com)

521 points by pentagrama 4 months ago | 229 comments

Blackmagic Design's What's New page for DaVinci Resolve, highlighting new features across its Edit, Color, Fairlight, and Fusion pages.

davinci-resolve blackmagic-design video-editing color-grading

Screenshot of e360.yale.edu: U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse

U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse (e360.yale.edu)

480 points by rguiscard 4 months ago | 313 comments

Yale Environment 360 digest item reporting that the U.S. plans to dismantle an ocean observing system that tracks Atlantic currents (AMOC) at risk of collapse.

amoc ocean-observatories-initiative oceanography climate-change

Screenshot of kasra.blog: I built a vulnerable app and spent $1,500 seeing if LLMs could hack it

I built a vulnerable app and spent $1,500 seeing if LLMs could hack it (kasra.blog)

376 points by jc4p 4 months ago | 200 comments

A blog post by Kasra Rahjerdi describing building a deliberately vulnerable app and spending $1,500 testing whether various LLMs could hack it.

llm-agents penetration-testing ai-security claude

ESP32-S31 (espressif.com)

341 points by volemo 4 months ago | 181 comments

Espressif product page for the ESP32-S31, a dual-core RISC-V SoC with multi-protocol wireless connectivity and HMI features.

esp32 espressif risc-v microcontrollers

Screenshot of tomshardware.com: 32GB of DDR5 now costs $375 – AI shortage continues to squeeze PC building

32GB of DDR5 now costs $375 – AI shortage continues to squeeze PC building (tomshardware.com)

330 points by papersail 4 months ago | 301 comments

Tom's Hardware news article reporting that the cheapest 32GB DDR5 kits now cost at least $375 as AI-driven memory shortages push up PC building costs.

ddr5 ram-prices memory-shortage pc-building