Things we learned about LLMs in 2024

Simon Willison's comprehensive review of key LLM developments, breakthroughs, and lessons learned throughout 2024.

Joshua Wood’s personal website - software developer, photographer, and Honeybadger.io co-founder. Writing about software, entrepreneurship, and life in the Pacific Northwest.

Last Updated: 30th June 2025

Limits and guardrails are vital to protect our privacy and liberty — as well as our sanity — against omnipresent AI surveillance.

A Blog on AI, Tech, Markets and Random Stuff, by Druce Vertes

I spent a few hours this week reading around AI and formulating my thoughts into coherent sentences. This is what I've got so far. I'd love to know what you think. Am I right? Am I being naive, or just sceptical enough? What am I missing? A bit of context and a disclaimer: my remit | I spent a few hours this week reading around AI and formulating my thoughts into coherent sentences. This is what I've got so far. I'd love to know what you think. Am I right? Am I being naive, or just sceptical enough? What am I missing? A bit of context and a disclaimer: my remit

I’ve recently been struggling with a feeling of lack of tangible progress towards goals, or even of any idea of what those goals are or should be. Inspired both by GTD and by Simon Willison’s practice, I’ve decided to start writing “weeknotes” - records of what I’ve done each week, and what I’d like to focus on.

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Chris Sacca claims that "We are super fucked... almost all coding is fucking useless." I disagree. If AI is so good, why aren't we seeing better apps?

How can software developers leverage LLMs while avoiding pitfalls? Here are some lessons learned so far.

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Reading Simon Willison‘s excellent blog on “Things we learned about LLMs in 2024”, made me realize why we’re not seeing much economic benefit1 from #llms yet. Simon writes: Most users are thrown in at the deep end. The default LLM chat UI is like taking brand new computer users, dropping them into a Linux terminal and expecting them to figure it all out. What should we work on, then? As it was always the case with AI, work on the pains and the gains of the end users and think about a UI and UX they can use and be more productive with!

I spent a few hours this week reading around AI and formulating my thoughts into coherent sentences. This is what I've got so far. I'd love to know what you think. Am I right? Am I being naive, or just sceptical enough? What am I missing? A bit of context and a disclaimer: my remit | I spent a few hours this week reading around AI and formulating my thoughts into coherent sentences. This is what I've got so far. I'd love to know what you think. Am I right? Am I being naive, or just sceptical enough? What am I missing? A bit of context and a disclaimer: my remit

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Hello again. I’m not alone in being one of the people who’s really struggled with keeping weeknotes going recently. “Recently”. I’ve definitely had what one might call An Abundance Of Real Life, both professionally and outside work, and there’s not really been the time to sit back and reflect on anything much. I’m definitely in […]