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Redster parent
Simonw is a cheerful and straightforward AI journalist who likes to show and not just tell. He has done a good job aggregating and documenting the progress of LLM tools and models. As I understand it, OpenAI and Anthropic have both wisely decided to make sure he has up to date info because they know he'll write about it.

Thanks for all your work, Simon! You're my favorite journalist in this space and I really appreciate your tone.

tootie
Simon has a popular blog, but he's also co-creator of Django and very well-known in the Python community.
michaelt
> As I understand it, OpenAI and Anthropic have both wisely decided to make sure he has up to date info because they know he'll write about it.

And the wisest part is if he writes something they don't like, they can cut off that advanced access.

As is the longstanding tradition in games journalism, travel journalism, and suchlike.

simonw
If they do that I'll go back to writing about them after they ship. Not a big loss for me at all.
tripzilch
I get it, you would trust yourself if you said that, but it doesn't really matter whether you say that or not, what counts for your ongoing credibility if you will preface every future blog post with, whether you got special access, a special deal, sponsorship, or the fact that you didn't get any of those things.

You're a reviewer. This is how reviewers stay credible. If you don't disclose your relationship with the thing or company you're reviewing, I'm probably better off assuming you're paid.

And if your NDA says you can't write that in your preface, then logically, it is impossible to write a credible review in the first place.

simonw
I recently started doing that: https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures and https://simonwillison.net/tags/disclosures/
tripzilch
awesome, thanks a lot that's important but ... sorry I just checked those, and I do think it's better to do it on a per-article basis, because a lot of your audience (I'm guessing) comes from external links, not browsing your website

this is (or should be) a pretty standard thing to do on youtube review channels (that I would trust), and it's not a bad thing to remind people of, on every occasion, plus it can function as a type of "canary" in cases of particularly restrictive NDAs

knowsuchagency
I like Simon, but he's not a journalist. A journalist would not have gone to OpenAI to glaze the GPT-5 release with Theo. I don't say this to discount Simon -- I appreciate his writing and analysis but a journalist, he isn't.
simonw
I don't call myself a journalist, partly because no publication is paying me to do any of this!

If I had an editor I imagine they would have talked me out of going to the OpenAI office for a mysterious product preview session with a film crew.

Redster OP
That's a fair point. I feel like he's more than a blogger and am not sure the best term!
LudwigNagasena
An influencer.
kid64
Guys, he's standing right there
fourthark
Argh
asadotzler
AI blogger seems more appropriate than journalist.
nchmy
are you aware of any "ai journalists"? Because simonw does great work, so perhaps blogger is what people should aspire towards?
simonw
I actually talk to journalists on the AI beat quite often - I've had good conversations with them at publications including The Economist and NY Times and Washington Post and ArsTechnica.

They're not going to write up detailed reviews of things like the new Claude code interpreter mode though, because that's not of interest to a general enough audience.

I don't have that restriction: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/9/claude-code-interpreter...

grim_io
Not sure what an AI journalist is supposed to be or do, but a lack of one does not promote someone who is not it automatically into the position.
landl0rd
Kylie Robison recently moved to Wired and is a solid "AI journalist".
minimaxir
Although she is indeed solid as an AI journalist, unfortunately she was recently let go for unknown reasons: https://www.kyliebytes.com/thank-god-i-got-fired/
landl0rd
Shoot that's what I get for staying off twitter and email for a week. Glad newsletters provide a little bit of a cushion these days but hopefully someone snaps her up.
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