Simon Willison's blog offers a mix of technical tutorials, data analysis projects, and reflections on technology and society. With a focus on Python, SQL, and web development, Simon shares insights into building web applications, working with data, and exploring emerging technologies. Developers can learn about data visualization, API design, and software engineering best practices, gaining inspiration and practical knowledge to advance their careers.

Simon Willison

A lightning talk from PyCon US 2026 summarizing the past six months of LLM developments. Key themes: the November 2025 inflection point where coding agents (OpenAI Codex, Claude Code) crossed a quality threshold to become daily-driver tools; rapid model leadership changes among Claude, GPT-5.1, and Gemini 3; the rise of 'Claws' (personal AI assistants like OpenClaw); and the surprising capability gains in locally-runnable open-weight models like Qwen3.6-35B. The author uses a 'pelican riding a bicycle' SVG generation test to illustrate model quality improvements over time.

The last six months in LLMs in five minutes

<p>The important part is not that coding agents got better. It’s that teams are now redesigning engineering practices around them.</p>
