The AI slowdown is about money, not safety
Behind the warnings about runaway AI lies a more conventional threat: financial pressure, rapidly advancing open-source models, and an industry determined to avoid software-style accountability.
Software, AI and thoughts about everything
Hi, I’m Radu
I’ve spent my career shipping software and leading engineering teams, from startups to large enterprises. These days, I focus on putting AI to practical use, separating real value from hype. This is where I write about software, AI, the tech industry, and whatever else I find worth thinking through.
Latest writing
The energy cost of a 2GW AI compute deal
The AMD and Anthropic partnership puts the energy demand of AI infrastructure into perspective: 2GW of compute could consume nearly one and a half times London's domestic electricity use.
AIEnergy
Discuss on LinkedIn Open-weight models threaten the AI investment thesis
US frontier labs have a financial incentive to constrain open-weight AI. Chinese labs, shaped by hardware limits, may be better positioned to win by doing more with less.
A Thought Experiment on the Future of Software Engineering
A thought experiment modeling one potential future where AI reshapes software engineering — from declining training data quality to the atrophy of engineering skills. What happens when code is written by agents for agents?
AISoftware Engineering
Listening
A few artists I keep returning to, and what keeps me there.
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PRESIDENT
An anonymous English band with a unique sound, blending metalcore and electronic elements. Their songs are usually about fear and mortality in a religious context. The band members are definitely not new kids around the block. The vocals delivered by “The President” are powerful and emotional, showing a lot of range and depth. “Vice”, the drummer, has a unique style and many of his lines are unconventional. All in all, this band is made up of world-class musicians, making their genres more accessible to a wider audience.
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Unprocessed
A German progressive metal band with a defining sound driven by their frontman’s percussive guitar style and complementary vocals. Their sound is elevated by their strong drummer.
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Polyphia
Those guys don’t need any introduction, but if this is your introduction to them, they are a math rock / prog rock band with a sound that bends genres. They made math rock more accessible to a wider audience. What makes them even more interesting to me is that each band member is a world-class musician who deserves to be recognized for their individual talent.
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Greta van Fleet
Call them derivative all you want, but they are world-class. A fresh throwback to the ’70s rock sound with a modern twist. Loved by old-timers and new listeners alike.
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Sleep Token
An anonymous band from the UK that has been around for quite a while, but really picked up in popularity in the last few years. They cut across metal and pop, so they’re hard to place, but yet again this is a group of world-class musicians that brings something new.
Behind the writing
Since 2023, I’ve worked independently through Coffee Tap Studio, building my own products and helping teams deliver value with AI. Before that, I held senior engineering roles across startups and enterprises.
Past ventures
Products I previously launched.
Sayless
Sayless is a free-to-play social betting game where friends put virtual $BEEF on anything and settle disputed outcomes through peer voting; no real money involved.
Niju
Niju provides a 20-minute coding session that reveals a candidate's real coding fluency and thought process.
Kapturo
Kapturo brings your scattered reading and notes into a single, intelligent knowledge base. From there, explore your insights, draft reports, or create authentic social posts.
Yappa
Yappa is a powerful productivity tool designed for freelancers that helps streamline client management, simplify scheduling, and track time — all in one place.