Warning to open source maintainers: the Axios supply chain attack started with some
very sophisticated social engineering targeted at one of their developers simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/3/s...
the claws are loving this post
Two true things:
* One can vibe code a coding agent in one day that demos convincingly
* It takes many talented, focused people multiple months to make an agent that's actually as reliable and as pleasant to use as your favorite coding agent
we've personally been transitioning many of our workflows to the new COPILOT function in excel. would highly recommend!
What a session! streamy is loaded!
Congrats on the release. :)
There are advantages and disadvantages of both ways of doing things, but the CRAN and #rstats approach has an emerging benefit of resistance to typosquatting/slopsquatting attacks.
npm practically feels like a malware distribution service in comparison
BASE R GIRLIES OUR TIME HAS COME
Come hang with us, ask Ella questions (I know Isabella and I will), and learn something new. Don't think you use base R? You use it pretty much each and every time you use R! #baseRgirly
Also, we're a delight ✨
There’s some cool recent research on this phenomenon! It turns out vision language models excel at image benchmarks *even when the actual images aren’t provided,* because the answers are implicit in the questions!
arxiv.org/abs/2603.21687
Our latest @posit.co AI Newsletter swaps the usual roundup for something different. @sara-altman.bsky.social and I traced the (brief) history of agents for data science at Posit, from Shiny Assistant to Databot to Positron Assistant to our latest release, Posit Assistant.
posit.co/blog/2026-03...
hex sticker for debrief. Contains a layering of different stamp designs
In exploring ways to use AI agents to help write R code I found that it was hard to extract profiling information in a way that they could interact with easily. Presenting {debrief}!!
provides text-based summaries and analysis tools for {profvis} profiling output
github.com/r-lib/debrief
#rstats
Kermit the frog screaming with excitement
We have summer internships y'all! Come work at Posit on the PyData, tidymodels, shiny, or Connect teams: grnh.se/tigz810a3us. You will have an awesome time, learn a ton, and help advance our open source and pro tools 🧰 #rstats #pydata
Today is the last day to apply for an Opportunity Scholarship for posit::conf(2026)! Our Opportunity Scholarship provides travel, lodging, & registration to attend posit::conf for underrepresented groups in data science.
Learn more & apply by midnight tonight: posit.co/blog/apply-t...
We’re thrilled to welcome Sara Altman and Simon Couch of the Posit AI Core team to the #positconf 2026 keynote stage!
They’ll be sharing a practical, hype-free look at how AI is being thoughtfully integrated into the tools you use every day.
✨ See what’s next for AI in open source: pos.it/conf
1/5‼️Gigantic new #rayverse update + blog post! Introducing {skymodelr}: render 3D scenes in #RStats with realistically-lit skies 🌇 at a given location, using just a latitude, longitude, and a time.
Blog:
www.tylermw.com/posts/rayver...
Github:
github.com/tylermorganw...
Site:
www.skymodelr.com
I had wondered how today's GPT 5.4 releases might stack up in this eval. Indeed lower-latency and higher-performance than previous GPT generations, now in the ballpark of other frontier providers.
mcptools 0.2.1 is now on #rstats CRAN! A patch release with a couple tightenings-up that should make MCP servers deployed with the package compatible with GitHub Copilot. github.com/posit-dev/mc...
Six months from today, YOU could be joining us at posit::conf!
A topic I plan to explore is how we best borrow ideas from across different fields (from DS to DE, team-of-one to enterprise, etc.)
Ironically, that's also one of the magical things about the conf
1/2
In this edition of the @posit.co AI Newsletter, we share about new LLM features in RStudio, some vibe checks on the new GPT 5.4 / Qwen3.5 / Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite releases, and an overview of the Anthropic / Pentagon saga.
Read it here: posit.co/blog/2026-03...
We are pleased to announce that Heather Turner @heathrturnr.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy has joined the R Core Team. She has been an active contributor notably via the R Dev Days, and has greatly improved cooperation between R Core and the R community in more ways #RStats.
This is at chatjimmy.ai, from startup Taalas @ taalas.com/the-path-to-...
I keep thinking about this demo of Llama 3.1 8B served at 15k-20k tok/s. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
For reference, GPT 5.4 is currently being served at ~44 tok/s, and the highly optimized deployment of Qwen3-8B powering RStudio's Next Edit Suggestions is ~1,300 tok/s.
I had (kinda jokingly?) wondered if there was a Skill that helps write Skills... and there is!
From the Anthropic Skills marketplace: github.com/anthropics/s...
Love this. Hope you had a great talk!
The March edition of posit::glimpse() is here! 🚀
Key updates include Posit AI, a new assistant in RStudio, Pointblank for synthetic data for #Python, mirai v2.6.0: 50% faster async #RStats ⚡, Positron's PDF viewer + Jupyter support, and more.
Read the full roundup:
posit.co/blog/glimpse...
Ha, thanks!
gander 0.2.0 is now on CRAN! The package provides quick, granular AI assistance with #rstats code. This release substantially tightens up behavior in Quarto documents.
Read more: github.com/simonpcouch/...
While working full-time & raising a child, Grace Wahba earned advanced degrees, completing her PhD at Stanford and becoming the first female faculty member in statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. #womenshistorymonth #statwomen magazine.amstat.org/blog/2026/03... #statssky
I will call it AGI when it stops suggesting I reword "yall"
RStudio now has next edit suggestions! I wrote a bit about how they work and have open-sourced the eval we used to engineer the system's prompt: www.simonpcouch.com/blog/2026-03...
