[flagged]
> I believe a condition of the money was it couldn't be used for DEI
This is a morally depraved condition, kudos on them for turning it down
Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
71–80 of 192 posts
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#72[flagged]
I don't agree that it was a "bad management decision". The Trump administration has demonstrated that it will play dirty with grants if they perceive that the receiving organization is not towing their political line as closely as they want.
Not only will they not grant future funds, but they have shown that they will not pay out previously agreed monies, and will even try (with government layers) to pull back funds from groups they have decided "do not align with the governments interests", for however they define that at that moment. There are a long list of court findings that these have been arbitrary and capricious, but every one of those findings (wins) cost the grant receivers a lot of money in court and later fees.
So any money taken from them is incurring a risk. You can disagree with the Python Foundation's calculus on this (saying it was not that large a risk), but please don't pretend that it was not an actual risk.
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t get this argument because if we put the effort to get it typed, we don’t get one of the best benefits - performance.
But that's not the argument here. Python type hints allow checking correctness statically, which is what matters for agents.
That’s what makes types easier for me, too, so that makes sense.
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#74They are probably trying to build influence. Why is a startup that is burning cash donating money?
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#75I must be the only one in here who thinks $1.5M is a small sum compared to Anthropic's size and the amount of value they have gotten out of Python. Good press is cheaper than I thought.
All people do here is complain.
We can both applaud the effort and indicate it’s not enough. Two things can be true simultaneously.
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Big Tech should really be footing the bill here as well as large established VC firms.
To a large extent they do and always have. It's not as broad or fair as it should be[1], but for almost any economically important project all the major contributors and maintainers are on the payroll of one of the big tech interests or a foundation funded by them. The hippies writing that software may not be compensated at the level you'd expect given the value they provide, but they'll never go hungry. [1] LLVM and…
What is a "economically important project"? A company that makes a lot of money?
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#77They are probably trying to build influence. Why is a startup that is burning cash donating money?
Of course they are. These donations usually come out of the marketing budget. And it's working, we're talking about them.
But also they rely heavily on Python and want to support the ecosystem.
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#78Seems like a good time to throw out a reminder regarding "Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure" by Nadia Asparouhova. While she may have published it in 2016, it's still relevant today and speaks to the need for the private sector generally (looking at you VC firms) to support and understand the open source work, hours of unfunded labor, powering our societies. https://www.fordfoundat…
*by Nadia Eghbal EDIT: or are you rather thinking about the book Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software ?
Actually, since 2022, Nadia Asparouhova :)
From a 2022 email:
> (P.S. I have a new last name! Still transitioning everything over, but I’m now Nadia Asparouhova.)
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#79They are probably trying to build influence. Why is a startup that is burning cash donating money?
Is it so hard to imagine that they do it because the PSF's work is important and they want to support them? All the AI labs depend hugely on the Python ecosystem and infrastructure. Startups burning cash spend on many things that are important to them.
Re: Anthropic invests $1.5M in the Python Software Foundation
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it static or dynamic? Whatever rust is that python isn’t.
Python type hints are static - at the moment, they are advisory only, but there is an obvious route forward to making Python an (optionally) fully statically typed language by using static type checking on programs before execution.
I might be missing the point but isn’t this what we use mypy et al for today?