Logarithmic unit expressing the ratio of a physical quantity
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Interview with Chris Stamey. Chris Stamey began writing and playing music in grade school in Winston-Salem, NC, in the mid 1960s, in what is known now as the Combo Corner scene. In 1976, while studying music composition at UNC-Chapel Hill, he self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American “indie” records. The following year, he relocated to Manhattan to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB rock scene, then formed The dB's with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made several acclaimed records of original material, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced with Alan Betrock) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt). During the next decade and a half in New York, Stamey worked with a wide variety of musicians. He recorded well-received solo records for A&M and Warners and was a part of Anton Fier's Golden Palominos project, alongside an international touring cast that included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), Carla Bley, and Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, George Clinton). He continued recording and producing upon returning to NC in 1993. His recent releases include The Great Escape, Lovesick Blues and Euphoria, as well as Falling Off the Sky with The dB's and A Brand-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Travelers. As a producer and a featured singer/songwriter with the Paris-based Salt Collective project, he collaborated with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Juliana Hatfield, Richard Lloyd (Television), Matthew Sweet, Peter Holsapple, and Susan Cowsill, among others. As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Ryan Adams, Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, Those Pretty Wrongs, and Yo La Tengo. From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star's classic album Third, alongside Big Star's Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Friends, a concert film of these arrangements, was released by Concord in March 2017. He currently tours as a member of Jody Stephens's Big Star Quintet, whose line-up includes Mike Mills (R.E.M), Pat Sansone (Wilco), and Jon Auer (Posies). His original radio musical about the early '60s in Manhattan, Occasional Shivers, premiered nationwide on Christmas Day 2016. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018, followed in 2019 by his first printed collection, New Songs for the 20th Century, with a companion two-disc CD (Omnivore Recordings). open.spotify.com/artist/1i7YYagcULgnW5Qilsto1d music.apple.com/us/artist/chris-stamey/4034250 youtube.com/channel/UCG3O3S8Zg_WJoz2uTt_duig# instagram.com/mrstamey/?hl=en facebook.com/chrisstameymusic/ twitter.com/chrisstamey songkick.com/artists/186319-chris-stamey bandsintown.com/a/78299-chris-stamey deezer.com/us/artist/1279457 tidal.com/browse/artist/3611403 qobuz.com/us-en/interpreter/chris-stamey/515742 audiomack.com/chris-stamey music.amazon.com/artists/B008LPNC4M @chris-stamey.bsky.social
In a 1985 episode of the original run of the GI-JOE: A Real American Hero cartoon series, COBRA created the fictional rock band, Cold Slither, to perform music with subliminal messages to control the masses. Forty years later, HASBRO and RPM have brought this band to life, with the Cold Slither album dropping on July 25, 2025. Episode 199 of A-SIDES features a conversation Gus Rios, who has brought Cold Slither to life. He shares his love for GI Joe, his path to music, maintaining mental health, and why he was the perfect fit for the Cold Slither project. If you want to read Gus' article in Decibel, you'll find it here. If you're in the San Diego area, you can see Gus bring Cold Slither to life before your eyes at Brick By Brick on the eve of the album's release. You can also find the Cold Slither record through the RPM label. Huge thanks to Gus Rios, RPM, and everyone who listens! Yo Joe!
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la quarante-troisième émission de la première saison.
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On Friday, the Liberals' controversial Bill C-5 was passed by the House of Commons — it's the only legislation to pass, ahead of Parliament rising for the summer.Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, aims to remove barriers to interprovincial trade, fulfilling Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise to do so by Canada Day. But the legislation would also give Carney's cabinet the power to quickly approve big industrial projects deemed to be ‘in the national interest,' exempting them from some federal laws.Carney has said the legislation will not weaken the government's duty to consult Indigenous rights-holders, but many are worried.The Decibel is joined by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak. She represents more than 630 First Nations and has been voicing concern over the bill. She'll walk us through how First Nations are responding and whether it could spark another Idle No More movement this summer.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Vasek Mlejnsky is Co-Founder & CEO of E2B, the open-source runtime for executing AI-generated code in secure cloud sandboxes. Essentially, they give AI agents cloud computers. Their open source repos, particularly e2b which has 9K GitHub stars, have been widely adopted to help securely run AI-generated code. E2B has raised $12M from investors including Decibel and Sunflower. In this episode, we dig into:Why agents need a sandboxBuilding a new category of infra tooling, much like LaunchDarkly Some of their viral content moments - including Greg Brockman sharing their videosFiguring out the right commercial offering Why they don't agree with pricing per token Why moving from Prague to the Bay Area felt essential for them as founders
This weekend, the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, as it warned Iran about its nuclear capabilities and attacks against Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump called the bombing mission “a spectacular military success” and threatened “future attacks” if a nuclear peace deal was not made.The Globe's international affairs columnist, Doug Saunders, joins The Decibel. He explains how the U.S. got involved in this conflict, what's at stake for the leaders of the U.S., Israel and Iran, and why there are concerns this could become a wider war.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la quarante-deuxième émission de la première saison.
People don't leave jobs - they leave bosses and opportunities. As your building company grows, your biggest challenge isn't finding good people, it's keeping them aligned and pulling in the same direction instead of operating like individual contractors under one roof. Join Owen Chambers for the final part of the Builder to Business Owner series as he reveals the Four Ds of CEO leadership: Dollars, Decibels, Discipline, and Direction. Discover how to create a Same Page Plan that gets your entire team rowing in the same direction, why PSR (Problem-Solution-Recommendation) should be a core company value, and how high standards naturally move poor performers out while attracting A-players who want to be part of something bigger. Learn why your vision must be large enough to fit everyone else's dreams inside it, and how successful builders transition from managing tasks to leading people toward a compelling future. Key Points 00:00:00 Introduction to Part 4: The Leadership Transition 00:02:30 The Four Ds of CEO leadership framework 00:05:15 Why people leave bosses and opportunities, not jobs 00:07:40 Using standards to naturally filter out poor performers 00:10:20 Creating a vision big enough for others' dreams 00:13:30 The Same Page Plan template and implementation 00:16:45 Why PSR should be a core company value 00:19:20 Training problem-solving across your entire team 00:22:10 Presenting and refining your vision with the team Tune in to complete your transformation from hands-on builder to strategic leader who develops people, systems, and culture that can operate and grow without your constant involvement. Our construction business coaching has helped 2,500+ building companies succeed. Subscribe to The Builder's Ladder Podcast for weekly, actionable insights — tailored to help you grow a profitable construction business. Follow TPB for more:
E.S.M by Dj Nau - 19 Junio 2025 (Gabberland is here) Dave Decibel x Didi Early Rave Historico programa con los amigos de Gabberland previa al fiestón del sabado en el antiguo Dsigual! SEguidles en sus redes para toda la info!! Todos los jueves en directo ESTO SE MUEVE y durante el fin de semana en el resto de Fm amigas!
The long shadow war between Israel and Iran is now out in the open, as pressure mounts over a nuclear peace deal pushed by the U.S. and President Donald Trump. The growing conflict reached its fourth day – Israel continued its bombardment of Iranian cities and infrastructure, while Iran's missiles evaded Israel's aerial defence system and hit targets in the country. More than 200 Iranians have been killed so far, while at least 24 Israelis have died, as the two nations trade attacks.The Globe's Senior International Correspondent, Mark MacKinnon, joins The Decibel to break down the latest developments of an escalating war, how Iran is facing its most serious security breach in nearly 50 years, and what role the U.S. plays in the combustible situation brewing in the Middle East.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la quarante-et-unième émission de la première saison.
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la quarantième émission de la première saison.
On the most recent episode of the podcast, Audio Engineer & Producer Oxygen Mix joins me for a little chat about what it means to be a sound engineer, the technicalities and the complexities.We also discuss about his journey so far, from starting out as an artist up to this point as well as new music + more Production House: TWO Studios Producer: Wonu OsikoyaProducer: Chidinma Chijioke Sound Engineer: Afolabi Bamidele
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la trente-neuvième émission de la première saison.
This is Episode 44 live from The Flight Deck as aired on www.afterhours.fm 1. John O'Callaghan - Crystal Caverns (Extended Mix) 2. Joseph James & Deirdre McLaughlin - Remember Me (Extended Mix) 3. Robbie Seed - Stargazing (Extended Mix) 4. Steve Allen & Josie Sandfeld - Home (Extended Mix) 5. Victor Special & Double Motion - Beyond The Void (Alternate High Extended Remix) 6. Angelus - All You Need Is Me (Extended Mix) 7. Alternate High - Elevated (Extended Mix) 8. XLM & Josie Sandfeld - The Wind Of Change (Extended Mix) 9. Andrew Rayel & Robbie Seed & Susana - A Love Like You (Uplifting Extended Mix) 10. Paipy - Ocean (Extended Mix) 11. Mike Bound - Oasis (Extended Mix) 12. Allan Berndtz & Steffen Pedersen - Desert Spirits (Extended Mix) 13. Iñigo Rave - Storyteller (Original Mix) 14. Crisy - Recollect (Extended Mix) 15. Sauli - Innerspace (Extended Mix) 16. Metta & Glyde - Afterglow (Original Mix) 17. DJ Phalanx - Starlight (Extended Mix) 18. Jimmy Chou - Next Story (Extended Mix) 19. Steve Allen - Peak Experience (Extended Mix) 20. Cloudhunter - Diamonds (Original Mix) 21. Talla 2XLC & DJ Tandu - Angelfalls (Extended Mix) 22. Made Of Light & Vanessa Berni - Enjoy The Silence (Extended Mix) 23. Miss Cortex & DJ T.H. feat Kanae Asaba - Love Is In The Air (Dan Iwan Extended Remix) Piston Pounder of the Month 24. Miss Behavin - Such A Good Feelin' (Lee Haslam vs Guyver Remix)
Présentée par Vivy Horny, Alex, Ace Ace Baby, Papy Regis & Docteur Geek L'émission Rock'n'm'Hell est terminée et enterrée. Mais tel le phœnix qui renaît de ses cendres, ses anciens animateurs ont créé Dark Decibels, où ils parlent de musiques extrêmes tout en ayant une approche sur la mouvance 'goth' avec la darkwave et le post-punk, par exemple. Vivi Horny et Alex ont ainsi recruté plusieurs acolytes : un prof d'histoire qui va parler du metal dans l'Histoire et inversement, un 'professeur Geek' qui traitera metal dans la pop culture, puis un autre spécialiste lui plus axé sur la culture du black metal, et d'autres acolytes d'horizons divers pour quelques reviews... Une équipe étoffée donc pour un nouveau format détonnant ! Voici la trente-huitième émission de la première saison.
This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Power Measurement and Antenna Gain HPR show by Paulj, May 2025. 1.0 Power expressed in dB (also written as dBW) Power PdB = 10 . log10P Where P is the power expressed in Watts. 2.0 Power expressed in dBm Power PdB = 10 . log10P Where P is the power expressed in milliwatts. 1W = 1000mW Power PdBm = 10 . log101000mW Power PdBm = 30 dBm so: 0 dB = 30 dBm 3.0 Power expressed relative to an isotropic antenna - dBi An Isotropic antenna is an theoretical ideal antenna which radiates equally in all directions. Imagine the antenna is at the centre of a sphere, the signal strength at the surface of the sphere is equal at all points. The gain of an isotropic antenna is defined as 1, meaning: 10 dB = 10 dBi 4.0 Power expressed relative to a half wave dipole antenna - dBd The simplest practical antenna is a half wave dipole antenna, where each of the two legs is a quarter wave length long. The feed is at the centre, and the two legs are generally horizontal, and aligned away from the feed point 180 degrees apart. The dipole antenna exhibits gain perpendicular to the legs. The maximum gain is 1.64 times the isotropic antenna - a gain of approximately 2.15dBi. The gain off the ends of the dipole is much lower - the total power radiated by the antenna can not exceed the power being input, so if there is more radiation (gain) in one direction, there must be a corresponding reduction in a different direction. So: 2.15 dBi = 0 dBd 5.0 Effective Radiated Power - ERP and EIRP ERP and EIRP are both used to indicate the power achieved using an antenna.ERP compares the antenna performance with a dipole, and EIRP compares the performance with an isotropic antenna. So, the ERP is the power which would need to be fed into a dipole antenna, to get the same effect in the direction your antenna is pointing. EIRP is the power required for an isotropic antenna to gain equivalence. Practical example: My KX3 can transmit 15W. using the formula above, this is 11.77 dB. If I attach a Yagi-Uda antenna with a gain of 10dB, the ERP is 21.77 dB. Using the formula above, from this number you can calculate that this is the equivalent of 150.3142 Watts ERP. To understand the EIRP, we need to add 2.15 to the 21.77 dB value, giving 23.92 dB EIRP. Again, converting to actual power gives 246.515 Watts EIRP. If you are comparing antennas, make sure the same units are being used in all cases (either EIRP or ERP) - some sellers will use EIRP, because the values are higher! Check your licence conditions. Power output limits are often at the antenna, and don't include antenna gain. You can set your transmitter to output sufficient power to overcome any feed line losses, and present up to the power permitted to the antenna. A good antenna can then be used to get the transmitted power out and across the world. For feedline loses, the value is given in dB per 10 metres. For example, RG58 is 2dB / 10 metres (at 100MHz - choose the right feeder coax for your target frequency!). If you have 15 metres, then you will have 3 dB feeder loss, so half of your transmitter power will be lost in the feed line. If you know this and your transmitter can output more, then you can increase the transmitter power accordingly. So for 25W at the transmitter, with 3dB loss in the feeder, you can set the output to 50W. Some transmit power limits are set in ERP or EIRP, so you will need to calculate back from the antenna to see the maximum allowable transmitter power, to stay within the rules. 6.0 Combining values One result of the use of dB is that you can add the values together to understand the whole system gain. So, with our example above, if we have 11.77 dB of output power, then -1 dB insertion loss for a bandpass filter, -3 dB loss for the feeder, and 5dB gain on the antenna, the overall ERP is 12.77 dB. You can convert this back to Watts, to get 18.92W ERP. 7.0 Links Dipole information Yagi-Uda information Wikipedia information on Decibels Wikipedia information on ERP and EIRP Wikipedia information on Antenna Gain ERP & EIRP calculator from M0UKD Provide feedback on this episode.
The experiences of Inuit people and scientific data show the impacts of climate change and how it disproportionately affects Canada's Far North. Arctic sea ice is central to Inuit life – Labrador Inuit communities have more than four dozen Inuttitut terms for sea ice. And the weakening of the ice as a result of climate change poses a tangible threat: stifling access for remote fly-in communities, cutting off essential goods and endangering Inuit peoples' traditions, including hunting and fishing.Jenn Thornhill Verma, investigative journalist and Pulitzer Ocean Reporting Fellow, takes The Decibel to the northeastern Labrador Inuit community of Nunatsiavut. We hear from Inuk elders on how their communities are innovating and adapting new technology to fight climate change.This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting NetworkQuestions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Prime Minister Mark Carney met with U.S. President Donald Trump face-to-face in Washington, D.C. for the first time on Tuesday. Tensions between the two leaders' nations are at a historic high: a trade war, escalating tariffs and threats against Canada's sovereignty have all been major issues since Trump's re-election. For many Canadians, the central question in the recent federal election was how the next prime minister would handle U.S. aggression. Carney is now facing that reality.Doug Saunders, The Globe's international affairs columnist, joins The Decibel to analyze the Carney-Trump meeting and what it signals about the Canada–U.S. relationship now.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
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The guests were partying too hard, triggering multiple noise complaints as the decibel reader kept spiking. When reviewing the cameras, the host discovered eight cars parked on the lawn! Airbnb had to step in and contact the guest to address the madness. Would you have shut it down?
Now that the election is over, we're bringing you another edition of Campaign Call, The Decibel's weekly election panel that makes sense of the major issues.Where does Pierre Poilievre go from here without a seat in the House of Commons? What kind of Prime Minister will Mark Carney be and how will he actually handle Trump? How do the NDP rebuild?Globe columnists Robyn Urback, Andrew Coyne and Gary Mason are on the show to discuss the path ahead for the leaders and their parties.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
NASA researchers are working on reducing landing gear noise to make flying quieter.
This week, host Jorden Guth joins Martijn Mensink of Dutch & Dutch to discuss what aspects of the company's beloved 8c speakers are made where, how the decision is made to craft some things in-house and outsource other elements, why driver manufacturing and DSP development are very different enterprises, and what the future holds for the design and manufacture of products of its type. Sources: “Martijn Mensink On the Magic of Dutch & Dutch”: https://www.soundstage.life/e/martijn-mensink-on-the-magic-of-dutch-dutch-active-speakers-cardioid-dispersion-acoustics/ "Dutch & Dutch 8c Active Loudspeakers Reviewed" by Diego Estan: https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1270-dutch-dutch-8c-active-loudspeakers "Intro to Dutch & Dutch and the 8c Active Loudspeaker - SoundStage! InSight": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2R9lEJH4Og&ab_channel=soundstagenetwork "Dutch & Dutch 8c Active Loudspeaker in Detail - SoundStage! InSight": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-6R5HP8SE&ab_channel=soundstagenetwork Chapters: 00:00:00 Announcement 00:00:31 Introductions 00:21:43 Unexpected lessons 00:26:24 Outro music: “Get it Right” by Water on Mars
Ben and Markisan had a great time talking to Southern New Jersey's superb post-black metal band Deadyellow. The band's devastating record "What Was Left of Them" was a feature album stream on Decibel Magazine's website on 1/29/24 (See Decibel's more extended album review below). The album was Jeff's #1 record of 2024 and Ben's #11. What ensues is a free flowing and candid discussion with the super cool band members Paul, James, and Jon. We begin with Deadyellow's short but eventful pandemic-era origin story. Along the way we deep dive into the band's creative process and lyrical and conceptual themes. We talked to the guys the day after they parted ways with their long time bass player, Tim. In the course of the discussion, we learn about the band in a time of great introspection and also creative change and expansion. We learn about the many trials and tribulations the band faced during the creation of "What Was Left of Them." In a word, this is one of the most most human and, for us, best dialogues we ever had with a band. Accordingly, we also decided to include our post-interview reactions.Some good laughs as well! We finish the episode with a fun discussion of our Top 3 Black Metal Albums of All Time! So sit back and enjoy a pint of Golden Monkey, a Belgian-Style Tripel brewed by Philly's own great Victory brewing company.“What Was Left of Them is the kind of album best enjoyed when one is fully immersed… The album's first five tracks build to album centerpiece “Fallen Trees,” a stirring 16-minute epic that soars through melodic and emotional highs and lows… melodic and thoughtful in its composition; songs aren't long just for the sake of length and melody is prioritized over ambience. “What Was Left of Them is an album about change,” Deadyellow tell Decibel. “It's about embracing darkness and finding the light within to persevere. ‘Birth from death, the light will find a way.'” - Emily Bellino, Decibel Magazine
With less than two weeks until the federal election, The Decibel is bringing you another edition of Campaign Call, The Globe's weekly election panel.This week, ahead of the French and English leaders' debates, feature writer Shannon Proudfoot and chief political writer Campbell Clark will explain why debates still matter and what each leader needs to accomplish during them.In the second half, we're joined by Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist of Nanos Research, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the polls – in terms of how the data is gathered and how reliable polls are.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
In June of 2024, I talked with Peter Holsapple about the reissues of two classic albums by the dB's – “Stands for Decibels” and “Repercussion”. I had the pleasure of talking to Peter again recently, this time about his soon to be released solo album, The Face of 68. The song you're hearing, “Larger than Life” , is the first single from that album. It was great to catch up with Peter to hear about his very busy 2024, the recording of the album, touring, his continued work as a member of The Paranoid Style, and some candid, honest talk reflecting on his lifestyle in the past and his outlook on life and love these days. Stay tuned for a second talk with the one and only Peter Holsapple.Photo by Bill Reeves.My first talk with Peter from June 2024 is also available here.Save on Certified Pre-Owned ElectronicsPlug has great prices on refurbished electronics. Up to 70% off with a 30-day money back guarantee!Find or Sell Guitars and Gear at ReverbFind great deals on guitars, amps, audio and recording gear. Or sell yours! Check out Reverb.comDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Thanks for listening to Frets with DJ Fey. You can follow or subscribe for FREE at most podcast platforms.And now, Frets is available on YouTube. There are a lot of fun extras like videos and shorts and audio of all episodes. Subscribing for FREE at YouTube helps support the show tremendously, so hit that subscribe button! https://www.youtube.com/@DJFey39 You can also find information about guitarists, bands and more at the Frets with DJ Fey Facebook page. Give it a like! And – stay tuned…
The federal election is in two weeks, on April 28 – so the Decibel has invited the leaders from Canada's major parties onto the show to share their vision for the country.And while environmental concerns haven't been top-of-mind in this election … Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault says he isn't just concerned about climate change.Pedneault – who previously served as the party's deputy leader from 2022 to 2024 – is proposing bold policies on a range of issues Canadians are facing, from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats to the high cost of living.The former journalist and human rights investigator, who has spent the better part of the last decade and a half working and living abroad, believes more progressive ideas are needed in this election. But the Greens are lagging in the polls, and Pedneault is running in a Liberal stronghold … So how will they be effective if they don't make it to the House of Commons?Today, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault joins us from Montreal. Ahead of the leader debates this Thursday, we ask him about his party's daring proposals, what the Greens are offering Canadians, and if he's returning to Canadian politics for good.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
We're halfway through the election period and it's time for Campaign Call, The Decibel's weekly election panel making sense of the major issues. This week, the embers of western separatism were stoked by an opinion piece by Preston Manning published in The Globe, arguing that national unity is on the ballot. We explore the threats of regionalism amidst the surge of pro-Canadian sentiment across the country. Plus, we'll look into how the major parties are making their pitch to win over a crucial voting demographic – seniors.Feature writer Shannon Proudfoot, Alberta politics reporter Carrie Tait, columnist Konrad Yakabuski based in Montreal and Meera Raman, retirement and financial planning reporter, discuss the big stories with host Menaka Raman-Wilms.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
We're a few weeks into a federal election that is currently too close to call. And while most Canadians are wondering who our next Prime Minister will be, my guests today are preoccupied with a different question: will this election be free and fair?In her recent report on foreign interference, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that “information manipulation poses the single biggest risk to our democracy”. Meanwhile, senior Canadian intelligence officials are predicting that India, China, Pakistan and Russia will all attempt to influence the outcome of this election. To try and get a sense of what we're up against, I wanted to get two different perspectives on this. My colleague Aengus Bridgman is the Director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory, a project that we run together at McGill University, and Nina Jankocwicz is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. Together, they are two of the leading authorities on the problem of information manipulation.Mentioned:“Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions,” by the Honourable Marie-Josée Hogue"A Pro-Russia Content Network Foreshadows the Automated Future of Info Ops,” by the American Sunlight ProjectFurther Reading:“Report ties Romanian liberals to TikTok campaign that fueled pro-Russia candidate,” by Victor Goury-Laffont (Politico)“2025 Federal Election Monitoring and Response,” by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network“Election threats watchdog detects Beijing effort to influence Chinese Canadians on Carney,” by Steven Chase (Globe & Mail)“The revelations and events that led to the foreign-interference inquiry,” by Steven Chase and Robert Fife (Globe & Mail)“Foreign interference inquiry finds ‘problematic' conduct,” by The Decibel
To unpack some of the most topical questions in AI, I'm joined by two fellow AI podcasters: Swyx and Alessio Fanelli, co-hosts of the Latent Space podcast. We've been wanting to do a cross-over episode for a while and finally made it happen.Swyx brings deep experience from his time at AWS, Temporal, and Airbyte, and is now focused on AI agents and dev tools. Alessio is an investor at Decibel, where he's been backing early technical teams pushing the boundaries of infrastructure and applied AI. Together they run Latent Space, a technical newsletter and podcast by and for AI engineers.To subscribe or learn more about Latent Space, click here: https://www.latent.space/ [0:00] Intro[1:08] Reflecting on AI Surprises of the Past Year[2:24] Open Source Models and Their Adoption[6:48] The Rise of GPT Wrappers[7:49] Challenges in AI Model Training[10:33] Over-hyped and Under-hyped AI Trends[24:00] The Future of AI Product Market Fit[30:27] Google's Momentum and Customer Support Insights[33:16] Emerging AI Applications and Market Trends[35:13] Challenges and Opportunities in AI Development[39:02] Defensibility in AI Applications[42:42] Infrastructure and Security in AI[50:04] Future of AI and Unanswered Questions[55:34] Quickfire With your co-hosts: @jacobeffron - Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health @patrickachase - Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn @ericabrescia - Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq'd by VMWare) @jordan_segall - Partner at Redpoint
Welcome to The Decibel's inaugural election panel!Each week, we're going to focus on a major theme from the week's campaign, and provide some analysis about what's happening. Then, we're going to unpack specific policy promises from the big parties to help you decide how to vote. We'll end by answering your questions. So here's a reminder to send us an e-mail or voice note with your questions about the campaign.This week we look at how all of the candidates are trying to campaign on the idea that they are the change Canada needs, and then we'll break down the duelling tax cuts from the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP.For our first panel today, we've got Ottawa-based feature writer Shannon Proudfoot, columnist Robyn Urback and economics reporter Nojoud Al Mallees.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
While everyone is now repeating that 2025 is the “Year of the Agent”, OpenAI is heads down building towards it. In the first 2 months of the year they released Operator and Deep Research (arguably the most successful agent archetype so far), and today they are bringing a lot of those capabilities to the API:* Responses API* Web Search Tool* Computer Use Tool* File Search Tool* A new open source Agents SDK with integrated Observability ToolsWe cover all this and more in today's lightning pod on YouTube!More details here:Responses APIIn our Michelle Pokrass episode we talked about the Assistants API needing a redesign. Today OpenAI is launching the Responses API, “a more flexible foundation for developers building agentic applications”. It's a superset of the chat completion API, and the suggested starting point for developers working with OpenAI models. One of the big upgrades is the new set of built-in tools for the responses API: Web Search, Computer Use, and Files. Web Search ToolWe previously had Exa AI on the podcast to talk about web search for AI. OpenAI is also now joining the race; the Web Search API is actually a new “model” that exposes two 4o fine-tunes: gpt-4o-search-preview and gpt-4o-mini-search-preview. These are the same models that power ChatGPT Search, and are priced at $30/1000 queries and $25/1000 queries respectively. The killer feature is inline citations: you do not only get a link to a page, but also a deep link to exactly where your query was answered in the result page. Computer Use ToolThe model that powers Operator, called Computer-Using-Agent (CUA), is also now available in the API. The computer-use-preview model is SOTA on most benchmarks, achieving 38.1% success on OSWorld for full computer use tasks, 58.1% on WebArena, and 87% on WebVoyager for web-based interactions.As you will notice in the docs, `computer-use-preview` is both a model and a tool through which you can specify the environment. Usage is priced at $3/1M input tokens and $12/1M output tokens, and it's currently only available to users in tiers 3-5.File Search ToolFile Search was also available in the Assistants API, and it's now coming to Responses too. OpenAI is bringing search + RAG all under one umbrella, and we'll definitely see more people trying to find new ways to build all-in-one apps on OpenAI. Usage is priced at $2.50 per thousand queries and file storage at $0.10/GB/day, with the first GB free.Agent SDK: Swarms++!https://github.com/openai/openai-agents-pythonTo bring it all together, after the viral reception to Swarm, OpenAI is releasing an officially supported agents framework (which was previewed at our AI Engineer Summit) with 4 core pieces:* Agents: Easily configurable LLMs with clear instructions and built-in tools.* Handoffs: Intelligently transfer control between agents.* Guardrails: Configurable safety checks for input and output validation.* Tracing & Observability: Visualize agent execution traces to debug and optimize performance.Multi-agent workflows are here to stay!OpenAI is now explicitly designs for a set of common agentic patterns: Workflows, Handoffs, Agents-as-Tools, LLM-as-a-Judge, Parallelization, and Guardrails. OpenAI previewed this in part 2 of their talk at NYC:Further coverage of the launch from Kevin Weil, WSJ, and OpenAIDevs, AMA here.Show Notes* Assistants API* Swarm (OpenAI)* Fine-Tuning in AI* 2024 OpenAI DevDay Recap with Romain* Michelle Pokrass episode (API lead)Timestamps* 00:00 Intros* 02:31 Responses API * 08:34 Web Search API * 17:14 Files Search API * 18:46 Files API vs RAG * 20:06 Computer Use / Operator API * 22:30 Agents SDKAnd of course you can catch up with the full livestream here:TranscriptAlessio [00:00:03]: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another Latent Space Lightning episode. This is Alessio, partner and CTO at Decibel, and I'm joined by Swyx, founder of Small AI.swyx [00:00:11]: Hi, and today we have a super special episode because we're talking with our old friend Roman. Hi, welcome.Romain [00:00:19]: Thank you. Thank you for having me.swyx [00:00:20]: And Nikunj, who is most famously, if anyone has ever tried to get any access to anything on the API, Nikunj is the guy. So I know your emails because I look forward to them.Nikunj [00:00:30]: Yeah, nice to meet all of you.swyx [00:00:32]: I think that we're basically convening today to talk about the new API. So perhaps you guys want to just kick off. What is OpenAI launching today?Nikunj [00:00:40]: Yeah, so I can kick it off. We're launching a bunch of new things today. We're going to do three new built-in tools. So we're launching the web search tool. This is basically chat GPD for search, but available in the API. We're launching an improved file search tool. So this is you bringing your data to OpenAI. You upload it. We, you know, take care of parsing it, chunking it. We're embedding it, making it searchable, give you this like ready vector store that you can use. So that's the file search tool. And then we're also launching our computer use tool. So this is the tool behind the operator product in chat GPD. So that's coming to developers today. And to support all of these tools, we're going to have a new API. So, you know, we launched chat completions, like I think March 2023 or so. It's been a while. So we're looking for an update over here to support all the new things that the models can do. And so we're launching this new API. It is, you know, it works with tools. We think it'll be like a great option for all the future agentic products that we build. And so that is also launching today. Actually, the last thing we're launching is the agents SDK. We launched this thing called Swarm last year where, you know, it was an experimental SDK for people to do multi-agent orchestration and stuff like that. It was supposed to be like educational experimental, but like people, people really loved it. They like ate it up. And so we are like, all right, let's, let's upgrade this thing. Let's give it a new name. And so we're calling it the agents SDK. It's going to have built-in tracing in the OpenAI dashboard. So lots of cool stuff going out. So, yeah.Romain [00:02:14]: That's a lot, but we said 2025 was the year of agents. So there you have it, like a lot of new tools to build these agents for developers.swyx [00:02:20]: Okay. I guess, I guess we'll just kind of go one by one and we'll leave the agents SDK towards the end. So responses API, I think the sort of primary concern that people have and something I think I've voiced to you guys when, when, when I was talking with you in the, in the planning process was, is chat completions going away? So I just wanted to let it, let you guys respond to the concerns that people might have.Romain [00:02:41]: Chat completion is definitely like here to stay, you know, it's a bare metal API we've had for quite some time. Lots of tools built around it. So we want to make sure that it's maintained and people can confidently keep on building on it. At the same time, it was kind of optimized for a different world, right? It was optimized for a pre-multi-modality world. We also optimized for kind of single turn. It takes two problems. It takes prompt in, it takes response out. And now with these agentic workflows, we, we noticed that like developers and companies want to build longer horizon tasks, you know, like things that require multiple returns to get the task accomplished. And computer use is one of those, for instance. And so that's why the responses API came to life to kind of support these new agentic workflows. But chat completion is definitely here to stay.swyx [00:03:27]: And assistance API, we've, uh, has a target sunset date of first half of 2020. So this is kind of like, in my mind, there was a kind of very poetic mirroring of the API with the models. This, I kind of view this as like kind of the merging of assistance API and chat completions, right. Into one unified responses. So it's kind of like how GPT and the old series models are also unifying.Romain [00:03:48]: Yeah, that's exactly the right, uh, that's the right framing, right? Like, I think we took the best of what we learned from the assistance API, especially like being able to access tools very, uh, very like conveniently, but at the same time, like simplifying the way you have to integrate, like, you no longer have to think about six different objects to kind of get access to these tools with the responses API. You just get one API request and suddenly you can weave in those tools, right?Nikunj [00:04:12]: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're going to make it really easy and straightforward for assistance API users to migrate over to responsive. Right. To the API without any loss of functionality or data. So our plan is absolutely to add, you know, assistant like objects and thread light objects to that, that work really well with the responses API. We'll also add like the code interpreter tool, which is not launching today, but it'll come soon. And, uh, we'll add async mode to responses API, because that's another difference with, with, uh, assistance. I will have web hooks and stuff like that, but I think it's going to be like a pretty smooth transition. Uh, once we have all of that in place. And we'll be. Like a full year to migrate and, and help them through any issues they, they, they face. So overall, I feel like assistance users are really going to benefit from this longer term, uh, with this more flexible, primitive.Alessio [00:05:01]: How should people think about when to use each type of API? So I know that in the past, the assistance was maybe more stateful, kind of like long running, many tool use kind of like file based things. And the chat completions is more stateless, you know, kind of like traditional completion API. Is that still the mental model that people should have? Or like, should you buy the.Nikunj [00:05:20]: So the responses API is going to support everything that it's at launch, going to support everything that chat completion supports, and then over time, it's going to support everything that assistance supports. So it's going to be a pretty good fit for anyone starting out with open AI. Uh, they should be able to like go to responses responses, by the way, also has a stateless mode, so you can pass in store false and they'll make the whole API stateless, just like chat completions. You're really trying to like get this unification. A story in so that people don't have to juggle multiple endpoints. That being said, like chat completions, just like the most widely adopted API, it's it's so popular. So we're still going to like support it for years with like new models and features. But if you're a new user, you want to or if you want to like existing, you want to tap into some of these like built in tools or something, you should feel feel totally fine migrating to responses and you'll have more capabilities and performance than the tech completions.swyx [00:06:16]: I think the messaging that I agree that I think resonated the most. When I talked to you was that it is a strict superset, right? Like you should be able to do everything that you could do in chat completions and with assistants. And the thing that I just assumed that because you're you're now, you know, by default is stateful, you're actually storing the chat logs or the chat state. I thought you'd be charging me for it. So, you know, to me, it was very surprising that you figured out how to make it free.Nikunj [00:06:43]: Yeah, it's free. We store your state for 30 days. You can turn it off. But yeah, it's it's free. And the interesting thing on state is that it just like makes particularly for me, it makes like debugging things and building things so much simpler, where I can like create a responses object that's like pretty complicated and part of this more complex application that I've built, I can just go into my dashboard and see exactly what happened that mess up my prompt that is like not called one of these tools that misconfigure one of the tools like the visual observability of everything that you're doing is so, so helpful. So I'm excited, like about people trying that out and getting benefits from it, too.swyx [00:07:19]: Yeah, it's a it's really, I think, a really nice to have. But all I'll say is that my friend Corey Quinn says that anything that can be used as a database will be used as a database. So be prepared for some abuse.Romain [00:07:34]: All right. Yeah, that's a good one. Some of that I've tried with the metadata. That's some people are very, very creative at stuffing data into an object. Yeah.Nikunj [00:07:44]: And we do have metadata with responses. Exactly. Yeah.Alessio [00:07:48]: Let's get through it. All of these. So web search. I think the when I first said web search, I thought you were going to just expose a API that then return kind of like a nice list of thing. But the way it's name is like GPD for all search preview. So I'm guessing you have you're using basically the same model that is in the chat GPD search, which is fine tune for search. I'm guessing it's a different model than the base one. And it's impressive the jump in performance. So just to give an example, in simple QA, GPD for all is 38% accuracy for all search is 90%. But we always talk about. How tools are like models is not everything you need, like tools around it are just as important. So, yeah, maybe give people a quick review on like the work that went into making this special.Nikunj [00:08:29]: Should I take that?Alessio [00:08:29]: Yeah, go for it.Nikunj [00:08:30]: So firstly, we're launching web search in two ways. One in responses API, which is our API for tools. It's going to be available as a web search tool itself. So you'll be able to go tools, turn on web search and you're ready to go. We still wanted to give chat completions people access to real time information. So in that. Chat completions API, which does not support built in tools. We're launching the direct access to the fine tuned model that chat GPD for search uses, and we call it GPD for search preview. And how is this model built? Basically, we have our search research team has been working on this for a while. Their main goal is to, like, get information, like get a bunch of information from all of our data sources that we use to gather information for search and then pick the right things and then cite them. As accurately as possible. And that's what the search team has really focused on. They've done some pretty cool stuff. They use like synthetic data techniques. They've done like all series model distillation to, like, make these four or fine tunes really good. But yeah, the main thing is, like, can it remain factual? Can it answer questions based on what it retrieves and get cited accurately? And that's what this like fine tune model really excels at. And so, yeah, so we're excited that, like, it's going to be directly available in chat completions along with being available as a tool. Yeah.Alessio [00:09:49]: Just to clarify, if I'm using the responses API, this is a tool. But if I'm using chat completions, I have to switch model. I cannot use 01 and call search as a tool. Yeah, that's right. Exactly.Romain [00:09:58]: I think what's really compelling, at least for me and my own uses of it so far, is that when you use, like, web search as a tool, it combines nicely with every other tool and every other feature of the platform. So think about this for a second. For instance, imagine you have, like, a responses API call with the web search tool, but suddenly you turn on function calling. You also turn on, let's say, structure. So you can have, like, the ability to structure any data from the web in real time in the JSON schema that you need for your application. So it's quite powerful when you start combining those features and tools together. It's kind of like an API for the Internet almost, you know, like you get, like, access to the precise schema you need for your app. Yeah.Alessio [00:10:39]: And then just to wrap up on the infrastructure side of it, I read on the post that people, publisher can choose to appear in the web search. So are people by default in it? Like, how can we get Latent Space in the web search API?Nikunj [00:10:53]: Yeah. Yeah. I think we have some documentation around how websites, publishers can control, like, what shows up in a web search tool. And I think you should be able to, like, read that. I think we should be able to get Latent Space in for sure. Yeah.swyx [00:11:10]: You know, I think so. I compare this to a broader trend that I started covering last year of online LLMs. Actually, Perplexity, I think, was the first. It was the first to say, to offer an API that is connected to search, and then Gemini had the sort of search grounding API. And I think you guys, I actually didn't, I missed this in the original reading of the docs, but you even give like citations with like the exact sub paragraph that is matching, which I think is the standard nowadays. I think my question is, how do we take what a knowledge cutoff is for something like this, right? Because like now, basically there's no knowledge cutoff is always live, but then there's a difference between what the model has sort of internalized in its back propagation and what is searching up its rag.Romain [00:11:53]: I think it kind of depends on the use case, right? And what you want to showcase as the source. Like, for instance, you take a company like Hebbia that has used this like web search tool. They can combine like for credit firms or law firms, they can find like, you know, public information from the internet with the live sources and citation that sometimes you do want to have access to, as opposed to like the internal knowledge. But if you're building something different, well, like, you just want to have the information. If you want to have an assistant that relies on the deep knowledge that the model has, you may not need to have these like direct citations. So I think it kind of depends on the use case a little bit, but there are many, uh, many companies like Hebbia that will need that access to these citations to precisely know where the information comes from.swyx [00:12:34]: Yeah, yeah, uh, for sure. And then one thing on the, on like the breadth, you know, I think a lot of the deep research, open deep research implementations have this sort of hyper parameter about, you know, how deep they're searching and how wide they're searching. I don't see that in the docs. But is that something that we can tune? Is that something you recommend thinking about?Nikunj [00:12:53]: Super interesting. It's definitely not a parameter today, but we should explore that. It's very interesting. I imagine like how you would do it with the web search tool and responsive API is you would have some form of like, you know, agent orchestration over here where you have a planning step and then each like web search call that you do like explicitly goes a layer deeper and deeper and deeper. But it's not a parameter that's available out of the box. But it's a cool. It's a cool thing to think about. Yeah.swyx [00:13:19]: The only guidance I'll offer there is a lot of these implementations offer top K, which is like, you know, top 10, top 20, but actually don't really want that. You want like sort of some kind of similarity cutoff, right? Like some matching score cuts cutoff, because if there's only five things, five documents that match fine, if there's 500 that match, maybe that's what I want. Right. Yeah. But also that might, that might make my costs very unpredictable because the costs are something like $30 per a thousand queries, right? So yeah. Yeah.Nikunj [00:13:49]: I guess you could, you could have some form of like a context budget and then you're like, go as deep as you can and pick the best stuff and put it into like X number of tokens. There could be some creative ways of, of managing cost, but yeah, that's a super interesting thing to explore.Alessio [00:14:05]: Do you see people using the files and the search API together where you can kind of search and then store everything in the file so the next time I'm not paying for the search again and like, yeah, how should people balance that?Nikunj [00:14:17]: That's actually a very interesting question. And let me first tell you about how I've seen a really cool way I've seen people use files and search together is they put their user preferences or memories in the vector store and so a query comes in, you use the file search tool to like get someone's like reading preferences or like fashion preferences and stuff like that, and then you search the web for information or products that they can buy related to those preferences and you then render something beautiful to show them, like, here are five things that you might be interested in. So that's how I've seen like file search, web search work together. And by the way, that's like a single responses API call, which is really cool. So you just like configure these things, go boom, and like everything just happens. But yeah, that's how I've seen like files and web work together.Romain [00:15:01]: But I think that what you're pointing out is like interesting, and I'm sure developers will surprise us as they always do in terms of how they combine these tools and how they might use file search as a way to have memory and preferences, like Nikum says. But I think like zooming out, what I find very compelling and powerful here is like when you have these like neural networks. That have like all of the knowledge that they have today, plus real time access to the Internet for like any kind of real time information that you might need for your app and file search, where you can have a lot of company, private documents, private details, you combine those three, and you have like very, very compelling and precise answers for any kind of use case that your company or your product might want to enable.swyx [00:15:41]: It's a difference between sort of internal documents versus the open web, right? Like you're going to need both. Exactly, exactly. I never thought about it doing memory as well. I guess, again, you know, anything that's a database, you can store it and you will use it as a database. That sounds awesome. But I think also you've been, you know, expanding the file search. You have more file types. You have query optimization, custom re-ranking. So it really seems like, you know, it's been fleshed out. Obviously, I haven't been paying a ton of attention to the file search capability, but it sounds like your team has added a lot of features.Nikunj [00:16:14]: Yeah, metadata filtering was like the main thing people were asking us for for a while. And I'm super excited about it. I mean, it's just so critical once your, like, web store size goes over, you know, more than like, you know, 5,000, 10,000 records, you kind of need that. So, yeah, metadata filtering is coming, too.Romain [00:16:31]: And for most companies, it's also not like a competency that you want to rebuild in-house necessarily, you know, like, you know, thinking about embeddings and chunking and, you know, how of that, like, it sounds like very complex for something very, like, obvious to ship for your users. Like companies like Navant, for instance. They were able to build with the file search, like, you know, take all of the FAQ and travel policies, for instance, that you have, you, you put that in file search tool, and then you don't have to think about anything. Now your assistant becomes naturally much more aware of all of these policies from the files.swyx [00:17:03]: The question is, like, there's a very, very vibrant RAG industry already, as you well know. So there's many other vector databases, many other frameworks. Probably if it's an open source stack, I would say like a lot of the AI engineers that I talk to want to own this part of the stack. And it feels like, you know, like, when should we DIY and when should we just use whatever OpenAI offers?Nikunj [00:17:24]: Yeah. I mean, like, if you're doing something completely from scratch, you're going to have more control, right? Like, so super supportive of, you know, people trying to, like, roll up their sleeves, build their, like, super custom chunking strategy and super custom retrieval strategy and all of that. And those are things that, like, will be harder to do with OpenAI tools. OpenAI tool has, like, we have an out-of-the-box solution. We give you the tools. We use some knobs to customize things, but it's more of, like, a managed RAG service. So my recommendation would be, like, start with the OpenAI thing, see if it, like, meets your needs. And over time, we're going to be adding more and more knobs to make it even more customizable. But, you know, if you want, like, the completely custom thing, you want control over every single thing, then you'd probably want to go and hand roll it using other solutions. So we're supportive of both, like, engineers should pick. Yeah.Alessio [00:18:16]: And then we got computer use. Which I think Operator was obviously one of the hot releases of the year. And we're only two months in. Let's talk about that. And that's also, it seems like a separate model that has been fine-tuned for Operator that has browser access.Nikunj [00:18:31]: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the computer use models are exciting. The cool thing about computer use is that we're just so, so early. It's like the GPT-2 of computer use or maybe GPT-1 of computer use right now. But it is a separate model that has been, you know, the computer. The computer use team has been working on, you send it screenshots and it tells you what action to take. So the outputs of it are almost always tool calls and you're inputting screenshots based on whatever computer you're trying to operate.Romain [00:19:01]: Maybe zooming out for a second, because like, I'm sure your audience is like super, super like AI native, obviously. But like, what is computer use as a tool, right? And what's operator? So the idea for computer use is like, how do we let developers also build agents that can complete tasks for the users, but using a computer? Okay. Or a browser instead. And so how do you get that done? And so that's why we have this custom model, like optimized for computer use that we use like for operator ourselves. But the idea behind like putting it as an API is that imagine like now you want to, you want to automate some tasks for your product or your own customers. Then now you can, you can have like the ability to spin up one of these agents that will look at the screen and act on the screen. So that means able, the ability to click, the ability to scroll. The ability to type and to report back on the action. So that's what we mean by computer use and wrapping it as a tool also in the responses API. So now like that gives a hint also at the multi-turned thing that we were hinting at earlier, the idea that like, yeah, maybe one of these actions can take a couple of minutes to complete because there's maybe like 20 steps to complete that task. But now you can.swyx [00:20:08]: Do you think a computer use can play Pokemon?Romain [00:20:11]: Oh, interesting. I guess we tried it. I guess we should try it. You know?swyx [00:20:17]: Yeah. There's a lot of interest. I think Pokemon really is a good agent benchmark, to be honest. Like it seems like Claude is, Claude is running into a lot of trouble.Romain [00:20:25]: Sounds like we should make that a new eval, it looks like.swyx [00:20:28]: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and then one more, one more thing before we move on to agents SDK. I know you have a hard stop. There's all these, you know, blah, blah, dash preview, right? Like search preview, computer use preview, right? And you see them all like fine tunes of 4.0. I think the question is, are we, are they all going to be merged into the main branch or are we basically always going to have subsets? Of these models?Nikunj [00:20:49]: Yeah, I think in the early days, research teams at OpenAI like operate with like fine tune models. And then once the thing gets like more stable, we sort of merge it into the main line. So that's definitely the vision, like going out of preview as we get more comfortable with and learn about all the developer use cases and we're doing a good job at them. We'll sort of like make them part of like the core models so that you don't have to like deal with the bifurcation.Romain [00:21:12]: You should think of it this way as exactly what happened last year when we introduced vision capabilities, you know. Yes. Vision capabilities were in like a vision preview model based off of GPT-4 and then vision capabilities now are like obviously built into GPT-4.0. You can think about it the same way for like the other modalities like audio and those kind of like models, like optimized for search and computer use.swyx [00:21:34]: Agents SDK, we have a few minutes left. So let's just assume that everyone has looked at Swarm. Sure. I think that Swarm has really popularized the handoff technique, which I thought was like, you know, really, really interesting for sort of a multi-agent. What is new with the SDK?Nikunj [00:21:50]: Yeah. Do you want to start? Yeah, for sure. So we've basically added support for types. We've made this like a lot. Yeah. Like we've added support for types. We've added support for guard railing, which is a very common pattern. So in the guardrail example, you basically have two things happen in parallel. The guardrail can sort of block the execution. It's a type of like optimistic generation that happens. And I think we've added support for tracing. So I think that's really cool. So you can basically look at the traces that the Agents SDK creates in the OpenAI dashboard. We also like made this pretty flexible. So you can pick any API from any provider that supports the ChatCompletions API format. So it supports responses by default, but you can like easily plug it in to anyone that uses the ChatCompletions API. And similarly, on the tracing side, you can support like multiple tracing providers. By default, it sort of points to the OpenAI dashboard. But, you know, there's like so many tracing providers. There's so many tracing companies out there. And we'll announce some partnerships on that front, too. So just like, you know, adding lots of core features and making it more usable, but still centered around like handoffs is like the main, main concept.Romain [00:22:59]: And by the way, it's interesting, right? Because Swarm just came to life out of like learning from customers directly that like orchestrating agents in production was pretty hard. You know, simple ideas could quickly turn very complex. Like what are those guardrails? What are those handoffs, et cetera? So that came out of like learning from customers. And it was initially shipped. It was not as a like low-key experiment, I'd say. But we were kind of like taken by surprise at how much momentum there was around this concept. And so we decided to learn from that and embrace it. To be like, okay, maybe we should just embrace that as a core primitive of the OpenAI platform. And that's kind of what led to the Agents SDK. And I think now, as Nikuj mentioned, it's like adding all of these new capabilities to it, like leveraging the handoffs that we had, but tracing also. And I think what's very compelling for developers is like instead of having one agent to rule them all and you stuff like a lot of tool calls in there that can be hard to monitor, now you have the tools you need to kind of like separate the logic, right? And you can have a triage agent that based on an intent goes to different kind of agents. And then on the OpenAI dashboard, we're releasing a lot of new user interface logs as well. So you can see all of the tracing UIs. Essentially, you'll be able to troubleshoot like what exactly happened. In that workflow, when the triage agent did a handoff to a secondary agent and the third and see the tool calls, et cetera. So we think that the Agents SDK combined with the tracing UIs will definitely help users and developers build better agentic workflows.Alessio [00:24:28]: And just before we wrap, are you thinking of connecting this with also the RFT API? Because I know you already have, you kind of store my text completions and then I can do fine tuning of that. Is that going to be similar for agents where you're storing kind of like my traces? And then help me improve the agents?Nikunj [00:24:43]: Yeah, absolutely. Like you got to tie the traces to the evals product so that you can generate good evals. Once you have good evals and graders and tasks, you can use that to do reinforcement fine tuning. And, you know, lots of details to be figured out over here. But that's the vision. And I think we're going to go after it like pretty hard and hope we can like make this whole workflow a lot easier for developers.Alessio [00:25:05]: Awesome. Thank you so much for the time. I'm sure you'll be busy on Twitter tomorrow with all the developer feedback. Yeah.Romain [00:25:12]: Thank you so much for having us. And as always, we can't wait to see what developers will build with these tools and how we can like learn as quickly as we can from them to make them even better over time.Nikunj [00:25:21]: Yeah.Romain [00:25:22]: Thank you, guys.Nikunj [00:25:23]: Thank you.Romain [00:25:23]: Thank you both. Awesome. Get full access to Latent.Space at www.latent.space/subscribe
After a little more than two days, U.S. President Donald Trump paused the 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico until April 2. It's not just the tariff whiplash that's causing anxiety – since Trump took office, he's alienated allies, moved closer to traditional rivals, and hinted at a new age of U.S. imperialism.Doug Saunders is the international affairs columnist for the Globe. He joins the Decibel to talk about how the world as we know it has changed since Trump took office in January, and how countries are adapting to the constantly shifting global order.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
"Would you be mad at us if we raised more money?"That was the text I got late one night from Will Pearce, co-founder and CEO of Dreadnode, a company we'd funded about nine months prior. I'd gotten to know Will through a cold DM he sent me. The DM had nothing to do with tech or investing, just starting a conversation. At the time, Will was working at NVIDIA as an AI red team lead putting him at the cutting edge of AI and ML security. As we got to know each other, it was clear he had a large vision for where the puck was going for the broader market and where his expertise and insights could create the foundation for building the leading company for offensive AI security. I offered to put together a small round to put he and his co-founder, Nick Landers, in business. We filled the round out with several value-added angels and were off to the races to build product and company with indie ideals at the core. And it worked!Within months, they were signing contracts with the top names at leading research labs and hyper-scalers. On several occasions, they were even profitable! And then the VCs noticed. Shortly after our round closed, the word started to spread on what the team at Dreadnode was building. Then the emails started. The early answers were nos and not interested, but as demand from customers grew and incredible, early potential team members started coming out of the woodwork, these high class problems were becoming very real problems. The team found themselves turning away customers and potential hires as their demand outstripped their resources. Thus, the late night text. The text led to a conversation that led to a formal fundraising process and ended in the announcement last week of Dreadnode's $14M Series A led by Decibel, a top tier firm focused exclusively on security. In today's video, we unpack the conversation and process that unfolded after that late night text. We dig into why Will may have had concerns that I, and indie, would be upset or not supportive of their decision, and learnings from two very green and very technical first time founders getting sucked into their first proper fundraising process. I hope what comes through in video is something I've written often — we are not anti-fundraising. But we believe that the best way to improve your odds of building a generational company that can attract world class customers and investors is to focus on the former, the latter will come. And when they do, you'll be in a position of ultimate optionality that empowers founding teams to pick exactly the partner they want, on the terms they want, and get back to build the company they want. It seems obvious, but it runs so counter to the advice and examples that get celebrated in the startup world. In the case of Dreadnode, they were able to do just that — work with the partner they wanted on the terms they wanted. And, as an added benefit, they were effectively able to skip 2 or 3 interim rounds of funding and skip straight to a fully baked Series A. Our goal with today's video was to put some personalities and experiences to that narrative and I think it comes through here. As always, I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed recording it. PS — if you see any of yourself in the Dreadnode founders, don't hesitate to reach out to discuss what you're building and whether indie could be a fit for you too.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is as isolated from the western world as ever. It has no diplomatic relations with Canada, President Trump recently recommitted to exerting “maximum economic pressure” on the country to force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program and support for terrorism. Western sanctions have contributed to its 32 per cent inflation rate.And yet, as The Globe's Africa Bureau Chief Geoffrey York found on a recent — and rare — reporting trip to the country, ordinary Iranians are pushing for change. More women are defying the strict dress code laws and don't cover their hair in public, despite the violent crackdown on their protests in 2022. Iranian films are also defying morality laws, screening them in Iran, and submitting them to the international film festival in Cannes.Enter this Decibel survey: and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Scammers are using generative AI technology to create deepfakes, compelling their targets to send large sums of money. And it is not just individuals getting scammed any more – businesses are increasingly being targeted by these look-alikes too.While there are positive applications for generative AI, these digital replicas may mean the need for better regulation.Alexandra Posadski is the Globe's financial and cybersecurity reporter. Alexandra will explain how these scams usually work, how deepfakes are increasingly being used, and what can be done to help protect ourselves against them.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
March 1 marks the official end of the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza. Phase two remains in doubt, unless all parties can start negotiations or extend the deadline for phase one.Hamida Ghafour is The Globe's Deputy Foreign Editor. She explains what has happened during the last six weeks, how hostage handovers have caused outrage in Israel and what could happen next.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
This Thursday, Ontario voters head to the polls for a provincial election that Premier Doug Ford called more than a year early. The threat of tariffs looms large, overshadowing traditional election issues like health care and affordability.Jeff Gray is The Globe's Ontario politics reporter. He's on the show to talk about how tariffs shaped this election, how the parties are approaching the challenges facing Ontario and how Ford's opponents are dealing with the uphill battle against him.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Josh Kamdjou is CEO and Founder of Sublime Security. Josh started Sublime after realizing just how easy it was for him to break into companies with phishing emails. He wanted to build a solution that better addressed the tailored environment of each organization such as historical data. Now the company has raised over $80 million from leading VCs such as IVP, Index Ventures, and Decibel. Before Sublime, Josh worked as a DoD hacker for 9 years.In the episode we discuss his emphasis on leveraging the attacker perspective, the fundamental difficulties of email security, his conviction in product-led growth, and more.Website: https://sublime.security/Sponsor: VulnCheck
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has taken aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with major American corporations scrapping their policies and programs in response. But the backlash goes beyond DEI — corporate climate commitments are under attack, too.The progressive policies being rolled back fall under ESG (environmental, social and governance). ESG factors help businesses evaluate their practices related to sustainability and ethics, and help investors decide who to support. But with major political shifts taking place in the U.S., could Canada's ESG boom go bust too?Jeffrey Jones is the Globe's ESG and sustainable finance reporter. He'll explain the rise of ESG, the growing backlash, and whether we could see Canadian companies roll back their own environmental commitments in the coming months.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
As the new deadline for U.S. tariffs approaches, Canadian businesses are trying to suss out whether it's possible for them to diversify their trading partners to help soften the blow if American demand dries up.Chris Wilson-Smith – who writes The Globe's daily Business Brief newsletter – recently looked into how feasible diversification is and found there are some significant barriers. But not all hope is lost.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
In this special weekend edition of The Decibel, two Canadian authors discuss their new memoirs on divorce. Scaachi Koul is a senior writer at Slate, and co-hosts the podcast Scamfluencers, as well as the Netflix show Follow This. Her second book is called Sucker Punch: Essays, and is a collection of essays about her divorce, among many other life-changing events.Haley Mlotek is a writer, editor, and organizer and has been published in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and many other places. Her first book is called No Fault: a Memoir of Romance and Divorce.Want more weekend editions of The Decibel? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.comEnter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cards.
CareerCast by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Tune in to CareerCast with host, Anita Brick, as she welcomes Mike Schiller, former corporate executive and author of "High Impact at Low Decibels." In this compelling episode, Mike reveals strategies for making a significant impact in your career without pushy self-promotion or office drama. Discover how to: Amplify your influence quietly yet effectively; Navigate workplace challenges with grace, and Leverage your unique strengths for career advancement. Whether you are an introvert looking to shine or an extrovert seeking to refine your approach, this episode offers invaluable insights for professionals across industries. Learn to create waves without making noise, and transform your career trajectory with subtle yet powerful techniques.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump had a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the end of the war in Ukraine. That call ended three years of U.S. isolation of Russia – former President Joe Biden hadn't spoken to Putin since before Russia invaded Ukraine – and caught Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky by surprise. Days later, U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia to discuss a plan for the end of the war, once again, without Ukraine.Mark MacKinnon is a senior international correspondent for the Globe. Today, he's on the show to talk about how the relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine is deteriorating as the three-year anniversary of the war approaches, and what that signals for Ukraine's future.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government is facing scrutiny after serious allegations were in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit launched by Alberta Health Services' former CEO, Athana Mentzelopoulos. The lawsuit alleges that government officials interfered with the health system on behalf of private firms. It also claims that Mentzelopoulos was fired because of “an internal investigation,” she was launched into how Alberta Health Services' contracts are procured. Carrie Tait, one of The Globe's reporters covering Alberta, broke this story. She explains the allegations made against the government, their ties to for-profit medical companies and what Smith's government has said publicly so far. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.comEnter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cards
Rates of cancer diagnosis and death are climbing worldwide in people under 50, according to the World Health Organization. A report, with data between 1990 and 2019 in 204 countries, showed early onset cancer grew 79 percent, while deaths also went up by 28 percent in the same time period.We follow the stories of two cancer survivors along with Kelly Grant, The Globe's national health reporter. She'll detail what we know about why younger people are being diagnosed with cancer, the symptoms to look for and why fighting cancer at a young age carries new challenges for Millennials and Gen Xers.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.comEnter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cards
Less than a month into his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has already threatened to impose tariffs on half a dozen allies and adversaries. This week, he announced incoming universal tariffs on steel and aluminum, along with reciprocal tariffs on a range of foreign imports at ‘different levels'.But when and why did Trump decide that tariffs would be the centrepiece of his plan in redefining America's role in the global trading system?Mark Rendell is the Globe's Economics Reporter. He'll explain how Trump is using tariffs, its role in achieving his administration's vision for U.S. trade, and whether all of this... could actually backfire.Enter this Decibel survey: https://thedecibelsurvey.ca/ and share your thoughts for a chance to win $100 grocery gift cardsQuestions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com
In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Mike Schiller about his book, High Impact at Low Decibels: How Anxiety-Filled Introverts (And Others) Can Thrive In The Workplace. Mike Schiller has more than 30 years of experience at Fortune 500 companies, both as a technical expert and as an executive-level leader, and most recently was vice president and chief information security officer at Texas Instruments. He is currently president of Onward Consulting, specializing in information security and audit consulting. Schiller is a graduate of Texas A&M University and has spent more than 20 years working in the IT audit and information security fields. He is an anxiety-filled introvert and enjoys helping others with similar challenges succeed. For more information, please visit https://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/high-impact-at-low-decibels-how-anxiety-filled-introverts-and-others-can-thrive-in-the-workplace Check out all of the podcasts in the HCI Podcast Network!
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