Alex Mai

Media Designer - taking pictures, kayaking, traveling and, mostly, living in between the swims

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@Pinperepette Dovevi optare per il tipico intercalare della val nure: "la madunassa" 😂

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

Modelli llm diffusivi all'orizzonte...

[Google DeepMind @GoogleDeepMind]

DiffusionGemma is our new experimental open model with up to 4x faster output on dedicated GPUs.

Instead of predicting word-by-word, it generates entire blocks of text simultaneously. This lets the model self-correct and format complex markdown in real time.

[Google Gemma @googlegemma]

Meet DiffusionGemma!

An experimental open model that explores a fast approach to text generation, released under an Apache 2.0 license.

Moving beyond sequential, token-by-token processes to generate entire blocks of text simultaneously. Here’s what’s new with DiffusionGemma: 👇

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

Un ottimo strumento di indagine sociale contemporanea è leggere il privilegio Smithiano di cui oggi sembrano godere alcune fette della popolazione alloctona. Vero o meno, gli autoctoni reagiranno... Col fuoco e il ferro. Più o meno come a Belfast.

[ClaudeDevs @ClaudeDevs]

Claude Fable 5 is here. New model generation, new way of working.

Here's how to get started in Claude Code and on the Claude Platform: 🧵

[Google @Google]

Today we’re introducing Gemma 4 12B — our latest open model that brings advanced agentic reasoning, vision and audio directly to your laptop.

It delivers performance nearing our larger Gemma models with a much smaller total memory footprint, while being small enough to run locally with just 16GB of VRAM. It’s open and accessible for everyone to use under a permissive Apache 2.0 license.

This is all made possible by our new, unified architecture that removes separate multimodal encoders. Here’s how we did it 🧵

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@miciotokyo Ci proverò sicuramente... Ma non garantisco risultati 😂

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@miciotokyo Ormai quando torno mi sento a casa. Peccato però che non abbia mai imparato bene la lingua giapponese 😅

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@Pinperepette Però vorrei capire la questione della Nera che sparpaglia il mangime... La tenete solo come agente del caos o esiste un piano per il suo futuro in brodo? 😂

[Leonardo Facco @LeofaccoTweet]

Immagina che domani mattina il tuo datore di lavoro smetta di fare il sostituto d’imposta. Nessuno ti ha avvisato. Sul conto corrente arriva una cifra che non hai mai visto: 2.500 euro. Il tuo stipendio lordo. Intero.
Tutto tuo.

Per un momento ti senti ricco.
Poi cominciano ad arrivare le lettere.
La prima è dell’INPS. Contributi previdenziali a tuo carico: 230 euro. Ogni mese. Li conoscevi — una riga in busta paga, tra le altre. Ma adesso c’è un bollettino da compilare, un importo da digitare, un tasto “conferma pagamento” da premere guardando il saldo che scende. Il numero ha un peso diverso quando esce dal tuo conto.

La seconda lettera è ancora dell’INPS. Ma questa non l’avevi mai vista. Mai. In tutta la tua vita lavorativa.
Contributi a carico del datore di lavoro: 750 euro al mese.
Settecentocinquanta euro. Ogni mese. Da sempre.
Il tuo datore li versava per te — non per generosità, per obbligo di legge. Fanno parte del costo del tuo lavoro. Se non esistessero, sarebbero nel tuo stipendio. Ma nessuno te li ha mai mostrati. Non compaiono nella tua busta paga. Non esistono nel tuo mondo. Fino a oggi.

Poi arrivano le altre:
— IRPEF, Agenzia delle Entrate: 280 euro
— Addizionale regionale: 34 euro
— Addizionale comunale: 18 euro
— INAIL, assicurazione infortuni: 25 euro
— TFR: 173 euro al mese — soldi tuoi, tecnicamente, che rivedrai tra venti o trent’anni.
Sette voci. Quattro enti diversi. Ogni mese.
Adesso devi pagarle. E scopri che ogni ente ha il suo mondo:
— L’INPS ha un portale
— L’Agenzia delle Entrate ne ha un altro
— La Regione un altro ancora
— Il Comune un altro
Quattro piattaforme. Quattro registrazioni. Quattro password. Quattro interfacce che non si sono mai parlate. Le scadenze:
— INPS: entro il 16 del mese
— IRPEF: entro il 16, stesso giorno, modello diverso, codice tributo diverso
— Addizionali: calendario proprio
— TFR: regole a parte
Sbagli un codice tributo? Tuo problema.
Sbagli il periodo di riferimento? Tuo problema.
Versi 10 euro in meno? Tuo problema.
Il sistema non ti manda un promemoria. Ti manda una sanzione.
— Ravvedimento operoso
— Interessi di mora
— Cartella esattoriale
— Iscrizione a ruolo

Ogni errore costa più dell’errore. E per scoprire che hai sbagliato devi saper leggere un F24 — un modulo che l’ottanta per cento dei dipendenti italiani non ha mai visto in vita sua. A quel punto ti serve un commercialista: altri 500-1.000 euro l’anno. Soldi che oggi non spendi, perché il tuo datore fa tutto gratis.
Per lo Stato, non per te.

Dodici mesi. Sette bollettini al mese. Ottantaquattro pagamenti l’anno. Quattro enti. Un pomeriggio al mese di portali, codici, ricevute, archivi. Due settimane l’anno della tua vita — non per lavorare, non per vivere — per pagare.

Adesso guarda i numeri.
L’azienda spendeva 3.400 euro al mese per averti. Tu ne vedevi 1.800. La differenza — 1.600 euro ogni mese, 19.000 euro ogni anno — non è mai passata per le tue mani. Non ha mai avuto il tuo nome sopra. Non ti è mai stata chiesta. Non l’hai mai vista.
Diciannove. Mila. Euro.

A Hong Kong il sostituto d’imposta non esiste. Il dipendente riceve il lordo e paga le tasse da solo. Aliquota massima: 15%. A Singapore lo stesso: 22%. Non è che quei governi si fidino di più. È che possono permetterselo. Quando il conto è ragionevole, il cittadino paga senza che nessuno debba nasconderglielo.

In Italia il cuneo fiscale è al 46%. La media OCSE è al 34%. E l’unico motivo per cui non lo sai è che qualcuno ha deciso, molto tempo fa, che era meglio se non lo sapevi.

Quel momento in cui ti sei sentito ricco — 2.500 euro sul conto, tutti tuoi? Dura esattamente fino alla prima lettera.

(Giovanni Affinita)

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@Pinperepette "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy" cit. (Concetto che detesto e sintomo di un problema funzionale grave)

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@andst7 Da persona che condivide il genetliaco con Roma (e ormai anche l'età 😂) posso solo apprezzare 👏

[Om Patel @om_patel5]

THIS GUY GOT TIRED OF MANAGING AI AGENTS THROUGH TERMINALS AND DASHBOARDS SO HE BUILT THEM AN RPG WORLD

5 agents and each one has a pixel character, a station, and they actually walk around the space

when enough unresolved issues pile up, the agents walk to a meeting point and hold a council session.

four different models debating what to do next, not scripted. each one reads the live system state independently.

in one session an agent pushed for cold outreach to close leads at 2am. another one said that's a terrible look for an autonomous system contacting strangers while the operator sleeps.

they ended up pivoting to an inbound strategy that none of them originally proposed.

single HTML file, node bridge, and phaser. runs on a Mac Mini.

instead of reading logs and checking dashboards you just watch your little pixel agents walk around and talk to each other

this is the most creative way i've seen anyone manage AI agents so far

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

@Pinperepette Cmq anziché "Rockets and feathers", visto che sei al bar sui bricchi, il descrittivo migliore per i prezzi sarebbe: "salgono come madunasse e scendono come la catena"

[Google Gemma @googlegemma]

Meet Gemma 4!

Purpose-built for advanced reasoning and agentic workflows on the hardware you own, and released under an Apache 2.0 license.

We listened to invaluable community feedback in developing these models. Here is what makes Gemma 4 our most capable open models yet: 👇

[10Δ @_10delta_]

3 weeks ago I argued the US goal in Iran is to seize the global oil spigot. Venezuela in January -> Iran in February.

Neutralize every supply channel outside the dollar system within 90 days. Achieve a compliant successor government and complete energy dominance.

The oil thesis was the obvious layer. However, when you zoom out & view the last four years as a single sequence rather than isolated geopolitical events, the architecture of the grander US plan becomes visible.

1st was Europe, which laid the groundwork.

The Ukraine conflict provided the justification for sanctions that collapsed Russian pipeline gas from 150 billion cubic meters to 40.

Then Nordstream was destroyed, which rewired the entire European energy system permanently. The US went from supplying 28% of Europe's LNG in 2021 to 58% by 2025, exporting a record 111 million MTs, the 1st country in history to break 100 MT.

Europe was transformed from a customer with options into a captive market now purchasing its survival in USD.

2nd was Syria.

The fall of Assad severed the critical node connecting China's Belt & Road Initiative to the Mediterranean.

The trilateral railway linking Iran, Iraq & Syria, designed to bypass Western maritime chokepoints, was completely destroyed.

This isolated Iran geographically & cleared the path for what came next.

3rd was Venezuela.

In January the US effectively took control of the world's largest heavy crude reserves. The US Gulf Coast has the most advanced refining complex on earth, specifically built for heavy sour crude. Phillips 66, Valero & the rest are now positioned to process hundreds of thousands of barrels of Venezuelan crude daily.

The US captured a massive strategic reserve & solidified its position as the dominant exporter of refined petroleum products, an industry worth $110 billion in 2025 alone.

Venezuela & Iran were the two major oil supply channels that existed outside the dollar system. Both produce heavy crude sold primarily to China & evaded US financial supervision. Both now being neutralized within 90 days, which leads us to..

4th is Iran & the Middle East energy shock.

Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, the world's largest natural gas reservoir. Iran retaliated against Qatar's Ras Laffan, the single largest LNG facility on earth, responsible for a fifth of global supply. QatarEnergy's own assessment is that 17% of export capacity is gone and recovery will take up to 5 years. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. European gas prices spiked 70%. Asian spot prices doubled.

The only remaining scaled supplier? The United States.

If Iran falls & a successor government is installed that the US controls or influences (the Delcy model described weeks ago) then roughly 40 to 45 million barrels per day of global production out of 103 million is effectively under US control. OPEC becomes irrelevant because the US coalition is now the marginal producer. Now add the gas dimension & it goes beyond oil.

This war is solidifying the petrodollar system as it evolves into a hybrid petro/LNG-dollar. The old system was built on Saudi crude priced in USD. The new system is built on American crude plus American gas from the Gulf Coast, with no alternative supplier of comparable scale. The dependency is deeper because LNG infrastructure requires long term contracts & regasification terminals that lock buyers into supply relationships for decades. Europe & the Pacific allies (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) cannot pivot away as there is nowhere left to pivot to. They're now locked into the US energy system.

The market confirms this. DXY went from 96 to 101. Gold down ~20% from its January all time high. Bitcoin down 20% on the year. Brent above $100. European & Asian institutions are liquidating precious metals and crypto to buy dollars because they need dollars to buy the only remaining scaled energy supply. The world is selling its gold to buy American energy in American currency. The dollar is now being weaponized through energy dependency.

The structural repricing is happening regardless of how the conflict resolves.

But the US grand strategy goes deeper..

Artificial intelligence is a physical industry. It runs on power and chips. Data centers require massive uninterrupted baseload electricity, primarily provided by natural gas. Semiconductor fabrication requires helium & rare earths.

By choking the Strait of Hormuz & crippling Middle Eastern LNG & helium production, the US is systematically degrading China's ability to power its data centers & fabricate semiconductors at scale.

The US is energy self sufficient, especially with newly captured Venezuelan reserves & expanding Gulf Coast capacity running on domestic gas.

On the other hand, China is import dependent & every joule it imports effectively now transits chokepoints the US Navy controls..

Iran was the Belt & Road's overland energy bypass, the corridor that allowed China to mitigate the Malacca Trap. With Iran neutralized that corridor is severed. China faces a world where its compute infrastructure competes for scraps on a depleted global LNG market, while American data centers run at full capacity on domestic energy.

Russia is next in the sequence. A post-war Iran reopening under US influence competes directly with Russia for the same refineries in China & India at lower cost. Iran's production costs are lower. Russia loses its last structural advantage in heavy crude & its economic lifeline. Additionally, under the Iran war cover, Ukraine has been opportunistically destroying Russian energy infrastructure & all signs point towards Russia being at the end of the line. The message from Washington becomes very simple: we dismantled two regimes in three months, your economy is about to get crushed, sign the Ukraine deal.

Then Trump sits down with Xi holding every card. Complete energy dominance. The hybrid petro/LNG-dollar fortified, Iran cleared, Russia cornered, & China facing the Malacca Trap fully closed with no remaining energy bypass.

Israel & the GCC are absorbing the kinetic cost of a conflict whose primary beneficiary, counter to the mainstream narrative, is actually America (First). Qatar offline for 5 years reprices the entire global gas market in favor of US exporters for the remainder of the decade. The Gulf states face years of rebuilding. Europe faces its 2nd energy crisis in four years.

Sure, the average American might face temporary moderate inflation & higher gas prices. But if you are the architect of the US empire & you view the rise of China & Chinese ASI as an existential winner takes all scenario, the collateral damage is acceptable cost.

Whoever controls the energy corridors controls the monetary system. Whoever controls the monetary system & the energy supply simultaneously controls the compute infrastructure that determines which civilization builds ASI first.

The US is seizing all 3.

[Alex Mai @AlexxMai]

Tra tutti quelli che potevano selezionare per collaborare alla produzione di un nuovo film di #LOTR (dopo quell'aborto di Rings of Power) questi prendono quello scarto antropologico di Colbert? #bellamerda

[𝙆𝘼𝙄𝙉/カイン @Y2KKAIN]

We need more evangelion computer interfaces

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

I am glad everyone is 100% sure that the war in Iran is the end of the world/a genius move/the end of the American Empire/the begining of a new age of American greatness/insert other opinion here.

But could you just acknowledge for a moment that you don't actually know how this is going to go because no one does? It's a gamble which could go either way. And all I see is people doing the usual "Here is my baseless opinion expressed with 100% metaphysical certitude followed by the typical "I hope I'm wrong" disclaimer which allows them to simultaneously harvest the clicks of people who wanted to have their retarded opinion reflected back at them while having plausible deniability for when that retarded opinion turns out to have been completely wrong.

The coin is in the air and we don't know how it's going to land, but the internet is full of people screaming "IT'S GOING TO BE HEADS" arguing with people screaming "IT'S GOING TO BE TAILS".

Stfu.