John Backus

Dissonant and obsessive try-hard. Founded @getcognito (acquired by @Plaid)

[John Backus @backus]

In 2014, @alain and I dropped out of Stanford so we could run @getcognito full time.

After almost a decade of hard work, I’m extremely excited to share that @Plaid has acquired Cognito for $252 million!

https://t.co/7QWMgChjvR

[John Backus @backus]

AI coding tools today remind me of Betty Crocker introducing a "just add water" cake mix in the 1940s which didn't sell well until they tweaked it to "just add an egg," making consumers feel like they're still baking.

Still in egg phase now, but it sure feels like "just add water" is right around the corner. Psychological toll this will have on builders will be profound.

[John Backus @backus]

@kissapiai Yeah I'm annoyed by the community note being because a bunch of bozos reposted it saying "It fully coded an original Pokémon game by itself" which is just a straight up lie

[John Backus @backus]

POK(AI)MON: Experimenting with GPT 5.4 autonomously editing and rewrite the Pokémon Red ROM, replacing Pokémon with AIs.

Details below

[John Backus @backus]

Huh, so a bunch of random people repost my video with an inaccurate caption so I get a community note on my post basically reiterating what I said immediately below the post? Strange...

[John Backus @backus]

It would do a good job advancing through menus and starting the game. The furthest I would have it go was walking out of the starter house just because the keyboard input → verify screenshot → repeat loop is just boring after a while, but I have no doubt it could go indefinitely. All I had to do was watch it try and fail a handful of times initially and then once it got the QA right I told it to write a guide in AGENTS.md to help it in the future.

[John Backus @backus]

@crunch1271 @0xKiryoko Consider the original pret projects or something if you're looking to donate. This only took me a few hours, I'm good :)

[John Backus @backus]

@0xKiryoko Opened up Codex inside of a fresh clone of https://t.co/Ee630rGUya and just described how I wanted the game modified. It built the ROM as it went, loaded it in a browser emulator using playwright to QA, generated images on its own, etc

[John Backus @backus]

@ByrneHobart Not quite sure tbh

[John Backus @backus]

I'm sure there's a bit of accounting weirdness here with DS/ML being under xAI but even still this is completely bonkers.

[John Backus @backus]

Twitter's Eng org used to be TWO THOUSAND engineers.

Now it's ~25 engineers and a few designers and PMs.

I knew the cuts were big but this is blowing my mind.

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

@danielrakh @bengold Engineers, 2 designers, 1.5 product managers and me

[John Backus @backus]

@marcryptonio I'm so sorry. It's a tragedy, especially right before the holidays. Hang in there

[John Backus @backus]

I thought I had 10 more years with my Dad.

He treated his CLL so effectively the last decade, sometimes I forgot he had cancer.

An infection took his brain so quickly that by the time my red eye landed we could only have simple yes or no conversations. Within 48 hours, it was a coin flip whether he would be able to recognize me. A week later, our last flicker of hope went out and we said goodbye.

There was no warning. No heads up to get some quality time in.

Why didn’t I call him every week? Why didn’t I ask him to show me pictures of him from when he was my age and explain that phase of his life? Why don’t I have more photos of him? With him?

I’m angry at myself for all those moments I wasn’t present with him. I’m angry at the world for how suddenly he was taken. So early. Six months before my wedding. Never able to meet my kids. To be able to call him “grandpa.” I couldn’t wait to give him that, and now I can’t.

The last few weeks I’ve been desperate for control. I couldn’t control the bureaucracy that denied him a bed at the specialist hospital he donated to, even when we paid for a private medical plane to transport him. It hurts even more that, in the end, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

I can’t control what happened to my Dad at this point, but I can control how I move forward. I won’t make the same mistakes again, Mom. I won’t let the family go without a strong leader they can rely on. I won’t let my kids grow up without knowing who you were, Dad. Your energy. Your overwhelming optimism. Determination. Work ethic. How your hard-driving intensity turned into a distinct tenderness in your later years.

I will continue to make you proud with what I accomplish, even if I can’t experience the joy in seeing the pride in your eyes anymore. I’ll pass on the values we shared. I’ll give my kids everything, just like you did.

Talk to your parents.

[John Backus @backus]

@MichaelRihani Thanks Rihani 🙏. Will definitely take you up on that when I'm back.

[John Backus @backus]

Why strain to remember a fact when you can just Google it? We've already collectively internalized this IMO.

I notice the same reflex emerging now for ChatGPT at the start of any task.

At the limit, the average person's brain will just be a router to different tools.

[John Backus @backus]

Cybernetics predicted tech would supercharge our brains, enhancing our memory, focus, and cognition.

This came true in a "monkey's paw" cursed way that also degraded our brains:

• Search nerfed our long-term memory
• Tiktok, our attention span
• AI, thinking for ourselves

[John Backus @backus]

More details in this blog post and the video below: https://t.co/BeJrQHPoPt

[John Backus @backus]

Announcing Ti2: Plaid’s latest Trust Index model, trained on 2x the data of its predecessor and catching 30% more fraud!

Ti2 uses bank transaction history and a user graph spanning Plaid’s vast network, enhancing fraud detection for synthetic identities and account takeovers.

[John Backus @backus]

We’re shipping all of this just 4 months after launching Ti1!

This model’s capabilities are growing fast, with more coming, from graph neural networks to AI agent analysis.

Every ID verification system will need a strong fraud model. Check out Plaid Protect and Trust Index.