Dr Simon Thorne

Programme chair for The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group, EuSpRIG - (“yewsprig”) for short. Academic and researcher in software and spreadsheet quality

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

It’s really happening! EuSpRIG welcomes the one and only @standupmaths. We’re ready for risks, research, and possibly the most entertaining spreadsheet jokes ever committed to cell. SUM-mon your curiosity. #EuSpRIG2025

https://t.co/gx2ximNB8o

[Matt Parker @standupmaths]

It’s finally happening! I will be at the European Spreadsheet
Risks Interest Group annual conference! See sum(you all) there.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@demishassabis Total fantasy not grounded in reality read this: https://t.co/HxLzvlKJer

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

Probably the biggest most impactful spreadsheet error ever made...

[Hongshen Zhu @HongshenZhu]

Indeed a crazy story. “High debt share hampers GDP growth” is still somehow a received wisdom preached to developing countries including China, yet just a boomer fat finger error.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@nicochristie @BrianSJ3 I wonder though would an experienced professional want to use it at all? i.e. someone who knows what they are doing would probably not bother to AI generate things. The auditing aspect of it I like a lot though, I have a much harder more abstract task which I will test it with.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@BrianSJ3 @nicochristie I suppose the question is who is this aimed at exactly... the generation stuff was quite interesting too, it was able to create functions from plain English but one would assume then the user doesn't know how to do this. I am not sure it saves time if you know what your doing.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@BrianSJ3 @nicochristie I have done some elementary testing with this, in my basic error seeded workbook, it identified 11 out of 12 issues which is quite impressive and gave a good explanation of what was wrong and how to fix it.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@BrianSJ3 @nicochristie Interesting, I wonder how robust that is?

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

Spreadsheet - a response to an FOI request. Again if you’re a malicious actor then that list of names could mean they are able to target the names on the list. All because we forgot to check something properly before we rush it out the door! Despite all the security elsewhere

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

This is correct, it was done in good faith - the spreadsheet had the names of some trusted individuals, people who could be vouched for - I.e. they maybe worked with the MOD in Afgan - interpreters, intelligence, local community liaison etc. The spreadsheet…

[Respect @rrespectorr]

@en4rab @EuSpRIG I think they actually shared it accidentally in an email to unrelated people and that's how it got leaked

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

active police units, CT units, MOD staff and MI5 staff working with the police. Some of which of which were on active duty at the time. The information included addresses of work places, names, ranks all sorts of highly sensitive information in a hidden worksheet in the…

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

Complacency - this is what led to this point and unless you address the systemic issues that led you there, another breach is a certainty. #spreadsheets

[Public Accounts Committee @CommonsPAC]

We've published our report on the Afghan data breach.

We found that @DefenceHQ hasn't done enough to stop an incident similar to the 2022 data breach from happening again and make recommendations about data security, accountability and reporting processes.

Full report ⬇️

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@en4rab I was just talking about this issue - shocking stuff. I think the reality of lots of these organisations is the impression of control but in reality it's chaos.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

Another spreadsheet horror story: Gallatin County, Montana over-collected $8.5M in taxes due to one misapplied formula repeated for four years.
Automation without verification is not assurance.
https://t.co/cmnisMlUtN
#SpreadsheetRisk #Governance

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

My estimate of the probability of Grok 5 achieving AGI is now at 0% and not rising. Illiterate, investor baiting nonsense from @elonmusk

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

My estimate of the probability of Grok 5 achieving AGI is now at 10% and rising

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

Very true, in fact #LLm generated software also a ticking time bomb but #spreadsheets are particularly vulnerable to a lack of checking and scrutiny. How long will it be before our first AI spreadsheet horror story?

[Zack Korman @ZackKorman]

Copilot in Excel is a global financial crisis waiting to happen.

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

#Minecraft is a wonderful learning environment, using only ‘red stone’, an in game resource for adding programming functions to the game, Sam has implemented a 5 M word Large Language Model https://t.co/bwbTdelXv1 #LLM #Minecraftbuilds #AI #GenerativeAI

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

The US-UK tech prosperity deal carries promise but also peril for the general public https://t.co/AjmTB1tqQ7 via @ConversationUK

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@0xsachi @EMostaque LLMs will not produce consciousness

[Dr Simon Thorne @EuSpRIG]

@EMostaque Illiterate nonsense, LLMs are just probabilistic guessing machines. AGI is hard AI, machines that are literally our equals or better, LLMs will never produce AGI.