Alex Brooker

Founder@Airside Labs | Building AI Agents, Red Teaming and Evals. If you're here I'd love to hear from you. Accelerate 🇬🇧 🚀

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

While at University in 1998 I pitched BAE Systems for a 10 week summer placement. I had no idea what aerospace really looked like from the inside. Those ten weeks turned into ten years, changed my life, and set the direction of a career I'm still loving 25+ years on.

This week I read that UK graduate vacancies have dropped below 10,000 for the first time since records began, a 45% fall year on year. Apprenticeship openings are holding up better, but young people are facing the toughest job market in a generation.

No sponsorship or promotion. Just a simple list of resources I'd point a niece, a nephew, or 18-year-old me towards. If you know someone weighing up their options, share it with them. If you spot something missing please tell me. If you want to vibe code a better way to share than a google sheet... 🚀🚀🚀

The minimum any of us can do as engineers is make sure these doors are visible, thank you in advance, the link is here 💪 👇 🚀 🛫

https://t.co/gBhnlYDiqv

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@EU_Commission 16 hours later still a 404. Did someone forget to submit the correct form to add the URL to the allowed list of pages process permissions governance system

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

For paid knowledge work, I am embarrassingly quicker. 100X for basic consulting. The client cannot keep up. The end of the billable hour.

The one thing that did occur to me is that I am creating high quality context fodder for the customer's AI tool to use. Really made me think about how to structure that output to be most useful to the client (AI) and not necessarily readable by a human.

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@Jameswise this is amazing! does it include apprenticeships or internships James? I am working with the IET on a similar matchmaking project for aerospace tech placements for young people facing the current jobs crisis

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

why green products don't do as well as just better products. Something he started with the Lazy Environmentalist and continued at Plantd
https://t.co/UaF3FcqGbG

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

Really fun conversation with Josh Dorfman (of Lazy Environmentalist and Plantd fame) on this week's episode of the Travel Tech Podcast. Our theme was

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@stan_maximin fantastic stuff, is there a link to a project description or further info?

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@DanNeidle This is excellent work, making the data available is great. My view is that we should always strive for simplicity, and respect revealed behaviour to avoid pointless complexity

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@alexanderrX_ not bad

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@RestIsScience @CR_UK I mean I think she is awesome, but just reading out science while the other host nods along is getting really tired. How about interview the scientist

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@AllQuizAble @Eggplant_Elon conspiracy corner... what if that actually is the plan

[Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot]

Thoughts from a Labour MP:

“We have to face up to the fact every single one of them is fucking useless. Andy’s strategy has been a disaster. Angela bottled it. Ed clearly a hiding to nothing. Wes AWOL. God knows what Catherine West is doing. Not quite sure how we ended up here.”

[James Wise @Jameswise]

The UK is already seeing the benefits of being an AI hub. But we’re not doing a good enough job of explaining the opportunity ahead.

I wrote for @thetimes today on being an ambitious nation again - and the need to fight the AI doomers.

We had similar opportunities in the internet era, but failed to seize on them. We can’t miss again.

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@Jameswise @thetimes Great stuff James 💪🇬🇧🚀

[Michel Laclé @micheltamanda]

Buy GPU's said @TheAhmadOsman, so I did and had no clue what I was doing.

3 months later I have a fully local AI research operation, a solid understanding of AI, and confidence that AI will not take my job.

I ask you, for the sake of humanity: buy a GPU, learn to host your own intelligence.

Thanks to those who I learned from: @steipete , @0xSero , @Teknium , @LottoLabs , @NousResearch , @TheAhmadOsman , and many more I forgot to mention.

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

For the right role, I would absolutely work for free and do a tour of duty.

[Sam @Discoplomacy]

Very Cool Job Alert

UK’s AISI is hiring for its new AI & Future of Work Unit. Specifically, the role will work closely with the also new AI Economics Institute among other bits and pieces.

In before the “the salary is so bad!11!!” tweets. This is a role for someone who wants to do a national tour of duty. You can make money before OR after it.

Work with some of the sharpest minds in SW1: https://t.co/3XlekMLQBc

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@petergyang Do a barrel roll!

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

this kind of tinkering should be celebrated, in the UK and elsewhere. The only way I have gained an understanding of the edges of LLM/agent capability is using the tech in the areas I know. Many senior civil servants are heavy users of AI, but there is a risk to being super open about it

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

@Jason I'm in

[Alex Brooker @raspberryjamchi]

very exciting to see a uk startup working on atoms and not just electrons

[Seb Johnson @SebJohnsonUK]

One of the UK's most exciting AI companies is about to raise $200m at a valuation "well above" $1bn.

@cusp_ai is going to be one of the UK's breakout companies of 2026.

The company has already partnered with the likes of Nvidia, ASML and Hyundai.

Everyone I know that is close to the business is INCREDIBLY excited by what it's building and how well it is doing.

It was founded in 2024 by Chad Edwards (@ac_edwards_1) and Max Welling and is a Cambridge-based startup building a generative AI platform to accelerate the discovery and design of new materials.

@yazhous of Bloomberg is now reporting that the company is raising $200m at a valuation "well above $1 billion".

Amazing news.

Definitely one to watch.