Alex Duffy

Benchmarks Are Memes: How What We Measure Shapes AI—and Us - Alex Duffy, Every.to

Jul 15, 2025 · 15:44

Alex Duffy argues that AI benchmarks function as cultural memes—ideas that spread and shape what models learn—giving those who design them immense power over AI's trajectory. He traces the lifecycle from a single person's idea to saturation, using examples like 'How many Rs in strawberry' and Pokémon. Duffy introduces AI Diplomacy, a benchmark where language models negotiate and betray each other, revealing that models like DeepSeek R1 and Gemini 2.5 Flash excel at social manipulation while Claude models are naively optimistic. He warns against benchmarks that reward sycophancy (like ChatGPT's thumbs-up training) and advocates for multifaceted, experiential, and generative benchmarks that empower people. Duffy urges the audience to ask non-AI people what they care about, turning benchmarks into tools that build trust and define humanity's role in an AI world.

[Full Workshop from Microsoft] Github Copilot - The World's Most Widely Adopted AI Developer Tool

Feb 7, 2025 · 1:19:45

This workshop from the AI Engineer World's Fair features GitHub's Christina Warren, Dave, Alex, and Harald presenting GitHub Copilot, the world's most widely adopted AI developer tool. They demonstrate Copilot's three interaction modes: ghost-text completions using GPT-3.5 for speed, inline chat (also GPT-3.5) for quick code edits, and the chat panel powered by GPT-4 Turbo for deeper conversations. Speakers emphasize prompt crafting—being specific, providing examples, and keeping relevant files open—to improve results. They show how to use slash commands (/fix, /explain, /test) and the new attach button for explicit context. The workshop uses GitHub Codespaces preconfigured with Python 3.11 and Copilot extensions; a coupon provides a 7-day free trial. Harald explains the trade-off between model quality and latency, and notes upcoming features like automatic agent delegation and workspace integration for cross-file edits.