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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science, Data Visualisation

Essential MATLAB and Octave – 2nd Ed. Returning to my First Book

Twelve years ago, I published my first book, Essential MATLAB and Octave. What began as an introduction to scientific computing for students and engineers became the starting point of a much larger journey as an author, educator and technologist.

Now, after writing three additional books, revising two of them for second editions, and spending more than a decade working in data science, machine learning and AI, I am returning to where it all began. Revisiting a first book is a curious experience: some ideas feel timeless, others reveal how much both the technology and the author have evolved.

In this post, I reflect on the lessons learned from writing technical books, how MATLAB, Octave and scientific computing have changed since 2014, and why the second edition is about much more than updating syntax and screenshots. At its heart, it remains a book about computational thinking—a skill that has become even more relevant in the age of AI.

Codex – The Agent That Taps You On The Shoulder

OpenAI quietly admitted something with the Codex mobile launch: agents aren’t autonomous enough to leave alone. The phone is now the leash. Here’s what that means for governance, throughput, and the metric you should actually be tracking.

Proofs for Advanced Data Science and Analytics with Python – Done

After more than a year of writing, revising and proof-checking, I’ve finally completed the proofs for the second edition of Advanced Data Science and Analytics with Python. The new edition expands coverage of transformers, generative AI, large language models, vector search, graph embeddings and modern deployment workflows — reflecting just how dramatically the AI landscape has evolved since 2020.

Ghost – A Database for Our Times?

Ghost calls itself “the first database built for agents.” Strip the marketing varnish and what you’ve actually got is a forkable Postgres workflow that quietly redraws how developers experiment — and how easily disposable infrastructure can become disposable thinking.

Now Reading: The Coming Wave

If most tech books try to explain what’s coming, The Coming Wave tries to force a more uncomfortable question: what happens when powerful capabilities stop being scarce? Mustafa Suleyman argues that AI and synthetic biology aren’t just the next innovation cycle, they’re a shift in how power itself is distributed. As the cost of doing complex, high-impact things collapses, control doesn’t scale with it. The real issue isn’t whether these technologies are good or bad, but whether any institution can meaningfully contain them once they’ve spread.

GPT 5.5 – The Smartest Model Yet (Again)

Three claims in the GPT-5.5 launch. Two are vibes. One is measurable, and it’s the one nobody’s talking about. Plus why the Codex angle matters more than the model itself, and the agentic promise to take with a pinch of salt.

Say It Twice: The Quiet Hack That Exposes How AI Actually Works

What if most prompt engineering advice is just working around a flaw? A new Google Research paper shows that repeating your prompt, literally copy and paste, can significantly improve AI performance. This isn’t a hack. It’s a window into how these systems really work. I explain more here.

Why Charles Bennett and Giles Brassard Won the Turing Award

Bennett and Brassard didn’t just improve cryptography, they removed its weakest assumption. Instead of relying on difficult maths, their work anchored security in the laws of physics, where eavesdropping becomes detectable by design. That shift didn’t just launch quantum cryptography; it forced a rethink of what computation and security actually are.