Simon Willison reviews Ornith-1.0, a new series of open-weights models from DeepReinforce designed for agentic coding. Built on Gemma 4 and Qwen 3.5, these models range from 9B to 397B parameters and demonstrate high proficiency in coding benchmarks and tool-use tasks.
- Available in 9B Dense, 31B Dense, 35B MoE, and 397B MoE variants
- Capable of navigating codebases and executing complex tool calls
- Built on Apache 2.0 licensed base models
- Available in 9B Dense, 31B Dense, 35B MoE, and 397B MoE variants
- Capable of navigating codebases and executing complex tool calls
- Built on Apache 2.0 licensed base models
An exploration of the new Qwen3.6-27B open weight model, which claims flagship-level agentic coding performance that surpasses previous larger MoE models while being significantly smaller in size. The author tests a quantized version using llama-server and demonstrates its impressive ability to generate complex SVG graphics locally.
Key points:
- Qwen3.6-27B outperforms the older Qwen3.5-397B-A17B on coding benchmarks.
- Dramatic reduction in model size from 807GB to approximately 55.6GB for the base version.
- Successful local execution using a 16.8GB quantized GGUF version via llama.cpp.
- High-quality SVG generation capabilities for complex prompts like a pelican riding a bicycle.
Key points:
- Qwen3.6-27B outperforms the older Qwen3.5-397B-A17B on coding benchmarks.
- Dramatic reduction in model size from 807GB to approximately 55.6GB for the base version.
- Successful local execution using a 16.8GB quantized GGUF version via llama.cpp.
- High-quality SVG generation capabilities for complex prompts like a pelican riding a bicycle.
Django co-creator Simon Willison predicts the emergence of a "dark factory" era in software development, where AI-driven automation handles the entire coding process without human intervention. Drawing an analogy from automated manufacturing, Willison suggests that if machines can operate reliably without human oversight, there is no need for "lights on" monitoring. As AI tools increasingly take over complex programming tasks, the role of human developers may shift from writing code to merely providing creative direction. This evolution raises significant questions about the future of the global workforce and the potential for widespread displacement in the tech industry.
Simon Willison details creating a custom macOS presentation app, "Present," in just 45 minutes using Swift and SwiftUI. Frustrated with the risk of browser crashes when presenting a series of web pages, he built an app that displays URLs as slides, offering features like full-screen mode, keyboard navigation, and automatic URL saving. He even added remote control functionality via a web server and Tailscale.
The project highlights the power of AI-assisted coding and expands his skillset, demonstrating how experienced software engineers can quickly learn new languages and tools to solve personal problems. The resulting app is a simple, effective solution tailored to his specific needs.
The project highlights the power of AI-assisted coding and expands his skillset, demonstrating how experienced software engineers can quickly learn new languages and tools to solve personal problems. The resulting app is a simple, effective solution tailored to his specific needs.
The article details the author's use of Claude Code to add a feature to a GitHub repository: an automatically updated README index. It's accompanied by a 7-minute video demonstrating the process.
Simon Willison discusses his experience using Large Language Models (LLMs) for coding, providing detailed advice on how to effectively use LLMs to augment coding abilities, set reasonable expectations, manage context, and more.
