What would "unbiased" even mean for a blog like mine?

I don't particularly try to be unbiased because I don't think that's an achievable goal. What I aim for instead is honesty and truthfulness. I try very hard not to put false information out into the world, and when I do that I work hard to retract it - here's a recent example: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/gemini-25-computer-use-...

I'm also take care to disclose things that could potentially influence my coverage, even if I don't personally think they influenced what I wrote.

What matters most to me is that I have an audience who finds me credible and trusts me not to mislead them, either accidentally or on purpose.

That's why I'm defensive against accusations of being a paid shill, which crop up on almost a weekly basis at this point.

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hansmayer 13 hours ago | parent [-]

unbiased as in: not immediately claiming a new feature would be big, mere 24h after it was released to the general public?

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simonw 12 hours ago | parent [-]

How is that "bias", especially if it's a thing I believe to be true?

Are we going to have a break out the dictionaries again?

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hansmayer 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

On dictionaries: you're the one who insisted on dictionaries, only to produce wikipedia links instead :)

Now how is it bias? Well, it's in your own answer. You are literally claiming things based on what you believe them to be, not based on what they likely are. For the latter, we'd need a longer timespan and more usage data. So you fiddled with it a bit in a timespan of a week or so and based on this tiny sample, came to a conclusion, that as you specify is your belief, but not really hard data. That is quintessentially what a bias is. Or to borrow from Mirriam-Webster again: an inclination of temperament or outlook especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : prejudice

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simonw 12 hours ago | parent [-]

I assumed bias was meant to mean I'm biased towards Anthropic, or to reflect some other unfair semi-hidden agenda that influences my writing.

I do have a relevant bias here I guess: I'm biased towards the pattern of granting an LLM the ability to execute commands in a Unix-style environment. I've been a huge fan of that approach ever since ChatGPT Code Interpreter launched in early 2023 and I'm excited that skills further solidifies why that pattern is such a good bet.

	▲	hansmayer 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well, personally I believe you don't have any ulterior motives here. But be warned - when you hype up stuff like that and aligns perfectly with the interests of Anthropic (or whatever other VC-propped GenAI company), it can certainly come across the wrong way. Take this feedback as an indicator to help you steer your writing, not as a personal attack.

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cindyllm 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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