MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Show HN: An open-source AI researcher that generates reports with 3D animations
by PreciousH | 2026-01-07 11:07:01+00:00
Hi HN,
I built this because I’ve been using deep-search AI agents for research, but I always found the "wall of text" output exhausting to parse. When we learn from textbooks, we rely on diagrams, charts, and 2D/3D illustrations to build a mental model. I wanted an AI researcher that does the same.
The agent doesn't just write a report; it identifies concepts that are better explained visually and generates the code to render them inline.
The Tech Stack:
Frontend: Next.js for the UI and report rendering.
Real-time Server: Go. I chose Go to handle the high-concurrency needs of streaming agentic thoughts and managing WebSocket connections during long-running research tasks.
AI Background Worker: Python. This handles the agentic logic, using various LLMs to orchestrate the research, search, and code generation for the visuals.
Visualization Engine: * 3D: Three.js for interactive models and animations.
2D: p5.js for generative illustrations.
Charts: D3.js for data-heavy visualizations.
Diagrams: Mermaid.js for quick flowcharts and architecture.
How it works:
The Python worker isn't just generating an image; it’s generating the actual code/schema for these libraries based on the research context. The Next.js client then sanitizes and renders these components dynamically within the report.
I’m really looking for feedback on the "agentic" part of the visualization—specifically how to better prompt the model to choose the right type of diagram for the data it finds.
GitHub: https://github.com/precious112/prism_ai
I’ll be around to answer any questions about the architecture or the 3D generation logic!
by jstimpfle | 2026-01-07 11:07:12+00:00
What type of filter do you mean? Unless I'm misunderstanding/missing something, the approach described doesn't go into the details of how coverage is computed. If the input image is only simple lines whose coverage can be correctly computed (don't know how to do this for curves?) then what's missing?

I'd be interested how feasible complete 2D UIs using dynamically GPU rendered vector graphics are. I've played with vector rendering in the past, using a pixel shader that more or less implemented the method described in the OP. Could render the ghost script tiger at good speeds (like 1-digit milliseconds at 4K IIRC), but there is always an overhead to generating vector paths, sampling them into line segments, dispatching them etc... Building a 2D UI based on optimized primitives instead, like axis-aligned rects and rounded rects, mostly will always be faster, obviously.

Text rendering typically adds pixel snapping, possibly using byte code interpreter, and often adds sub-pixel rendering.
by nayroclade | 2026-01-07 11:07:27+00:00
True, but after this led to the disasters of WW1 and WW2, there was a genuine international effort to constrain it. Of course, it was a deeply imperfect system, especially with the cold war going on, but it was still an improvement on the naked imperialism and genocide that preceded it. Unfortunately, it appears we're rapidly regressing to the former situation, except this time with atomic weapons.
by self_awareness | 2026-01-07 11:09:11+00:00
This is generally sad.

People hate a service, but they depend on it so much they create whole codebases to cope with it.

Depending on things we hate is a tragedy.

How about just admitting the things you hate? Then you can just drop it and live a happier life.

Unless you are of course somehow required/forced to use X, then I'm all for projects like these.
by spaniard89277 | 2026-01-07 11:09:46+00:00
Europe and the EU are two different things. The EU is already having it's own credibility crisis inside the EU, and there are already heavy pushes for reform.

The conversation is completely different in Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain, for example.

The EU has enacted pretty stupid policies but I don't think the status quo was about to last a lot. Now with the Greenland issue things are about to speed up.

My guess is that, because they shaked hands with conservative leaders in Europe, the White house thinks this is going to benefit them.

I don't think this is going to be the case mid term.
by kypro | 2026-01-07 11:09:59+00:00
I know this is a deeply unpopular opinion, but I don't get humans sometimes. Why does this need regulating? Am I the only person who just doesn't use services which do this?

This is so obviously a free-market problem. The reason these ads exist is because there's a significant percentage of people who are happy to put up with them and those people mean that products can be better funded without requiring subscriptions.

If people want to use products with unskippable ads, then who cares? This "I want X without Y" regulation is so stupid. You can't have X without Y. Just go buy Z product and stop asking regulators to find ways to keep you coming back to products of consumer-hostile corporations.
by ffsm8 | 2026-01-07 11:11:05+00:00
I'm from Germany, and from an outsiders perspective I can only say that your argument wouldn't convince me.

I looked into the h1b for myself before, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to start my own successful business while on it.

You're aware that there will continue to be immigration without the h1b visa, right? That's just a common way big corporations use to import cheap labor, at least that's what I looked like to me - because id be fully at the mercy of the company I'd be unable to really negotiate my contracts etc

It's definitely possible to make an argument in favor of the program, but it's a lot more nuanced at the societal level - and I suspect overall net negative, because often the h1b visa recipients will transfer their money back to their home country, which makes this into a net-negative again.
by imtringued | 2026-01-07 11:11:06+00:00
I don't know why this keeps getting repeated. Honestly I'm taking the exact opposite bet and am going to work on making it as easy as possible to build specialized robots and machines.

People seem to misunderstand how easy it is to build a humanoid robot and how hard it is to program robots in general. Even if you build a humanoid robot that is perfectly general purpose mechanically, you will still need to program it like a computer that just happens to have arms and legs.
by TeodorDyakov | 2026-01-07 11:11:42+00:00
DO you have any idea of the man hours it took to build those large projects you are speaking of? Lets take Linux for example. Suppose for the sake of argument that Claude Code with Opus 4.5 is as smart as an average person(AGI), but with the added benefit that he can work 24/7. Suppose now i have millions of dollars to burn and am running 1000 such instances on max plans. Now if I have started running this agent since the date Claude Opus 4.5 was released and i prompted him to create a commercial-grade multi-platform OS from the caliber of Linux.
An estimate of the linux kernel is 100 million man hours of work. divide by 1000. We expect to have a functioning OS like Linux by 2058 from these calcualtions.
How long has claude been released? 2 months.
Show HN: AI that picks your best credit card for every purchase
by iman_malhi | 2026-01-07 11:11:51+00:00
Last year I left $2,400 in rewards on the table by using the wrong credit cards.

I have 5 cards with different reward rates: 5% groceries on one, 3% gas on another, 2% dining elsewhere. Mentally tracking which card to use where is exhausting, so I defaulted to whatever was in my wallet.

I built Payvo to solve this. It automatically routes each transaction to your optimal card for maximum rewards.

How it works:

Add your credit cards once (we track 180+ cards, 29 loyalty programs)

AI analyzes transactions in real-time

Routes to your best card per category

30-40% more rewards, zero mental overhead

Currently in beta and looking for early users. Sign up at payvo.ai if you're interested in testing it out.

Targeting the 45M Americans with multiple credit cards who are leaving money on the table like I was.
by blackbear_ | 2026-01-07 11:11:53+00:00
I had similar thoughts, and my conclusion is that competition is an inherently unstable state of affairs: at some point somebody wins, and they will try very hard to prevent any further competitors from arising.

Indeed, competition is undesirable for all participants involved: everybody wants to win and exploit the rest for their own gain. Note that this is the only way to make competition work and result in its temporary benefits (if nobody wants to win, nobody will compete).

So there must be a system to keep the competition going and preventing the rise of a definitive and exploitative winner, and the existence of this system has to be accepted by the competitors. But why would serious competitors accept a system that prevents them from winning?
by hollowturtle | 2026-01-07 11:12:19+00:00
I'm tired of constantly debating the same thing again and again. Where are the products? Where is some great performing software all LLM/agent crafted? All I see is software bloatness and decline. Where is Discord that uses just a bunch of hundreds megs of ram? Where is unbloated faster Slack? Where is the Excel killer? Fast mobile apps? Browsers and the web platform improved? Why Cursor team don't use Cursor to get rid of vscode base and code its super duper code editor? I see tons of talking and almost zero products.
by chrisblickstate | 2026-01-07 11:12:27+00:00
Hi HN,

Having used current LLMops tools, they have a major blind spot: they treat "Observability" as a synonym for "Logging."

When an agent executes a tool—especially one involving dynamic code generation—logging the inputs and outputs isn't enough. If the tool fails in a complex data transformation, you don't just need the traces; you need the memory state.

I built BlickState to move from "Black Box" logging to "Glass Box" inspection.

The Tech Stack: Instead of running python tools in a standard container or local process, BlickState runs tool executions inside isolated Firecracker microVMs. This allows us to take low-overhead checkpoints of the entire system state.

When an agent fails, you can "time-travel" back to the exact millisecond of the crash. It’s not just a log entry; it’s a restorable environment where you can:

Inspect the actual Python objects and variables.

Interact with the state via a REPL (similar to a Jupyter notebook).

Debug DataFrames or local variables that weren't explicitly logged.

Why Firecracker? Firecracker allows us to hit < 1s snapshots, meaning we can checkpoint every single tool call with relatively low latency.

The API: The goal was to make this as non-intrusive as possible. You just wrap your tool functions:

Python

from blickstate import tool, BlickState

sdk = BlickState(api_key="...")

@tool(checkpoint_after=True)
def process_data(df):
# If this fails, the entire VM state is preserved
result = df.groupby('category').sum()
return result

Current Status: We are in early access, there's a technical preview demo up on the site. I'm seeking feedback from engineers shipping AI agents to production who have experienced laborious pain deciphering traces with current LLMOps solutions like langsmith, arize, braintrust or the plethora of other tracing/logging observability tools.
by lelanthran | 2026-01-07 11:12:31+00:00
> Use Valgrind?

Was not available for that specific device, but even with Valgrind and similar tools, you are still going to run into weird destructor issues with inheritance.

There are many possible combinations of virtual, non-virtual, base-class, derived-class, constructors and destructors; some of them will indeed cause a memory leak, and are allowed to by the standard.
by smoe | 2026-01-07 11:12:54+00:00
My favorite movie quote as it pertains to software engineering has for a long time been Jurassic Park's: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

That’s how I feel about a lot of AI-powered development. Just because you can have 10 parallel agents cranking out features 24/7 and have AI write 100% of the code, that doesn’t mean you’re actually building a product that users want and/or that is a viable business.

I’m currently in this situation, working on a greenfield project as founder/solo dev. Yes, AI has been tremendously useful in speeding things up, especially in patching over smaller knowledge gaps of mine.

But in the end, as in all the projects before in my career, building the MVP has rarely been the hard part of starting a company.
by joakleaf | 2026-01-07 11:13:01+00:00
It may not just be about the minerals....

It could be about leaving NATO.

US (Trump) feels they need Greenland for "security".

They currently have (almost complete) access to use Greenland via NATO and the existing agreements with Denmark. So there is no need to extend this.

However, if the US would want to leave NATO, they would no longer have access to Greenland under existing agreement.

Therefore, if the US wants to leave NATO and still use Greenland (both militarily and for resources), they need to acquire Greenland.

Acquiring Greenland would allow the US to control the entire western hemisphere, leave NATO, and abandon the eastern hemisphere entirely.
by Dylan16807 | 2026-01-07 11:13:18+00:00
This conversation was not about banks when the comparison came up, and when I talk about long term value I'm not talking about bank reserves. (And even if you argue a stablecoin is like a bank, it's one with an utterly massive reserve ratio.)

If you're worried about short term value then you can use shorter term bonds if you want, whatever. It doesn't make a difference to the reason I brought it up in the first place, because either option is more stable than gold.
by kombine | 2026-01-07 11:13:41+00:00
You are clearly wrong. Both Trumpism and Putinism are reactive ultra-conservative ideologies. Annexation of Crimea was motivated largely by Russia's "legitimate security concerns". Russian propaganda was busy convincing the population that Crimea gives strategic control over Black Sea region and if Russia didn't intervene, there would have been NATO bases on the peninsula after the Maiden revolution. Trump and his sycophants are saying the same thing: American security, Arctic, and American geopolitical foes: China and Russia.
by hliyan | 2026-01-07 11:14:12+00:00
Because I believe that causes of events are other events, and not objects. To blame an event (or a series of events) on a person (or a group of people) is a premature causality sink (e.g. "Why did X do evil thing? Because X is an evil person" -- this is not an explanation, it just puts an end to rational inquiry).
by energy123 | 2026-01-07 11:14:19+00:00
I've arrived at the opposite conclusion. The root cause of conflict is decentralized power, which is the prediction of realism. Conflict occurs because of security competition, but security competition is only possible when powers are equally matched and trapped in a Prisoner's Dilemma dynamic.

You can sense check this by running through various historic eras. Consider the eras before any nation states, when power was at its most decentralized. That was also when conflict deaths were at their peak due to tribal warfare.

Then move on to the era of kingdoms and then nation-states, and conflict deaths decrease because power centralization increases. Intra-national conflict goes to zero because of a monopoly on violence over that local geography, leaving only inter-national conflict in the structurally anarchic power vacuum.

The peace of the 90s was because the United States was completely dominant and had no reason to do anything because it controlled everything. As the United States declines and power decentralization increases, moves such as denying China access to oil from Venezuela become actions that are deemed necessary in the new security environment. Or a clash between Thailand and Cambodia becomes a thing that can happen, because there is an absence of a big dog to lay down the law, as unjust as that law may be.

The analogy would be a country with multiple privately owned police forces and no single power. You're going to get conflict. It's a structural phenomenon of how power vacuums work when you plop humans inside of them, and it has nothing to do with morality or markets.
by jorl17 | 2026-01-07 11:14:57+00:00
I am in the exact same camp. My belief in free markets has been completely shattered and my political stance on several subjects has changed dramatically over the last years.

I no longer believe in the free market at all.

Of course this isn't the result of a single isolated event. Our lives are poems that constantly re-write and scrutinize themselves after all, like living ink that breathes new pages anew. But if I had to pinpoint one very specific period with a very measurable effect on my position it was the whole Elon Musk saga (DOGE+"heart salute"). A lunatic billionaire seemingly doing what he wants, rewriting narratives, making up facts, history, and saying things which were so evidently false, and showing up next to a president as if he were himself president, never having been elected, was shocking.

I used to really believe that "money followed what was good for society". There would be outliers and some noise, but overall these would be well correlated. I now look back and wonder how absolutely naive of me that was. Billionaires should not be allowed. They are a disgrace to the system. It's actually vile and disgusting to have them in our society.

I'm not an american and I used to dream of going to the USA, perhaps even living there. I now want to stay as far away from it as possible, and view the supposed american dream as either a past reality or effective propaganda I bought into previously. Maybe that's better for america and it's what they need to grow, who knows.
by MrGilbert | 2026-01-07 11:15:14+00:00
When I was young, back in school, I asked my teacher why the main purpose of a company is to grow. Their response was: "Because it has to be."

I don't think we need unlimited growth. Or, better: We CANNOT have unlimited growth, because there is a natural limit to the resources that are available. We, as a society, should do better than this. And that is what worries me: The sheer ignorance (or unawareness?) people have about their surroundings. I'm not sure if it is malicious, or just a coping strategy. But instead of looking into the real cause that lead to certain events, be it the environment, economical or political, people quickly blame minorities for all the bad that is happening, breastfed by the narrative that people like to repeat over and over again - "because it has always been like that".

For the longest time, I tried to counterargue and explain, why certain things are the way they are, and offered another perspective. But ears have become deaf, more than before.

I'm tired.
by potato3732842 | 2026-01-07 11:15:16+00:00
Legalizing capital crimes would barely make them increase in prevalence. The state punishes people for those things mostly so that other people don't.

Laws are basically codified morals, but shitty because they need to be written to be some semblance of objectivity. You typically get stupid results when you try and surgically codify niche things or try and legislate controversial things.

I'd much rather live in a world with LLM image location stalking than one where people just punt everything to the state.
by bsenftner | 2026-01-07 11:16:36+00:00
It more basic than that, it is what used to be considered common sense. The United States has screwed basic education, effective communications is not even taught - the seed of common sense, and has been producing intellectually crippled wage slaves for that last 40+ years. It's going to require a culture revolution to pull out of this nose civilization-wide dive, and that revolution is not going to happen in the USA.
by MORPHOICES | 2026-01-07 11:16:37+00:00
How do you avoid doom-coding while learning or experimenting? – Ask HN

Lately I have observed this algo in myself while learning something new. I constantly code for very short bursts sometimes on the phone or laptop at night, keep jumping between tools and end up consuming more than creating. It comes off as productive but seldom compounds.

A straightforward explanation that has provided me with a helpful point of thought is.

Make a mode selection.

Did conclusions actually occur?

Most doom-coding sessions are loaded with input, no closure.

There are 2 small changes that improved it for me.

Start sessions with a small, visible output goal (one function, one note, one commit).

Time-box input aggressively. I stop scrolling after 15-20 minutes of scrolling.

At the conclusion of every session, I would write what I would do next, even if I don’t do it. ~

Wanting to know how others do this.

Do you intentionally separate learning sessions and building sessions?

Do you have any heuristics to know when you have avoided input?
by TeodorDyakov | 2026-01-07 11:17:04+00:00
the world does not need more shitware. We need medical advances, scientific breakthroughs and societal shift to improve wellbeing of all people. these things are much harderthan writing shitty sofware and we will need not the current AGIs(Goggle Gemini 3 Pro and ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking) but ASI to solve them.
by flr03 | 2026-01-07 11:17:08+00:00
One similarity is, if I'm correct, Russia claimed that the naval base of Sevastopol was vital for Russian security.

The protection of the population and the illegitimacy of the current government was an argument developed by Russia at the time, it has not been yet by USA but I suspect this might start develop in the next few weeks.

The common ingredients to justify an invasion/annexation is a mix of:
- Self-Defense, security
- Historical, Geographical claims
- Protection of the population
- Moral sugar coating (we had no choice)