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abrichr

1,463 karma · joined November 16, 2011

Machine learning scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur.

- https://github.com/OpenAdaptAI/OpenAdapt - https://openadapt.ai - https://linkedin.com/in/richard-abrich - https://github.com/abrichr - https://MLDSAI.com - richard at openadapt dot ai

abrichr.at.hn

meet.hn/city/ca-Old-Toronto

Socials: - github.com/abrichr - x.com/abrichr - linkedin.com/in/richard-abrich

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submissionscomments
abrichr··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
I’ve been working on OpenAdapt: https://github.com/OpenAdaptAI

It’s an open source attempt at making GUI automation reliable enough for things like EHRs, ERPs, Citrix apps, etc.

A lot of agent approaches basically keep looking at the screen and asking a model what to do next. We’ve gone in a different direction. We use models to learn or repair a workflow, but once it works we try to compile it down into something deterministic. On a normal run there can be zero model calls.

Lately I’ve been working on figuring out how to know that an action actually had the intended effect, rather than just that the click/keystroke happened. So workflows have preconditions, postconditions/evidence checks, and halt if the state is ambiguous. We also recently added a way to send those halted decisions to a phone for a human to approve/reject.

abrichr··on How Taalas “prints” LLM onto a chip?
ChatGPT Deep Research dug through Taalas' WIPO patent filings and public reporting to piece together a hypothesis. Next Platform notes at least 14 patents filed [1]. The two most relevant:

"Large Parameter Set Computation Accelerator Using Memory with Parameter Encoding" [2]

"Mask Programmable ROM Using Shared Connections" [3]

The "single transistor multiply" could be multiplication by routing, not arithmetic. Patent [2] describes an accelerator where, if weights are 4-bit (16 possible values), you pre-compute all 16 products (input x each possible value) with a shared multiplier bank, then use a hardwired mesh to route the correct result to each weight's location. The abstract says it directly: multiplier circuits produce a set of outputs, readable cells store addresses associated with parameter values, and a selection circuit picks the right output. The per-weight "readable cell" would then just be an access transistor that passes through the right pre-computed product. If that reading is correct, it's consistent with the CEO telling EE Times compute is "fully digital" [4], and explains why 4-bit matters so much: 16 multipliers to broadcast is tractable, 256 (8-bit) is not.

The same patent reportedly describes the connectivity mesh as configurable via top metal masks, referred to as "saving the model in the mask ROM of the system." If so, the base die is identical across models, with only top metal layers changing to encode weights-as-connectivity and dataflow schedule.

Patent [3] covers high-density multibit mask ROM using shared drain and gate connections with mask-programmable vias, possibly how they hit the density for 8B parameters on one 815mm2 die.

If roughly right, some testable predictions: performance very sensitive to quantization bitwidth; near-zero external memory bandwidth dependence; fine-tuning limited to what fits in the SRAM sidecar.

Caveat: the specific implementation details beyond the abstracts are based on Deep Research's analysis of the full patent texts, not my own reading, so could be off. But the abstracts and public descriptions line up well.

[1] https://www.nextplatform.com/2026/02/19/taalas-etches-ai-mod...

[2] https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2025147771A1/en

[3] https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2025217724A1/en

[4] https://www.eetimes.com/taalas-specializes-to-extremes-for-e...

abrichr··on Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes
Source? How recently?
abrichr··on Opus 4.5 is the first model that makes me fear for my job
You can reach much higher spend through the API (which you can configure `$claude` to use)
abrichr··on Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas
> Like, Copilot could watch my daily habits and offer automation for recurring things.

We're working on it at https://github.com/openadaptai/openadapt.

abrichr··on Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k
https://archive.is/G4oZo
abrichr··on Tinnitus Neuromodulator
See also: https://audionotch.com/app/tune/
abrichr··on Five years as a startup CTO: How, why, and was it worth it? (2024)
> But that one year of knowledge building, distribution, early customers, then dominates who has control over the cap table for a decade.

Can you recommend any resources for learning how to do this work yourself?

abrichr··on The AI coding trap
> While the LLMs get to blast through all the fun, easy work at lightning speed, we are then left with all the thankless tasks: testing to ensure existing functionality isn’t broken, clearing out duplicated code, writing documentation, handling deployment and infrastructure, etc.

I’ve found LLMs just as useful for the "thankless" layers (e.g. tests, docs, deployment).

The real failure mode is letting AI flood the repo with half-baked abstractions without a playbook. It's helpful to have the model review the existing code and plan out the approach before writing any new code.

The leverage may be in using LLMs more systematically across the lifecycle, including the grunt work the author says remains human-only.

abrichr··on Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploit...
abrichr··on Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev in the US (Section 174)
Corporate income taxes are treated differently than personal income taxes. You absolutely can deduct corporate expenses in Canada.
abrichr··on I was a Theranos whistleblower. Here's what I think Elizabeth Holmes is up to
https://archive.is/vWelf
abrichr··on Fastvlm: Efficient vision encoding for vision language models
You might be interested in https://github.com/OpenAdaptAI/OpenAdapt
abrichr··on AI Executives Promise Cancer Cures. Here's the Reality
https://archive.is/Zu3LX
abrichr··on Recent AI model progress feels mostly like bullshit
The "things" you mention may correspond to internal concept representations encoded in the model's weights. See e.g. https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.13289
abrichr··on Show HN: GuMCP – Open-source MCP servers, hosted for free
Interesting, thanks!

Would something like https://github.com/OpenAdaptAI/OmniMCP make sense to include here?

abrichr··on xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B
> Twitter was making around $500 billion a quarter before the Apple ad targeting changes

From https://archive.is/rfBcg:

> Advertising revenue was $1.14 billion during the quarter ended Sept. 30 [2021], in line with consensus estimates.

abrichr··on I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs
> I just need to verify whichever part I need to use for something else. I can run the code it produces to see if it works. I can look up the reference to see if it exists. I can Google the particular fact to see if it's real. It's really very little effort. And the verification is orders of magnitude easier and faster than coming up with the information in the first place. Which is what makes LLM's so incredibly helpful.

Well put.

Especially this:

> I can run the code it produces to see if it works.

You can get it to generate tests (and easy ways for you to verify correctness).

abrichr··on I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
Thank you both!

Follow-up question: do US employers ever provide assistance with O-1 or E-2? What is considered "a relatively high level of achievement"?

abrichr··on I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA
Hi Peter, I have a few questions:

1. I currently do consulting for US clients through a Canadian corporation. If I accept a full-time job in the U.S. (e.g., on a TN or H-1B visa), can I continue consulting for other clients?

   - Does the answer depend on the visa type?  

   - Are there any restrictions on self-employment or side income?
2. Can I set up a corporation (LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp) in the U.S. while on a work visa?

   - Can I be a shareholder?  

   - Can I take dividends?  

   - Can I actively work in the business?
3. What legal structures allow me to maximize flexibility while working in the U.S.?

   - Would an O-1 visa allow for more flexibility?
  
   - If I move under a TN visa, can I later transition to an E-2 investor visa to run my own business?
4. What are the best options if I want to move to the U.S. while keeping the ability to do high-paid consulting?

   - Should I aim for a Green Card as soon as possible? 
 
   - Is there a specific visa category that would allow this?
Thank you for your help!
abrichr··on Mistral OCR
> I wondered how soon will I be able to ask the video player "What am I looking at here, describe the equations" and it will OCR the frames, analyze them and explain them to me.

Seems like https://aiscreenshot.app might fit the bill.

abrichr··on Show HN: Open-Source Windows AI assistant that uses Word, Excel through COM
Thanks for sharing!

There is an open issue in OpenAdapt to implement COM support: https://github.com/OpenAdaptAI/OpenAdapt/issues/873

This could be a valuable reference.

abrichr··on GPT-4.5
Have you tried copying the compilation errors back into the prompt? In my experience eventually the result is correct. If not then I shrink the surface area that the model is touching and try again.
abrichr··on Launch HN: Browser Use (YC W25) – open-source web agents
Which hackathon?
abrichr··on You can't build a moat with AI
https://github.com/microsoft/OmniParser/ is trending on Github
abrichr··on Show HN: Tired of building agents? throw an LLM at this framework
> Check out documentation: https://helenaeverleyz.github.io/pocket/

https://helenaeverleyz.github.io/pocket/:

> 404

abrichr··on "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order
Emergencies must be renewed annually by the President. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12170:

> The order was first declared on 14 November 1979 (EO 12170). At least 11 executive orders were based on this emergency state. The emergency, which was renewed in 2023 for the 44th time, is the "oldest existing state of emergency."

abrichr··on OCR4all
From https://www.ocr4all.org/guide/user-guide/introduction :

> OCR4all is a software which is primarily geared towards the digital text recovery and recognition of early modern prints, whose elaborate printing types and mostly uneven layout challenge the abilities of most standard text recognition software.

Looks like it's built on https://github.com/Calamari-OCR/calamari

abrichr··on OpenAI's GPT-5 Bait and Switch
> OpenAI's Developer Experience Community Lead Edwin Arbus clarified in the forum: "The API will support the o3 model for developers to use [...] For the purposes of the developer platform: the broader GPT-5 model system (and o3 as a part of it) will maintain the granularity that developers need."

https://community.openai.com/t/openai-roadmap-and-characters...

abrichr··on Revenge of the GPT Wrappers: Defensibility in a world of commoditized AI models
Food:

- Ray Kroc – Turned McDonald's into a global fast-food empire.

- Howard Schultz – Scaled Starbucks into an international giant.

- Michele Ferrero – Created Nutella, Kinder, and Ferrero Rocher, making his family billionaires.

Water:

- François-Henri Pinault – Controlled Evian via Danone.

- Antoine Riboud – Expanded Danone into a bottled water empire (Evian, Volvic).

- Peter Brabeck-Letmathe – Former Nestlé CEO; Nestlé owns Perrier, Pure Life, Poland Spring, etc.

Electricity:

- Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns multiple utilities.

- Li Ka-shing – Built major energy holdings through CK Infrastructure.

- David Tepper – Invested heavily in power utilities via Appaloosa Management.

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