Notes from the
edge of the model.
Field notes on what actually breaks in production — agents, retrieval, evaluation, MLOps, and the career decisions nobody writes down. Longer arguments become papers; these are the rest.
353 posts
The synthetic media industry barely existed 3 years ago.
What counts as synthetic media: AI-generated images and video, voice synthesis and cloning, virtual avatars and digital humans, AI-powered music and audio, automated video editing and…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postQuantitative AI hedge funds are hiring ML engineers at salaries that make Big Tech compensation…
Citadel, Two Sigma, Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, Jane Street — these firms have been using ML for decades. But the new wave is different. New AI-native quant firms are using LLMs…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postHaving worked with ISRO, I've seen firsthand that space is becoming one of the most exciting AI…
AI in space in 2026 and beyond: autonomous satellite operations (reducing ground control dependency), space debris detection and avoidance using computer vision, Earth observation with…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postHot take: traditional SaaS is being eaten by AI-native alternatives.
Traditional SaaS: complex dashboards, manual workflows, feature-bloated interfaces. You hire an admin to manage the tool. AI-native alternative: describe what you want in natural…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe AI infrastructure market will exceed $500B by 2030.
What counts as AI infrastructure: GPU cloud providers (CoreWeave, Lambda, Together AI). Model serving platforms (Replicate, Baseten, Modal). Data infrastructure (Databricks, Snowflake's…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe EU AI Act created an entire job category overnight. And most people haven't noticed yet.
New roles emerging from AI regulation: AI Compliance Officer (ensuring AI systems meet regulatory requirements). AI Auditor (independently evaluating AI systems for bias, safety, and…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postDevin, SWE-Agent, OpenHands, Claude Code — autonomous coding agents are here.
I've been using AI coding agents daily for 3 months. Here's the honest assessment: What they're good at: boilerplate generation, unit test writing, simple feature implementation from…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe gaming industry is undergoing an AI revolution that's creating thousands of new jobs…
AI in gaming 2026: procedural content generation (infinite unique game levels). NPC AI with actual personality and memory (not just scripted responses). AI-generated game assets…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe AI freelance market has tripled in 18 months. Here are the exact numbers and niches.
Top-paying AI freelance gigs in 2026: AI Safety Auditing: $150-$400/hr. Companies need independent evaluation of AI systems for bias, security, and compliance. Demand is off the charts…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe next computing paradigm after GPUs might not be bigger GPUs.
Intel's Loihi 2. IBM's NorthPole. BrainChip's Akida. These chips don't process data like traditional processors. They use spiking neural networks that fire only when needed, consuming a…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postThe AI Product Manager is the most in-demand non-engineering role in tech right now.
Why it's different: AI products are probabilistic, not deterministic. Traditional PMs think in features and specifications. AI PMs think in accuracy ranges, failure modes, and continuous…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read postAI data centers will consume 8% of US electricity by 2030.
The AI energy problem is creating entire new industries and job categories: AI Energy Optimization Engineer: making AI workloads more energy-efficient. Reducing GPU idle time. Optimizing…
By Pranay Mahendrakar Read post