Fragments: July 13

This article by Martin Fowler discusses key takeaways from the Thoughtworks Future of Software Development Retreat, focusing on two main topics: harness engineering for AI models and self-hosted models. On harness engineering, the article explores context management for large language models, computational sensors, and techniques like using Rust over Python and property-based testing. It questions whether harnesses will remain necessary as models improve. The second part covers the growing trend of self-hosting open-weight models due to increasing token costs, desire for independence from frontier model firms, information security concerns, and model sovereignty. The article compares this to the earlier trend of self-hosted clouds and questions its long-term viability.