It would be nice if we could leave a note explaining why we chose the name we're proposing.

What do you need a super computer for when you have a sharpie?

I've been thinking about how ISO-9000 will be reconciled with LLMs? Will businesses abandon their ISO-9000 certifications in favor of "We use AI" or will ISO-9000 adapt in some way to the "need" for LLMs?

I doubt ISO-9000 gets “replaced” so much as interpreted more strictly in the presence of LLMs. ISO-9000 isn’t about how work is done — it’s about whether processes are defined, repeatable, auditable, and improvable.

From that lens, LLMs actually create tension rather than an escape hatch. A system whose outputs can’t be reproduced, explained, or bounded makes it harder to demonstrate compliance, not easier. Saying “we use AI” doesn’t satisfy requirements around traceability, corrective action, or process control.

My guess is that ISO-style frameworks will push organizations toward explicitly classifying where LLMs are allowed to operate: as advisory inputs, as drafting aids, or as automation under defined controls — with clear ownership and validation steps around them.

In other words, the pressure probably won’t be to loosen standards, but to reassert them: define where probabilistic components sit, what checks exist before outputs become authoritative, and how failures are detected and corrected. Without that structure, it’s hard to see how certification survives unchanged.

While I'm slaloming between and around potholes and recessed man hole covers, my Accord keeps popping up a "Lane Departure" warning. After a couple hours of this, it will pop up a picture of a coffee cup, hinting that I need break and dose of caffeine. When this happens, I kind of wish the program knew I was avoiding hazards, not driving impaired. I hope this is part of Honda's pothole software.

> The decision is aimed at de-escalating the violence between federal agents and rioters...

There were riots? That's the first I heard of it.

I'm not sure how to respond because I don't know what you mean by "systems." Can you offer any examples of systems that were built by average people?

mRNA vaccine? To be fair, the technology has been around for a while, so it may not meet your criteria.

I'm giddy. The megachurch grifters are going to lose their minds. The money people are spending these godless AI companies is rightfully theirs. How are they going to pay for their private jets now?

These two don't seem to agree:

> Banning mercury fillings is an easy and cost-effective way to cut pollution... said said Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link

> British Dental Association chair, Eddie Crouch, said: “Dental amalgam is tried and tested material and pulling the plug without a transition period would effectively bankrupt NHS dentistry.

Perhaps pulling the teeth with fillings before cremation would be just as environmentally friendly and less likely to bankrupt anyone.

Great puzzle. I enjoyed that.

Thanks! Tomorrow's puzzle theme is "Preserved" - It will release ad midnight Pacific time!