Automattic vs Stack Overflow

AI Leaders Discuss Pacing Frontier AI Development

A TechCrunch video feature discusses the proposal by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to 'pace the frontier' of AI development, following a doomsday warning from an Anthropic researcher. The plan involves independent safety evaluators and coordination among AI labs in democratic countries. It has received industry support from companies like OpenAI and Google, but also pushback from Nvidia's Jensen Huang, who opposes slowing down AI advancements. The video also covers other topics, including WordPress parent Automattic's boardroom coup and major deals of the week. The discussion explores the feasibility of companies agreeing on what slowing down means and who would enforce it.

• Dario Amodei outlined a plan to 'pace the frontier' of AI development.
• The plan includes independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countries.
• Nvidia's Jensen Huang pushed back against the proposal.

Automattic names interim CFO after executive departures

Automattic has appointed Jeremy Klaperman, CFO of its WordPress VIP Enterprise unit, as interim CFO following the departure of former CFO Mark Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan. The changes come after an attempted board ouster of CEO Matt Mullenweg, who has since returned. Mullenweg announced the appointment internally and indicated that the board will evaluate internal and external candidates for the permanent CFO role. A candidate for chief legal officer has also verbally accepted the position. Mullenweg expressed confidence in the company's financial position, stating that everything is within control and depends on execution. The next board meeting is scheduled for September 23.

• Automattic named Jeremy Klaperman as interim CFO.
• Jeremy Klaperman is CFO of WordPress VIP Enterprise.
• Former CFO Mark Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan departed.

Automattic Execs Signed Reciprocal Severance Deals During CEO Brief Ouster

During the 33-hour window in September 2026 when Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg was placed on paid leave, interim CEO Mark Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan signed reciprocal severance agreements. These golden parachutes provide each with 12 months' salary, accelerated equity vesting, and extended health coverage. The total cost to Automattic is $8.15 million, which the company now owes both executives after Mullenweg fired them upon his return. The agreements define 'cause' narrowly and include clauses tailored to Davies's interim role. Automattic has replaced its legal counsel and is deciding whether to pay or contest the packages. The incident is linked to a broader governance struggle and ongoing litigation with WP Engine.

• Automattic's board voted to put CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave on September 9, 2026.
• Interim CEO Mark Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan signed reciprocal severance agreements on September 10, 2026.
• The severance packages include 12 months' salary, accelerated equity vesting, and health coverage, totaling $8.15 million.

Stack Overflow Launches the Next Generation of Stack Internal to Power Trusted Enterprise AI

Stack Overflow announced the launch of the next generation of Stack Internal, aimed at powering trusted enterprise AI.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of AI-Assisted Development

This opinion piece examines the benefits, risks, and broader economic implications of AI-assisted software development. The author argues that AI can dramatically compress developers' learning and problem-solving time, but warns that treating AI outputs as decisions risks eroding engineering judgment and accountability, which remains with human engineers. The article compares AI-generated code to traditional copy-paste practices (e.g., from Stack Overflow and GitHub), highlights uncertainty in the job market as companies experiment with automation, and stresses that the ultimate outcome depends on how engineers choose to use AI—preserving curiosity, skepticism, and ownership rather than outsourcing understanding to tools. The piece was published on 2026-08-24.

• Software as a distinct discipline began emerging in the 1940s.
• The article states that AI can compress much of the developer learning journey into seconds.
• The author warns that AI can be confidently wrong and cannot be held legally or professionally accountable; responsibility remains with the human who trusts the answer.

Safely Drop All PostgreSQL Tables (2026)

A technical how-to describing safe methods to drop all tables in a PostgreSQL database. The article shows a one-command reset (DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE; CREATE SCHEMA public; GRANT ...), explains PostgreSQL 15 default changes that revoke CREATE from PUBLIC and set public's owner to pg_database_owner (which can cause permission errors), and details Supabase-specific risks (Dropping public can remove Supabase-managed schemas and extensions). It gives variants to preserve extensions (reinstall extensions or drop tables only via a DO-block loop), recommends wrapping resets in transactions for local dev, and provides a production safety checklist: take backups, confirm connection, block connections, and restore from pg_dump/pg_restore rather than dropping schema in prod.

• DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE removes the public schema and all dependent objects (tables, views, sequences, functions, triggers).
• PostgreSQL 15 defaults: PUBLIC no longer has CREATE by default, and the owner of public is pg_database_owner, which can cause 'permission denied for schema public' after recreating the schema.
• On Supabase, DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE can cascade into Supabase-managed schemas (auth, storage, realtime, graphql) and break the project; use 'supabase db reset' for dev and restore from backups for production.