About What the AI
Curated AI intelligence for every level.
The Idea
AI is moving fast. Too fast for any one person to keep up with everything — and most news sources either drown you in hype or assume you already have a PhD in machine learning.
What the AI is built on a simple idea: everyone deserves AI news at their level.Whether you're just curious about what ChatGPT actually does, or you're deep in the weeds of transformer architectures, you should be able to find signal without the noise.
We pull from dozens of sources — Hacker News, arXiv, RSS feeds, X/Twitter, Reddit, GitHub Trending — and use AI itself to classify, summarize, and organize everything into five levels of depth. The result is a feed you can actually use, no matter where you are on your AI journey.
The Levels
How Ranking Works
Every article in the feed gets a "Most Relevant" scorethat determines its position. This isn't a simple recency sort — it's a composite signal designed to surface what actually matters.
What goes into the score
- AI quality classification (0-100 pts) — Every article is classified by an AI model that evaluates depth, originality, and significance. Scores are calibrated across a wide range: groundbreaking launches score 90+, solid coverage lands 55-74, and thin content falls below 35.
- Freshness nudge (up to 8 pts) — New articles get a small temporary lift for the first day, then that nudge fades out over a week. It helps break ties without letting recency overpower quality.
- Engagement signals (up to 20 pts) — Hacker News score, Reddit upvotes, GitHub stars, Bluesky engagement, and Twitter likes are normalized and combined. Older engagement fades to one-quarter weight by day 14.
- Cross-source virality (up to 10 pts) — Articles discovered by two independent sources get 5 points; three or more sources get 10. Widespread coverage is useful signal, but it is capped.
- Reader votes (up to ±40 pts) — Your upvotes and downvotes are the heaviest signal. Community feedback matters more than any algorithm. Each net vote is worth 8 points.
What pushes articles down
- Time decay — Articles lose relevance over time on a logarithmic-plus-linear curve: about 16 pts after the first day, 45 pts after one week, and 65 pts after two weeks. This keeps the feed fresh without instantly burying good content.
- Model-release decay— Model announcements go stale faster than evergreen analysis, so articles in Models & Releases receive the same decay a second time.
- Model-release supersession (-30 pts) — When a newer model in the same family is announced more than 24 hours later, the older announcement is demoted so the latest release wins.
How to read the ranking
- Most Relevant means highest composite score, not newest. A week-old major model release can still beat a fresh roundup if the quality and engagement gap is large.
- Most Recent is available when you want a pure chronological view of what just landed.
- Missing fresh stories usually means source coverage, ingestion, or classification is the issue, not only weighting. The ranking can only order articles that made it into the feed.
The result: a feed that balances recency, quality, community signal, and real-world impact — not just what was published most recently.
We Want Your Feedback
This is an early-stage project and we're actively building based on what people actually want. If something feels off — the classification is wrong, a source is missing, a feature would make your life easier — we want to hear it.
The best way to reach us is through GitHub Issues. File a bug, suggest a feature, or just tell us what you think.
You can also contribute directly — suggest glossary terms, vote on articles to help improve quality rankings, and bookmark what matters to you. Every interaction makes the feed better for everyone.
Want This For Another Topic?
The engine behind What the AI — source ingestion, AI classification, and the relevance ranking above — isn't specific to AI news. Point it at a different set of sources and it works for any fast-moving topic: crypto, biotech, climate, fintech, or whatever your community needs signal on.
If you'd like to spin up a site like this for another topic, reach out: adam@whattheai.io.
Part of Some Shovels
What the AI is part of Some Shovels — digital artifacts for builders. We make tools that help people do real work with technology, without the fluff.
someshovels.com