The New Stack Podcast

Subquadratic is beginning to back up its ambitious claims with benchmarks and third-party validation for its SubQ 1.1 Small model, which uses its proprietary Sparse Attention (SSA) architecture to dramatically improve long-context performance. Rather than comparing every token to every other token, SSA selectively processes relationships, enabling near-linear scaling while maintaining high accuracy across context windows of up to 12 million tokens. The company reports near-perfect retrieval performance, competitive coding and reasoning benchmarks, and compute savings of up to 1,000x at maximum context lengths. 

Rather than targeting frontier models immediately, Subquadratic is focusing on enterprise customers that need efficient analysis of massive datasets. The current model was built by replacing the dense attention mechanism in an existing open-weight model and then continuing long-context pretraining. Looking ahead, the startup plans to release a larger mid-tier model while continuing research into "zero attention" architectures that could eliminate attention mechanisms altogether, with the long-term goal of surpassing today's transformer-based AI models in both efficiency and capability.

Learn more from The New Stack around cloud spending: 

The context window has been shattered: Subquadratic debuts a 12-million-token window 

What comes after attention? This startup says it already knows.

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Harness has introduced Autonomous Worker Agents, a new capability that allows enterprises to replace rigid CI/CD pipeline scripts with AI agents that can deploy applications, run tests, and perform security scans while operating under existing governance, security, and audit controls. Unlike Harness' existing expert agents, which assist developers with coding and pipeline creation, Worker Agents autonomously execute pipeline tasks within customer-controlled infrastructure. Agents are defined using simple Markdown files, draw context from the Harness Software Delivery Knowledge Graph, and run in sandboxed environments with scoped permissions and policy enforcement. 

Harness also provides built-in audit trails that record prompts, decisions, and outcomes, along with token budgets and approval gates to control AI costs. The launch includes an Agent Marketplace featuring Harness-managed, certified partner, and community-built agents. CEO Jyoti Bansal said production AI agents require far stronger safeguards than coding assistants, positioning Harness' governance and knowledge graph as key differentiators. Looking ahead, the company envisions fully autonomous software engineering, where AI agents manage the software lifecycle while humans oversee high-risk decisions.

Learn more from The New Stack around AI software delivery:

AI won't speed up software delivery - nothing has

How to solve the AI paradox in software development with intelligent orchestration 

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More than two decades after AWS helped usher in the public cloud era, many organizations are reassessing whether a cloud-first strategy still delivers the cost and operational benefits it once promised. While hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud have built enormously successful businesses, cloud spending has become a growing concern for customers as usage expands and costs continue to rise.

On this episode of The New Stack Makers, Summit’s Byron Dill argues that many enterprises have become overly reliant on public cloud infrastructure, using it for workloads that may be better suited to private environments. Rather than treating the cloud as a one-size-fits-all solution, Dill advocates for a more segmented approach that places workloads where they make the most sense based on cost, security and management requirements.

The conversation draws parallels to the rapid adoption of AI, where organizations often discover unexpected costs after implementation. Dill explores when repatriating workloads from the public cloud to private infrastructure can reduce expenses, simplify data management and improve control, while examining the costs, timelines and industries best positioned to benefit from a private cloud strategy.

 

Learn more from The New Stack around cloud spending: 

How to Cut Cloud Waste Without Constricting Developer Productivity 

AI agents need to spend money — Stripe and iWallet are building the rails 

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Gusto is betting that small businesses need more than another AI assistant. The company’s new product, Gusto Cofounder, is designed to act as a proactive business partner that helps owners manage and grow their companies, drawing inspiration from the traditional mom-and-pop partnership that co-founder and CTOEddie Kimwitnessed growing up. Unlike reactive chatbots, Cofounder can take action across payroll, HR, benefits, scheduling, insurance, and accounting workflows by leveraging data already stored within Gusto.

Users interact with the platform through text messages or Slack, while a consent framework ensures access to sensitive payroll and employee data remains tightly controlled. Businesses can grant explicit permissions and gradually increase autonomy as trust is established. The platform also integrates with third-party tools such as Google Workspace, enabling it to gather data, perform calculations, run payroll, and communicate results automatically.

Kim said the product was built by a five-person team in just eight weeks using Claude Code, which he believes demonstrates how AI is expanding software creation beyond traditional engineering roles. Looking ahead, Gusto plans to add more integrations and eventually enable customers and developers to share reusable, industry-specific business automations.

Learn more from The New Stack around how AI is expanding software creation beyond traditional engineering roles:

How AI Is Reshaping Software Engineering: Key Takeaways From DeveloperWeek 2025

AI and the Future of Code: Developers Are Key

The Engineer in the AI Age: The Orchestrator and Architect

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WeAreDevelopers, the Berlin-based developer conference founded in 2015, has grown into a major global event, attracting 15,000 developers from over 70 countries each year. In 2026, it expands beyond Europe with new editions in San Jose, California, and Bengaluru, India. Co-founder and CEO Sead Ahmetovic says the conference was created to give developers a stronger voice in an industry where marketers, salespeople, and entrepreneurs often receive more recognition. 

He believes developers, despite being less vocal, build the products that power the modern world. The event began as a small meetup that quickly gained popularity, filling a gap between highly specialized technical gatherings and broader business-focused conferences. Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke highlights another benefit: giving developers a platform to share the stories behind their work and inspire peers. 

Discussing the future of software development, Dohmke predicts AI agents will handle much of the coding, while developers focus on managing ideas, prompts, and workflows. Ahmetovic agrees, arguing that developers will remain essential, spending less time typing code and more time thinking, orchestrating, and creating new solutions. 

Learn more from The New Stack around the latest in developer community growth: 

How Community Helps Developers Grow 

Empowering Developers Is Critical to Drive AI Innovation 

3 Ways Organizations Can Redefine the Developer Experience 

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