Latest AI and tech news

Ask a large language model a question about your data, and you’ll probably get a confident answer. Ask it again, and you might get a different one. Sometimes, neither answer is correct....

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is quietly becoming one of the most useful ideas in AI tooling. Here, we describe what MCP is, why it matters, and how to build an MCP server yourself....

If you plan to learn R or Python in the new year, book before the end of November. Our spring 2027 data science training courses run from January to June, and early bird pricing on the first one ends on 29 November....

The call for speakers for AI in Production 2027 is open until 29 January 2027. The conference returns to The Catalyst in Newcastle on 10 and 11 June, with workshops on the Thursday and a full day of talks and lightning talks on the Friday....

It’s October, so that means a new stable release of Python has arrived. Here we will review some of the changes introduced in Python 3.15....

There are ten public training courses left in 2026, running through October and November. If you’ve been meaning to learn Python, build your first Shiny app, or get to grips with machine learning in R, there’s still time to do it before the end of th...

We’ve previously extolled the virtues of automating the repetitive chores we encounter, allowing us to focus on the tasks that matter. Three years ago, we posted an example of how to automate the deployment of a Shiny application to shinyapps.io from...

It’s 2:47pm, the meeting has been running for 38 minutes, and someone has just said, “Can everyone see my screen?”...

Posit Assistant is an AI assistant built into your IDE, either Positron or RStudio. It’s built primarily for exploratory data analysis, and its pitch is session context and specialised, in-built skills....

AI in Production is about the reality of running AI and machine learning systems, not just building them. The talks come from people who have shipped something and lived with what came next: what worked, what surprised them, what they would do differ...

SAS is almost 50 years old. It predates the web, and it predates most of the open source tools data teams reach for today. While old, it is not obsolete. SAS remains central to clinical research, banking, insurance and other regulated industries, and...

This blog post explains some good reasons for learning to use the terminal / command-line for data scientists....

Choosing a development environment shapes how a team writes, reviews, and ships analysis, so a new IDE is worth a careful look before it becomes part of daily work....

So you’ve built your data pipeline, you’ve designed your dashboard and you’ve connected the two through a real app. The screenshots match the designs and you can show it off and wow the stakeholders. Ready to launch, right? Well, maybe. In this post ...

“AI In Production 2026”, a new conference hosted by Jumping Rivers, was held on 4-5 June, 2026. The conference touched on many of the intricacies of using AI in software products, as part of the developer toolkit, and at the wider usage of AI through...

AI in Production is almost here. On 4–5 June at The Catalyst in Newcastle, Jumping Rivers is hosting a day of hands-on workshops followed by a full day of talks from practitioners working with AI across industry, government, academia, and research. Y...

I’ve been using Unix and Linux systems for nearly 20 years. When I found myself with a Windows laptop for a while I felt lost and quickly installed Windows Subsystem for Linux. And yet the number of commands I know and use regularly is surprisingly s...

There is still a lot of 2026 left, and our public training schedule runs all the way through to November. Whether you are picking up R or Python for the first time, or looking to go further with machine learning or Shiny, there is a course in the pro...

R 4.6.0 (“Because it was There”) is set for release on April 24th 2026. Here we summarise some of the more interesting changes that have been introduced. In previous blog posts, we have discussed the new features introduced in R 4.5.0 and earlier ver...

Large Language Models are becoming part of everyday data science work. But using them through chat interfaces is only one part of the picture....

As we approach the decennial (10-year) anniversary since Jumping Rivers was founded in 2016, it’s a good time to reflect on what we have achieved in that time and share some lessons learned....

AI in Production runs over two days at The Catalyst in Newcastle upon Tyne on 4–5 June. Day 1 is a full day of hands-on workshops, and Day 2 is a full day of conference talks. You can read more about the workshops. For the full speaker lineup, head t...

Over the course of my career as a Data Scientist, I’ve worked on projects ranging from simple code reviews, to large application builds. For the most part, I have used R to do this....

Here’s the new data. Could you summarise it like Alice did last year, and send me a report?...

We recently ran a session on Posit platform updates, the kind of features that don’t always make it onto your radar but can make a real difference once you know they’re there....

For a while we, at Jumping Rivers, have offered a Dashboard Health Check (DHC) largely focused around backend features and other facets the end-user doesn’t see: things like version control, documentation and deployment. However, the DHC also include...

We are excited to share more details about the workshops taking place at AI in Production 2026, which will be held in Newcastle upon Tyne on 4–5 June 2026....

Python offers a wide range of tools for data manipulation, but choosing the right one often depends on performance needs, workflow preferences, and dataset size....

Teams often treat software updates as something to postpone until absolutely necessary. But with analytics platforms, falling behind can introduce avoidable risk, compatibility issues, and missed improvements....

Getting started with Git is easy (ha!), but once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s natural for developers to start thinking about customising their git process. Most Git settings live in the .gitconfig file. In this blog post, I’ll discuss what you sh...

First things first, if you haven’t heard of or used alt text before, it is a brief written description of an image that explains context and purpose. It is used to improve accessibility by allowing screen readers to describe images, or provide contex...

We’re accepting abstracts for AI in Production until 23rd January. The conference takes place on 4th–5th June 2026 in Newcastle, with talks on Friday 5th across two streams: one focused on engineering and production systems, the other on machine lear...

Now that we’re well into the second-half of the 2020s, it’s a good time to reflect on the changes that we have seen so far in this decade. In the world of data science nothing has dominated headlines quite like the rapid growth and uptake of generati...

Ho ho ho! 🎅 The holiday season is here, and at Jumping Rivers, we’re decking the halls with data, not just tinsel. While elves are busy checking their lists twice, we thought: why not bring a little machine learning magic to Christmas? After all, wha...

Date & Time (BST): 11 December 2025, 13:00 Topic: Accessible Shiny: Designing for All Users...

This it the third part of a blog series. In the previous posts we have addressed: creating a package with Poetry, managing our development environment and adding a function in part one; and package documentation, testing and how to publish to PyPI in...

Ready to make 2026 the year you take your skills to the next level? Our 2026 online training courses are now live, designed to help you stay ahead of the curve, become more hirable, and gain practical skills that make a real impact....

Heard of Figma but not sure what it is? Seen Figma but not sure if it’s worth learning? Never seen or heard of Figma? If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes” then this blog post is for you....

Registration is now open for our first AI in Production conference, taking place on 4 and 5 June 2026 in Newcastle Upon Tyne....

Are you ready to stay ahead in the fast-evolving world of data? Join Jumping Rivers for our free monthly webinar series designed for data professionals at all levels. In just 55 minutes, you’ll gain practical insights, sharpen your skills, and tackle...

As a data science consultancy, Jumping Rivers are already known for offering help and training to clients in all things data. But did you know that we also organise free, in-person data science meetups?...

Biodiversity. We’d like more of it. More of each thing, and more different types of thing. And more of the things that help make more of the different types of thing....