Simon Willison Highlights Brooklyn's Rex's Dino Store

Technology writer Simon Willison has documented a whimsical new installation located inside the Grand Army Plaza subway station in Brooklyn, New York. The site, a former transit newsstand situated just before the turnstiles at the north end of Prospect Park, has been transformed into a novelty retail concept called Rex's Dino Store.

According to Willison's brief dispatch, published on October 2, 2026, the repurposed newsstand is humorously presented as being operated by a dinosaur. Visitors to the subway station will encounter a high concentration of dinosaur-themed jokes and wordplay throughout the storefront's branding and display.

The publication of the photo-based update was sponsored by speech AI developer Deepgram. The company used the placement to highlight its Flux TTS product, a text-to-speech system engineered to remember conversational context. According to Deepgram, the technology ensures that automated voice agents sound natural and appropriate even by their twentieth reply in a single conversation.

The lighthearted post represents a brief departure from Willison's typical focus on rapid developments in the artificial intelligence sector. His other recent publications from late September and early October 2026 include an OpenAI DevDay 2026 live blog, a comprehensive review of large language model progress throughout the year, and an analysis arguing for the necessity of default hard budget caps across digital systems.