β±οΈ 3 min read
Hi all! Sorry, had a mental health crash this past month, so not much was done. However, I do have some good news to share!
ππ»ββοΈ 1 - I'm collaborating with Audrey Tang, the Digital Minister of Taiwan!
Audrey's been a role model of mine for years, and a leader in the digital democracy / collective intelligence s...
2025-10-31 13:06:50 +0000 UTC View PostHi all! I've been under the weather this month, so instead of a vlog, here's a quick text-post update:
Stuff done this month:
ποΈ Talked with Audrey Tang(!), Digital Minister of Taiwan, about possibly doing comics/videos for her upcoming book on a more humane take on AI Alignment! More info if you're curious: 2025-09-24 18:41:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi PatrΓ©on supporters! I got something new for you today β my first vlog!
Okay this isn't actually my first first vlog, but it's my first in over 10 years? I want to experiment more with video β (more fun for me & you, makes it easier to showcase simulations & animated explainers, larger audience reach, Video Killed The Everything Else Star) β so, here's a vlog, ...
2025-08-29 18:21:34 +0000 UTC View Post(β±οΈ 21 min read in total )
(π¨ This one's a loooooooong one! If it gets clipped in your email client, you may have to click "view entire message" at the end. )
Hi all! Sorry for the silence; I was on vacation! I went to New Zealand & Australia. My travel plushies (Capyccino & Sacabambackpack) had a great time:
2025-06-18 14:19:04 +0000 UTC
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β±οΈ reading time: 6 min
Hi Patreon supporters!
First, sorry I forgot about the "drawing of a cat" reward for being a supporter. Here's a drawing I made yesterday, of a cat being a baller:
Second: I know I've little to show over the last few years. Compared to my super-pr...
2025-03-27 15:55:19 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreon supporters,
A reminder: last month, when trying to cross the U.S.-Canada land border, I had my phone, laptop, and iPad all confiscated (because I wouldn't give them my passcodes). They even read & scanned my pen-and-paper diary?? Now, <...
2025-01-24 17:48:25 +0000 UTC View PostI can't say more (for now) because it involves the U.S-Canada border/ongoing legal stuff, but the relevant thing is: I have not had access to my phone, laptop, or tablet for the last 7 days, and I still haven't gotten confirmation when I'm getting them back. At this point I'm not even sure I'll get them back before the holidays. I'm currently borrowing a friend's (too-old...
2024-12-15 16:11:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi y'all! Time for the monthly cool-folks-supporting-me update.
Some good news & bad news. The good news is I've been super-productive the last month! I started on SIX new research projects (all related to AI or AI Safety), and learnt a few new programming languages & tools.
Hi all! It is my birthday.
My gift for myself for the big Three-Zero is to write this navel-gazing blog post, which I shall share with you now:
. . .
If you don't have the time or don't want to read it all, here's the list of 30 tips ...
2024-09-11 21:29:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all! Regular update for you regular supporters: (again, thank y'all so much!)
Last month, Aug 2024:
1) π AI Safety for Fleshy Humans: Part 2 launched, if you didn't see!
. . .
2) π€ I gave a mini-talk at the final XOXO conference, on AI, Art, and "c...
2024-09-03 01:34:30 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised, Part 2 of my series on making safe, humane AI is now out on July 31st! Yes it is July 31st, the promised deadline. I wouldn't be late by almost two weeks. What, naw, couldn't be me.
This part's chockful of Robot Catboy comics, like this one:
Here's the link!
(β± reading time: 4 min)
Hi y'all! Happy Canada Day from Canada π¨π¦
Last month I got a bunch of work done, but alas, it's the kind of work that's not very "show-off- able". So this update, less show, more tell:
. . .
1) AI Safety Part 2 is 50% done. Reminder, this part is the one with ...
2024-07-01 16:12:06 +0000 UTC View Post
(β±οΈ 4 min read)
(posting a day late, plz ignore)
. . .
Quick time-sensitive announcement: If you know a high schooler who's into programming, skip to the end of this post to learn about a free(!) hackathon, set on a train going through the Canadian boreal forest. π²π²π² Applications close June 10th!
. . .
Hi y'all!
... 2024-06-01 07:43:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi y'all!
Two years after my last flagship project [Nutshell]...
Four years after my last longform explainer [Covid Futures]...
I'm... mostly relieved, to finally launch my new explainer series, titled!...
(β± 6 min read)
Three updates! Two big updates, and one kinda-update!
I'm making an interactive visualization of an Artificial Neural Network, from scratch! Look, you can directly click & drag to change its inputs, weights, and biases... and see all the intermediary activations. ...
2024-03-30 23:18:39 +0000 UTC View Post
(β±οΈ read time: 3 min)
Hi all!
1) Apparently "eating my hair if I broke my promise" crossed the line from funny to actually unhealthy & disturbing. So, I won't use self-punishment for failing to get AI Safety Part One out this month. Again.
Instead...
. . .
2) I wrote a 20,000-word(!!!) mega-post summarizing all
2024-02-22 16:28:53 +0000 UTC
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(β± reading time: 2 min)
Last update, I said:
[AI Safety Part One] should fina-frickin'-lly be out in December. Or else: I will cut off a square-centimeter chunk of my hair, mix it with some food, and eat it on camera.
Yes, I am resorting to this level of ... 2024-01-05 16:55:25 +0000 UTC View Post
A silly video I made for before the end-of-year! Happy New Year, y'all! π
(An actual update on my next explainer, AI Safety for Fleshy Humans, will come in a few days.)
=== Lyrics ===
Should resolutions be forgot
And tried again once more?
You faffed around in '23
Let's try for '24
You signed up for the local gym
And got the Headspace app
Hi all! Short update this time.
Thank you all so much for the thoughtful replies on my last post! I'm learning to overcome my fearful people-pleasing instincts, so I'm relieved the last post didn't, like, totally blow up in my face.
Anyway: good news then bad news then good news abou...
2023-12-01 17:54:22 +0000 UTC View Post(β±οΈ reading time: 20 min)
β β β β β
IMPORTANT: Patreon has finally succumbed to that awful trend: feeds in non-chronological order. Please turn on email notifications to make sure you ca...
2023-10-28 21:14:22 +0000 UTC View Post(* well, September now)
( π 3 min read )
Hi all,
Sorry for the no-update last month β had to take a sudden physical/mental health break. Long story short:
1. Brain fog, never figured out why.
2. I developed something similar to 2023-09-01 21:34:06 +0000 UTC View Post
(β± reading time: 11 minutes)
Recently, three threads in my life have coincided on one word: βcyborgβ.
(β± reading time: 7 minutes)
Hi all!
Sincerest apologies for my lack of updates. I'll share more in a future post, but my last 2 months have been: lots of couch-surfing, moving cities over & over, starting hormones for my transition(!), pausing hormones, burnout, a fun conference, more burnout, etc, everything except finishing the AI Safety explainer....
2023-05-26 20:15:56 +0000 UTC View Post
(β± reading time: 2 minutes)
Every. Week.
Every week that passes, my mega-explainer on AI Safety/Alignment gets more and more obsolete.
It's so weird to see how fast the Overton Window's shifted recently, with the NYT and The Atlantic and Fox and big petitions with serious-professionals all calling for AI Capabilities research to slow down ...
2023-04-01 00:47:34 +0000 UTC View Post
(β± 2 min read time)
Being an indie creator means: never, ever being able to predict how long stuff takes to make.
My next project is a mega-explainer on AI Alignment & its controversies. To make it layperson-friendly, it'll be a mix of words & comics!
β± (reading time: 7 min)
Hi all!
I had a bunch of moving & medical-related errands in January β don't worry, I'm fine β so I didn't finish my 90-minute-read intro to AI Alignment this month after all.
But, here's an excerpt! One thing I'm proud of: the art quality is much higher than my previous stuff. (To be fair, that's a low bar. Evolution of ...
2023-01-31 17:53:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all!
This month I got sidetracked by the new, scary-good chatbot everyone's talking about: ChatGPT from OpenAI (which is not open). Well I guess it's been out a whole month, so that's ancient news in internet-time.
But if you still care, I wrote two long threads on ChatGPT. They show off:
β±(5 min read)
Hi all! A quick update, in five parts:
1) Quantum mini-sim (πΎ + 1 playable simulation you can play!)
2) Trans voice interactives (πΎ + 2 crappy prototypes you can try!)
3) Patreon pausing policy
4) Wait what happened to my other projects
5) Rewards for Nov 2022
- - - - -
2022-11-28 13:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Hi all! Apologies for not updating y'all last month. My next project is a looong-form essay β augmented with Nutshell's expandable explanations & Orbit's spaced repetition β and the essay is about... too much. Internet movements, narcissism, mental h...
2022-10-07 22:38:42 +0000 UTC View Post
(can't see .gif above? try this link)
After 2 years of procrastinating on this project... it's finally out! My first post-burnout-hiatus interactive thingy:
π₯ Nutshell: make expandable explanations π₯
π 2022-08-17 15:25:09 +0000 UTC
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