AI systems for narrative media + narrative theory for AI safety
I’m now working at AE Studio as an Alignment Scientist! This is a major career pivot for me, but I hope to apply ideas from narrative theory as part of AE’s broader exploration of neglected approaches to AI safety.
Much of my work has centered on building abstractions, tools, and languages to help humans (and their machines) author, control, and understand AI systems. While generally I have specialized in art and entertainment, and story engines in particular, I've also worked in domains such as healthcare, applied linguistics, library science, and cybersecurity. Like many of my colleagues, I am concerned about the dangers posed by ongoing advances in AI. I hope for a future in which humans can live meaning-filled lives, and I would like to do what I can to help secure such a future. This is why I have recently pivoted into work on AI safety, and the alignment problem in particular. That said, I remain interested in entertainment applications.
I was brought up in an omnivorous AI tradition that values a broad set of technical methods — symbolic, neural, and statistical — and especially larger configurations of techniques that expose levers for authorial control. Primarily I am interested in system building, which I view as a pragmatic form of bricolage: construct an assemblage of AI components, potentially from distinct paradigms, that allows a designer to make a system do their bidding. When I build systems, I build associated authoring tools in tandem, sometimes aimed at nontechnical designers. More broadly, I'm fascinated by the history of computing, and by the wonder of computation as a physical phenomenon that our universe affords.
On the side, I operate this boutique software studio specializing in author-centric AI systems for art and entertainment.
I also run this rare book and art dealer (and occasional press) specializing in computer-generated literature and early generative art.
I am spinning up a tiny research collective applying narrative theory to AI safety, with an emphasis on research automation.
When I was on the faculty at Carleton College, I led a research group called the Studio for Computational Media Archaeology.
Claude Code plugin for rapid experiments in representation engineering.
Real-time story engine for a VR espionage game.
AI engine undergirding a platform that augments human life coaches.
AI-powered game master for a VR tabletop roleplaying game.
Engine for world simulation with authorable domains.
Story engine for an augmented reality game played over WhatsApp.
Engine for authorable RAG-augmented conversational characters.
DARPA-funded chatbot that wastes the time of email scammers.
Engine for world simulation centering on character actions.
Authoring tool for natural language generation in expressive domains, like videogames.
Work of immersive theater whose story and setting is uniquely generated by a computer simulation.
Simulationist roguelike text adventure.
