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 space. So imagine my surprise when she reached out to me, asking, "hey Nicky can we pay...
2025-10-31 13:06:50 +0000 UTC
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Hi 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: https://6pack.care/
π―ββοΈ Made a working prototype for an...
2025-09-24 18:41:24 +0000 UTC
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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, where I am a cartoon cat showing you what I've been up to the last month.
β±οΈ 10 minute wat...
2025-08-29 18:21:34 +0000 UTC
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(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:
Anyway, here's your Cont...
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-prolific years like 2014 β (my first explorable, my collab with Vi Hart, and my first interactive st...
2025-03-27 15:55:19 +0000 UTC
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Hi 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, 7 weeks later, I still have no update when or if I'm getting my devices back; ...
2025-01-24 17:48:25 +0000 UTC
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I 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-to-do-coding-work-on) spare laptop, and thankfully I had the foresight to save my two-auth codes el...
2024-12-15 16:11:37 +0000 UTC
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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.
π Here's a 42-minute mega-post, describing m...
2024-10-27 19:13:32 +0000 UTC
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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 I wish I knew much earlier! ‡ (each one is elaborated more in the above link)
πβ...
2024-09-11 21:29:42 +0000 UTC
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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 "creative cyborgs"! 2024-09-03 01:34:30 +0000 UTC
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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 all the comics, like this one:
2024-07-01 16:12:06 +0000 UTC
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(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!
The response to AI Safety for Fleshy Humans: Part One was small, but good! I mean,...
2024-06-01 07:43:56 +0000 UTC
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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!...
π€ AI SAFETY for FLESHY HUMANS π€
π https://aisafety.dance π
Your one-stop-shop to learn all the core ideas in AI & AI Safety, with the help of...
2024-05-05 19:49:41 +0000 UTC
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(β± 6 min read)
Three updates! Two big updates, and one kinda-update!
π§ Update #1: I'm making a neural network toy!
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. GIF below:
2024-03-30 23:18:39 +0000 UTC
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(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 the projects that have been on my backlog for the last few years!
π§Ή 2024-02-22 16:28:53 +0000 UTC
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(β± reading time: 2 min)
1) Pre-commitment self-punishment mechanism
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 pre-commitment contract. I'm sorry I've kept breaking my promise on this project for so many months,...
2024-01-05 16:55:25 +0000 UTC
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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
You bought a Bullet Journal but
Your willpower's still crap
Go Paleo, learn the piano
F...
2023-12-29 19:43:14 +0000 UTC
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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 about AI Safety for Fleshy Humans, my three-part series explaining AI Safety.
Good News: ...
2023-12-01 17:54:22 +0000 UTC
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(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 can actually get my updates.
Why Patreon keeps screwing over its users & i...
2023-10-28 21:14:22 +0000 UTC
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(* 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 TMD (persistent throat/jaw pain), due to a combo of my voice-related gender...
2023-09-01 21:34:06 +0000 UTC
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(β± reading time: 11 minutes)
Recently, three threads in my life have coincided on one word: βcyborgβ.
- Thinking about the problem of how to align AI to humane values
β human-in-the-loop AI design strategies
β βCyborgismβ - Struggling to make a "productivity system" to help my subclinical(?)-ADHD brain
β thinking again about "the opposite of A.I.", I.A.: Intelligence Augmentation
β βCyborgsβ
2023-07-03 21:03:03 +0000 UTC
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(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.
So for now, here's a Patreon-exclusive* mini-explainer on GΓΆdel's Proof, t...
2023-05-26 20:15:56 +0000 UTC
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(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 or even stop, at least until AI Safety can catch up.
So: in order for my AI explainer...
2023-04-01 00:47:34 +0000 UTC
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(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!
- The words: I wrote 18,000 words in one week.
- The comics: it's been a month and I'm only halfway done drawing them.
Uggghhh.
Anyway: I am (once again...
2023-02-21 18:49:15 +0000 UTC
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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 Trust was literally stick figures without arms.) The full AI Alignment mega-post will be ...
2023-01-31 17:53:50 +0000 UTC
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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:
- How easy-to-break ChatGPT's safeguards are against generating harmful/hateful content
- Some positive uses, like: mental health, assisting science/creativ...
2022-12-30 21:39:25 +0000 UTC
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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
- - - - -
1) Quantum mini-sim
My friend Mithuna Yoganathan re...
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 health, virtue ethics, my two-month depressive episode 2022-10-07 22:38:42 +0000 UTC
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(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 https://ncase.me/nutshell/ π
This is a tool...
2022-08-17 15:25:09 +0000 UTC
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