ncase posts
Posts: 255
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Supporter Update, Spooky Edition
⏱️3 min readHi all! Sorry, had a mental health crash this past month, so not much was done. However, I do have some good news to share!🙋🏻♀️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...
Quick Update Sep 2025
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:🕊️ 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 inf...
My 1st Vlog! Digital puppet, AI "Therapy", Mental health meta-meta-analysis
Hi Patréon supporters! I got something new for you today — 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 — (more fun for me & you, makes it easier to showcase simulations & animated explainers, larg...
June 2025: AI Therapists & AI Clones! 🤖
(⏱️ 21 min read in total )(🚨 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 & Sacabam...
The Start-of-Spring Update
⏱️ reading time: 6 minHi 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...
Nicky's Plans for 2025, Probably
Hi Patreon supporters,A reminder: last month, when trying to cross the U.S.-Canada land border, I had my phone, laptop,andiPad all confiscated (because I wouldn't give them my passcodes). They evenread & scannedmy pen-and-paper diary?? Now,7 weeks later, I still have no update when or ifI'm ...
Temporarily lost ALL devices; projects will be delayed :(
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 stillhaven't gotten confirmation when I'm getting them back. At this point I'm not even...
Spooky Research! (also AI Safety Part 3 delayed, sorry)
Hi y'all! Time for the monthly cool-folks-supporting-me update.Some good news & bad news.Thegoodnewsis I've been super-productive the last month! I started onSIXnew research projects (all related to AI or AI Safety), and learnt a few new programming languages & tools.👉 Here's a 42-m...
Welp, I'm 30! (+ a 30-min-long article to "celebrate")
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:⏱ Welp, I'm 30. (30 tips for my 13-year-old self) ⏱ (30 min read). . .If you don't have the time or don't want to read it all, here's the ...
My "Creative Cyborg" talk + more!
Hi all! Regular update for you regular supporters: (again, thank y'all so much!)Last month, Aug 2024:1) 🙀AI Safety for Fleshy Humans: Part 2launched, if you didn't see!. . .2) 🤖 I gave a mini-talkat the final XOXO conference, on AI, Art, and "creative cyborgs"!The talk wasn'...
AI Safety for Fleshy Humans p2: Flesh Harder
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!🤖 https:/...
Monthly update: Tell Don't Show
(⏱reading time: 4 min)Hi y'all! Happy Canada Day from Canada 🇨🇦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 2is 50% done. Reminder, this part is the one ...
This month's update: Avatars, Fractals, & Signal Boosts
(⏱️ 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. 🌲🌲🌲 Applications clo...
FINALLY. "AI Safety for Fleshy Humans", Part One!
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!...🤖 AI SAFETY for FLESHY HUMANS🤖🙀 https://aisafety.dance🙀Your one-stop-shop to l...
March Updates: I made a neural network from scratch!
(⏱ 6 min read)Three updates! Two big updates, and one kinda-update!🧠 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...
Clearing out the idea closet (47 projects on my backlog)
(⏱️ 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(!!!) me...
new year who dis
(⏱ reading time: 2 min)1) Pre-commitment self-punishment mechanismLast 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...
Auld Lang Syne but it calls out your failed 2023 resolutions
A silly video I made for before the end-of-year! Happy New Year, y'all! 💖(An actual update on my next explainer, AI Safety for Fleshy Humans, will come in a few days.)=== Lyrics ===Should resolutions be forgotAnd tried again once more?You faffed around in '23Let's try for '24You s...
AI Safety piece will(?) launch this month!
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 S...
If on an autumn night, a Nicky (Update on 5 projects)
(⏱️ reading time: 20 min)— — — — —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 & itself, I have no idea. I am ver...
Augh-ust* Update
(* well, September now)( 🕓 3 min read )Hi all,Sorry for the no-update last month – 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 gen...
“Cyborgs”
(⏱ reading time: 11 minutes)Recently, three threads in my life have coincided on one word: “cyborg“. Thinking about the problem of how to align AI to humane values→ human-in-the-loop AI design strategies→ “Cyborgism” Struggling to make a "productivity system" to help my subclin...
Bonus Mini-explainer: Gödel's Proof!
(⏱ 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, e...
More AI comix, and project update
(⏱ 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 ca...
Patron-exclusive sneak peek: 3 AI Safety comics
(⏱ 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....
Sheriff Meowdy: an excerpt from my upcoming mega-post on AI Alignment
⏱ (reading time: 7 min)Hi all!I had a bunch of moving & medical-related errands in January — don't worry, I'm fine — 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 highe...
Two longposts on ChatGPT + an AI Alignment megapost soon!
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 of...
Quantum mini-sim + Voice interactives + Patreon pause policy
⏱(5 min read)Hi all! A quick update, in five parts:1) Quantum mini-sim (👾 + 1 playable simulation you can play!)2) Trans voice interactives (👾 + 2 crappy prototypes you can try!)3) Patreon pausing policy4) Wait what happened to my other projects5) Rewards for Nov 2022- - - - -1) Quantum mini...
Virtue Ethics project update + belated Patreon rewards
Hi all! Apologies for not updating y'all last month. My next project is a looong-form essay – augmented with Nutshell's expandable explanations & Orbit's spaced repetition – and the essay is about... too much. Internet movements, narcissism, mental health, virtue ethics, my two-month...
New project! Nutshell: make expandable explanations
(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:🥜 Nutshell: make expandable explanations 🥜👉 https://ncase.me/nutshell/ 👈This is a tool for writers, to let their readers dive...
