Briefs on the systems built in the lab — agentic AI, governance, robotics, forecasting — alongside essays on how AI is reshaping learning, organisations, and software.
Each brief is a short read — the idea, the interesting engineering, and what the pattern is good for beyond the project itself.
ZenInvest is an open, agentic investing system where Claude, GPT-4o, and Gemini debate every idea — and deterministic Python keeps final veto power over capital. It currently runs on a paper-trading account, so no real money is at risk.
ZenArena puts one of agentic AI's favourite claims — that memory makes agents better — under a falsifiable test, using chess and a Stockfish truth signal to measure whether governed memory beats remembering everything.
ZenRate wraps a deterministic actuarial core in a layer of collaborating AI agents — where exactly one agent holds a veto, every decision is recorded bi-temporally, and the compliance paperwork falls out of the architecture.
ZenForecast is an open-source, governance-first Python framework that treats forecasting as a continuous predict → decide → act → learn loop — with interchangeable models, leakage-free backtesting, and an audit trail behind a single API.
ZenLab is an offline-first research monorepo spanning 21 AI/ML topics across 10 tracks — a place where agentic techniques must earn their way into production designs through experiments instead of hype.
Stitch is a simulation-first digital twin of an autonomous, wildlife-safe, amphibious litter-collection robot — a six-package ROS 2 / Gazebo system that must pass its full mission in simulated physics before a single part is bought.
ZenGrowth scores senior AI and data-science roles with an explainable expected-value formula and drafts applications grounded in verified evidence — locally, auditably, with hard gates against fabricated claims.
The focus is on work that helps people think more clearly about how AI systems are built and used in practice. No invented metrics, no hype — honest caveats stay in.
Longer-form essays behind the ideas that shape the projects. The ZenInvest story is live as an R&D brief; the rest of the arc is in progress.
What happens when AI arrives in organisations built on mainframes, Excel, and institutional inertia. An insider perspective on technical change in industry.
in-progressStudents use AI to write coursework, then use feedback to argue the grade. The system was optimised for outputs, not understanding.
upcomingA public brief on building a multi-LLM investment system with transparent reasoning and human-in-control execution.
publishedSoftware built with embedded AI agents that can adapt, expand, and retire features over time.
upcomingShorter essays on AI systems, product architecture, and delivery.
How to design AI systems that support thinking without pretending certainty.
Why distinct model roles can improve scrutiny and reduce blind spots.
What it takes to move from demos to governed, production-grade AI systems.
Designing an AI assistant that stores everything locally, encrypts keys at rest, and refuses to boot unprotected in production.