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ID:
2025-12-08-gary-thomas-tiffany-applied-ai-society-planning
Participants:

Applied AI Society Community Planning Discussion

Overview​

Strategic planning conversation between Gary, Thomas, and Tiffany about creating an Applied AI Society community that would serve as a bridge between engineers and businesses needing AI implementation. Discussion covered community structure, target constituencies, legal frameworks, and integration with Open Teams ecosystem.

Key Topics Discussed​

Gary's Background and Vision​

  • Software Engineering Background: Former Google engineer (4 years), left for entrepreneurial experiments
  • Community Leadership Experience: Ran nonprofit for 3 years focused on youth leadership development, very community-oriented approach
  • Recent AI Journey: Completed Gauntlet AI program early 2025, gained thousands of hours of practice with AI tools
  • Current Consulting: Recently worked with Alpha Schools, helping friends with various projects
  • Applied AI Society Concept: "There's an archetype of a kind of consultant, engineer type person that I think I want to personally lean more into that archetype and feel like there should be more support for that kind of person"

Thomas's Extensive Technical Background​

  • Aerospace Experience: Worked for Elon's private engineering team on SpaceX Hyperloop and Dragon crew capsule
  • Semiconductor Industry: Miller SAT Semiconductor Systems, Western Digital (hard drives and memory states)
  • Sergey Brin's Team: Worked at LTA (Lighter Than Air) building 127-meter airships in NASA hangars
  • Nuclear Thermal Rocketry: Started company with friend, later acquired by Blue Origin
  • Blue Origin Role: Advanced concepts team, new propulsion mechanisms, orbital Reef (ISS replacement)
  • AI Company Experience: CTO of Applied General Intelligence, built model that topped MMLU Pro benchmark
  • Current Roles: Executive fellow at Harvard Business School, founder of Gold Star AI
  • Gold Star AI: Outreach system handling 40,000 people daily with 13% response rate (vs. 1% industry standard)

Thomas's Philosophy on Tech Workers​

  • "Recovering Anarchist Hacker" Archetype: "Everybody that I meet that is development or engineering at Open Teams is just a recovering anarchist hacker that begrudgingly started making money for others and realized they hated it"
  • Anti-Billionaire Sentiment: "I'm a recovering anarchist hacker that now realizes how anti billionaire he is"
  • Common Pattern: "All of them are so like, they have this streak in this undercurrent that started them on a path that they thought was going to change the world by force. And then they realized a bunch of billionaires could weaponize that force for a lot of money"

Applied AI Society Vision and Structure​

Target Constituencies​

  • Business Owners: "Perhaps a not strictly software business. Integrate AI in a way that helps the business, whether it's cut costs, reduce human error. Grow in some kind of way"
  • Engineers: People who want to apply AI rather than build SaaS companies - "applying the AI is the more democratizable type of role that people can play"
  • Community Need: Creating support for consultant-engineer archetype helping businesses integrate AI

Community Building Challenges​

  • "Mafia" Formation: Thomas noted "to create a tight enough knit community that we get people benefiting each other and working in unison... it's going to take a little bit of work"
  • Last Mile Problem: "The problem is the last mile delivery... You built this, like agent builder. Fantastic. Who the fuck does it help? And like, you don't know"
  • Customer Discovery: "Nobody can answer that until you go to the customer and go like, hey, what do you hate about your job? And they go, I hate these seven things"

Open Teams Ecosystem Context​

Quantsite Integration​

  • Quantsite Acquisition: Public Benefit Corp acquired by Open Teams
  • Team Culture: "Most of the quant site team is very anti billionaire like deeply. Deeply anti billionaire"
  • Project Autonomy: "They get to choose their own projects and what they want to work on generally, and they're not interested in making more money"
  • Government Contracting Tension: Many team members "categorically opposed to what Open Teams is doing with, like, government contracting"

Community Opportunities​

  • Family-Oriented Company: "We definitely grade family oriented as a company. No question. There's a lot of deeply religious folks in the company"
  • Special Interest Unifiers: Penetration testing, quantized LLM models, hardware hacking, hosting models
  • Technology-Based Community: "You can get the DoD people in the same room that you can get the, you know, the ethical hackers, right. They talk about anything, but their work"

Organizational Options​

  • 501(c)(3): Donation-based nonprofit, tax-deductible contributions, no lobbying
  • 501(c)(4): Can engage in lobbying activities
  • 501(c)(6): Trade organization, like a union for tradespeople
  • Funding Considerations: "It really depends on whether or not we want it to be so financially, right? Because it's going to be funded through donations or through food"

Strategic Risks​

  • Target Concerns: Tiffany's experience being sued 11 times as president of 501(c)(6) trade union by private equity firm
  • Employment Screening: "People started screening employees and making it an extra employment constitution. Did they not be members of our organization if they wanted to work with us?"
  • Attention Level: "It really depends how much we want to drive attention. How much we want to do under the radar"

Technical Community Interests​

Hardware Hacking Community​

  • Raspberry Pi Hosting: "Those who want to, like, host on, like, Raspberry PIs. Those are, like, those little microprocessors"
  • PC Building Overlap: "What are the limits I can push this hardware to? What are the experiments that I can run?"
  • Model Experimentation: People like Dylan Roach who "loves experimenting with every new model and every new technology that exists"
  • Platform Strategy: "Navarro's an ecosystem that you can build on. Right. You can add to"
  • Experiment Integration: "The more of those experiments that work and we are able to allow as a feature or to put on, the more people who are at that cutting edge use it"
  • Community Building: "More people can use this. More people can play with it, people can help. Add on to this and build and you get more community aspect"

Strategic Framework Discussion​

Foundation Concept​

  • Travis's Vision: "Create, like, a nonprofit foundation. That I guess altruistically gathers people to learn"
  • Market Creation: "Two sides of a mutually beneficial market, almost of engineers and business owners, can connect and then share workflows"
  • Applied AI Engineer Career Path: Supporting people pursuing this role rather than "inventing a new language model"

Community Requirements​

  • Consistency: "Communities also built on consistency. Right. So it has to be something that has a place at every conference"
  • Lighthouse Function: "Has become a portion of, you know, I guess, like the known portion of the ecosystem to be. To look to as like, you know, a lighthouse"
  • Culture Development: "Something that kind of cultivates that culture of the ability to share or help each other out because they're part of this ecosystem"

Key Quotes​

On Tech Worker Motivation​

  • Thomas: "I made a lot of money for a lot of really horrible people. And, like. And, like, I just find that all of them are so, like, they have this streak in this undercurrent that started them on a path that they thought was going to change the world by force"

On Applied AI Focus​

  • Gary: "A lot of peers of mine think that the only path forward is to build like an AI. Like in the AI world is to build some kind of SaaS company. And I think applying the AI is the more democratizable type of role that people can play"

On Community Building Philosophy​

  • Tiffany: "The only way you build an ecosystem, the only way you build technology organically and allow for advancement is through a community. Right. Actually, the way you build anything is with community"

On Last Mile Problem​

  • Thomas: "The problem is the last mile delivery... if the person who needs it isn't using it, then it doesn't matter. And that's where open teams fits in really well"

On Travis's Philosophy​

  • Thomas: "Travis being the person, like, his what his quote on, like, Lex Freeman is like, I'd rather make 100 millionaires than be a billionaire for a day. And I was like, yeah, like that. I like that"

Action Items / Takeaways​

Immediate Next Steps​

  • Travis Consultation: Tiffany to spend 3 days with Travis to clarify vision and structure
  • Legal Framework Decision: Need to decide on 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), or 501(c)(6) structure based on lobbying intentions
  • Follow-up Meeting: Reconvene the following Monday after Travis consultation

Strategic Decisions Needed​

  • Target Audience Refinement: Confirm whether focus is business owners + engineers or broader tech community
  • Relationship to Open Teams: Clarify separation vs. integration strategy
  • Risk Tolerance: Determine how much attention and potential targeting the organization can handle

Community Building Elements​

  • Conference Presence: Establish presence at relevant conferences
  • Special Interest Groups: Organize around penetration testing, hardware hacking, model experimentation
  • Workflow Sharing: Create mechanisms for engineers and businesses to share successful AI implementations
  • Ecosystem Integration: Connect with Navarro platform and other Open Teams initiatives

Strategic Context​

Market Opportunity​

The conversation revealed a significant gap between AI tool development and practical business implementation. The "last mile delivery" problem represents a substantial opportunity for a community that can bridge technical capabilities with business needs.

Cultural Alignment​

Strong philosophical alignment around anti-billionaire sentiment, ethical technology development, and community-driven innovation. The "recovering anarchist hacker" archetype provides a unifying identity for potential community members.

Integration Potential​

Multiple touchpoints with Open Teams ecosystem through Quantsite, Team Fork, and Navarro platform suggest natural collaboration opportunities while maintaining organizational independence.

Risk Considerations​

Tiffany's experience with legal targeting highlights the importance of careful legal structure selection and risk management in community organization, especially when challenging existing power structures.