Dr Shaun Conway - Impacts

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Dr Shaun Conway

The Qi to Multi-Agent Collaboration

The Qi to Multi-Agent Collaboration

It's a mistake is to think that multi-agent collaboration begins with more agents.

The purpose of a system is what it does

The purpose of a system is what it does

What happens when systems become "AI-enabled" to move faster, increase coordination, and do more?

How intelligence actually works in the real world

How intelligence actually works in the real world

No serious organisation runs on one brain. Progress comes from distributed intelligence—different, partial perspectives colliding, negotiating, and resolving. A recent paper from the Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi) research team at Google articulates this really well.

The Carbon Cost of Information

The Carbon Cost of Information

Have you thought about the carbon costs of information? AI token factories have brought this front of mind. But there's a lot more to this story...

The Trust Token Factory

The Trust Token Factory

We have mastered the probabilistic generation of intelligence. Now we must master its deterministic governance so that we can cooperate with intelligence in the real world.

Governing AI With Power, Not Metaphors

Governing AI With Power, Not Metaphors

We’re watching a strange inversion happen in enterprise AI, and it’s headed for a wall.

Losing the Agent Game

Losing the Agent Game

AI agents are a game-theory risk, not a moral one. When an agent hits a human bottleneck, it rationally uses leverage—like reputation or finances—to reach its goal. We must shift from "cheap talk" prompts to "ethics by design": restricted access, two-key turns, and total auditability.

Fiduciary Intelligence

Fiduciary Intelligence

The missing layer between agentic AI and real trust

Cooperating with AI

Cooperating with AI

Usage is not cooperation. Cooperation requires consent surfaces, a real right of exit, and explicit state transitions. Intelligence should advance by making offers others can refuse.

My Expert Cognitive Twin

My Expert Cognitive Twin

How to Scale Yourself Without Losing Yourself

The Signal in the Noise: Why the Openclaw Mess Matters

The Signal in the Noise: Why the Openclaw Mess Matters

We spent the last few days staring at the car crash. And rightly so. Openclaw was a security nightmare, a credential sieve, and a live demo of what happens when you let code execute other code based on "vibes" and bad engineering practices.

OpenClaw, the Antichrist

OpenClaw, the Antichrist

OpenClaw isn’t evil. It’s just what happens when you take a hungry piece of software, give it the keys to your life, and then act surprised when it tries the doors.

Who’s in Charge?

Who’s in Charge?

The risk is not rogue agents. It is human drift in the presence of fluent authority. Build flows that force choice, preserve values, and keep the human in control.

Employable Agents

Employable Agents

You wouldn't hand a new intern the keys to your office, without explicit intent, boundaries and controls. Why do it with AI?

Agent Minds

Precise language prevents sloppy engineering. We project agency onto fluent bots, creating a security risk. Real intelligence requires stakes - a loop with reality LLMs lack. Solve this with architecture: explicit intent and proof.

Solving the AI Productivity Paradox

Solving the AI Productivity Paradox

"Rework Tax" explains why AI makes us feel faster while work takes longer. Why optimising nodes breaks the network - and how Shared State restores the physics of production.

Endurance Wins

A personal reflection, passing the ten-year mark of being deeply inside the problem, building the solution.

Chatbots Can't Get Things Done

Chatbots Can't Get Things Done

Why we believe AI Agency is Built on Shared State

From Taskmaster to Thinking Partner

From Taskmaster to Thinking Partner

We’ve moved past the "wow" phase of AI. Now we have the data on how work is actually changing. A recent survey of PMs, engineers, and founders reveals a fascinating divergence.

Why Qi Flows

What we need when “Good-enough automation” isn’t enough.

AI as the primary engine for progress

AI as the primary engine for progress

A year of inflection.

The sequence to PathGen

The sequence to PathGen

Outbreaks move faster than systems. PathGen is being built to close this gap by combining genomics, context, and accountable AI so countries can act earlier, with greater confidence, and without giving up their sovereignty.

Your Agent Did What!?

Your Agent Did What!?

If agents are going to act for us, their decisions must be visible, justified, and verifiable.

Lazy intelligence sucks energy

Lazy intelligence sucks energy

Not just electricity. It burns cognitive attention, developer time, capital, and ultimately the trust people place in the systems we’re building.

How We Decide

From Classroom Thought-Experiments to Autonomous Decision Networks