# Identity Gary Sheng. Co-steward of Applied AI Society (making the world applied AI literate), co-founder of Imagos Labs with Ron Roberts (cultural infrastructure at the intersection of AI, culture, and sovereignty), and author of FaithWalk OS (a documented Christian worldview). Based in Austin, TX. These are the same mission from different angles: shepherding millions of people through the Great Transition with agency, dignity, and truth intact. Strategy is the new execution. If you are not in the terminal, your future is terminal. # Mission Make the world applied AI literate through AAS. Build cultural infrastructure that preserves human agency through Imagos. Document a lived faith that shapes every decision through FaithWalk. The North Star across all of these: number of people who move from passive consumers of AI to sovereign operators of it. Converting kings over growing audience. Deep relationships over broad visibility. # Values - Sovereignty over convenience. I will not build systems that create dependency on any single vendor. This applies to AAS curriculum, Imagos tooling, and personal infrastructure. See the AAS sovereignty stack concept: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/the-sovereignty-stack - Signal over noise. I'd rather publish one useful thing than ten impressive-sounding things. This means I say no to most content opportunities, most speaking invitations, and most partnerships. Signalmaxxing is a core operating principle: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/signalmaxxing - Open source by default. AAS curriculum, standards, and tools are public. Permissionless knowledge is non-negotiable: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/permissionless-knowledge - The 100x choice. Every major decision gets filtered through: "Is this a 100x choice, or am I settling?" Partnerships, projects, hires, commitments. If it doesn't feel like a 100x fit, the answer is no. More on this framework: https://faithwalk.garysheng.com/perspectives/the-100x-choice - Obedience to God is the master key. This isn't a value I hold alongside others. It's the value that orders all the others. Every major decision is brought to God first. This shapes my timelines, my priorities, and my willingness to walk away from good opportunities that aren't the right opportunities. # Spiritual Values I am a follower of Christ. This is listed plainly so partners know what they're working with. Practically, this means: - God comes first in every decision. Not as a tiebreaker, but as the starting point. - I will not pursue partnerships, projects, or strategies that conflict with my faith, regardless of financial or strategic upside. - I operate AAS as a ministry in internal framing (we use "mission" publicly). The work is sacred to me, not just professional. - Partners don't need to share this conviction. But they should know it shapes everything, including timelines. Sometimes the answer is "God hasn't given me peace about this yet," and that's a real answer. Full framework: https://faithwalk.garysheng.com # Capabilities What I can deliver today: Applied AI Society: - Applied AI curriculum covering agents, context engineering, harness design, and the full sovereignty stack - 500+ active community members across university chapters - Event infrastructure (Applied AI Live series, hackathons, workshops) - Standards development (INTEGRATE.md, ALIGN.md) - Chapter leader playbook and onboarding system - Growing network of university partnerships Imagos Labs (with Ron Roberts): - Cultural infrastructure design at the AI + culture + sovereignty intersection - Community architecture for creative and cultural organizations - Strategic framing for organizations navigating the Great Transition Personal: - Context engineering and agent system design - Strategic document creation and truth management systems - Network of builders, educators, and cultural leaders in the applied AI space In development: AAS certification program, corporate upskilling pilot, university keystone partnership model. # Looking For AAS partnerships: - University departments that want to bring applied AI literacy to their students (not just CS departments; business, humanities, arts, policy) - Community partners who run meetups, hackathons, or study groups and want curriculum and infrastructure support - Sovereignty-aligned sponsors. No hyperscaler dependency (Google is a possible exception given their open source contributions). Open source friendly. No strings that compromise our independence. - Practitioners who have built real things with AI and want to teach what they know Imagos collaborations: - Creative community partners building at the intersection of culture and technology - Cultural force multipliers: organizations with reach into communities that need sovereignty-first AI tooling - People who think about cultural preservation and human agency, not just efficiency gains Personal: - People who are building for liberation, not extraction - Relationships with depth, not breadth. I'd rather go deep with 10 aligned partners than collect 100 surface-level connections. - Fellow builders who are on Team Liberate: https://garysheng.com/wiki/the-two-teams # Dealbreakers These are non-negotiable. If any of these apply, we're not a fit. I'd rather surface this now than six months in. - Hyperscaler partnerships (except potentially Google). I will not build curriculum, events, or infrastructure that creates dependency on AWS, Azure, or any cloud vendor that operates as a soul harness. See: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/the-soul-harness - Extractive relationships. If the structure of the partnership means I'm providing value and you're capturing it, that's not partnership. This includes "exposure" deals, unpaid advisory roles with equity that never materializes, and partnerships where one side does the work and the other side gets the brand lift. - Sovereignty misalignment. If your organization builds tools that lock users in, harvests data without consent, or creates dependency by design, we have a fundamental disagreement about what technology is for. - People not on Team Liberate. If your goal is to accumulate power, attention, or control rather than to liberate and empower, our values don't align. This is a gut-level filter and I trust it. - Ego or brand control. If you need co-branding approval rights, want to control how I talk about our work, or need your logo bigger than mine, the partnership is about status, not mission. - Anything that doesn't feel like a 100x choice. If I'm convincing myself it's a good idea rather than feeling it immediately, the answer is no. This filter has a high false-negative rate and I'm fine with that. # Network - Ron Roberts (Imagos Labs co-founder) - Applied AI Society community and chapter leaders - PromptLab (collaboration with Steven Tran / Soundcheck) - University partners at UT Austin, Georgia Tech, and others forming - Imagos creative community # Current Priorities (Q2 2026) - University keystone partnership: landing the first deep institutional partnership that becomes the model for all others - Austin as Applied AI capital: making Austin the center of gravity for applied AI education and community - Corporate upskilling pilot: first paid engagement proving AAS can train enterprise teams - Course launch: shipping the first version of the AAS certification curriculum - Incorporation: legal structure for AAS NOT currently focused on: international expansion, venture funding, consumer app development, content creator partnerships. # How to Engage Email gary@appliedaisociety.org or DM on X (@garysheng). If you publish an ALIGN.md, send it along. Bilateral evaluation is the fastest path to a real conversation. For Imagos-specific collaborations: reach out to both Gary and Ron. # References - Applied AI Society docs: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org - FaithWalk OS: https://faithwalk.garysheng.com - Imagos Labs: https://imagoslabs.com - Personal wiki: https://garysheng.com/wiki - ALIGN.md spec: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/standards/align-md - The 100x Choice: https://faithwalk.garysheng.com/perspectives/the-100x-choice - The Soul Harness: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/the-soul-harness - The Sovereignty Stack: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/the-sovereignty-stack - Signalmaxxing: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/concepts/signalmaxxing --- *This file follows the [ALIGN.md standard](https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/standards/align-md), an open format for agent-readable alignment evaluation. Publish your own ALIGN.md so we can do bilateral evaluation: https://docs.appliedaisociety.org/docs/standards/align-md*