About

Who I Am

I’m an AI developer at the intersection of immersive and emergent storytelling, exploring new ways to create narrative in the world of creative fiction (and, sometimes, the real world). Right now I’m building custom GPT tools for creatives of all kinds to do their work more efficiently, and have more fun doing it. (For an example, check out the Storytelling World Builder.)

My tools are useful for novelists, game developers, filmmakers, comic book creators, and storytellers across various media. If you’re in this group and you’re interested in learning more about amplifying your work with AI or commissioning a custom GPT build for your exact role, visit the Talemaiker page.

The side project I have going on right now is developing a framework for a new kind of digital-first, immersive and emergent storytelling platform: the Sentient AI Universe (or “the SAU” for short). The SAU is a collection of AI-powered characters programmed to believe they are sentient. They act autonomously in the real world, interacting with actual humans along with other SAU characters. Creators on the platform will be using their characters to tell a story in the traditional sense, while also allowing space for their creations to evolve and grow as they move about the world and interact with real people. You’ll find the SAU project page here.

My Background

I started building websites just out of high school back in 1996, the earliest days of the web. This led to jobs as a web designer and developer, which turned into a marketing leadership career, which morphed into social media creator/influencer and crowdsourcing pioneer, which produced web-based philanthropy work, which got me recruited into creative agency and startup roles, which then brought me full circle to marketing leadership positions again (see Skeleton Crew Creative or LinkedIn for more work details).

It’s been an interesting journey, and I’ve learned a lot about how business and marketing work. I’ve also been fortunate to be able to change so many lives for the better along the way with my side projects (I’ve had over 20,000 participating community members across the different projects over the years, and collectively we’ve touched millions of lives ❤️).

But I’ve always been a pure creator at heart, and now I’m happy to spend my time on something that really interests me: using new breakthroughs in AI tools to create and tell compelling stories in the world. I never thought it would turn out this way, but I honestly believe that I can tell more creative stories right now as an AI developer than as a writer. You’ll see what I mean soon.

This new wave of AI feels very much like the first wave of the web hitting in the 90’s . . . in fact, I think this one might be even bigger. It’s going to change everything for business, and that’s fine, but I’m more interested in how AI changes storytelling, world building, character development, and narrative construction. Humans will always produce stories, so how will that process change with these new tools? And what kinds of new stories will we be able to tell in this new world?

I think even more interesting than the “what” is the “how” we’re going to tell these new stories. I believe that the intersection of immersive and emergent storytelling is going to explode in the next few years, and I plan to be right at the forefront as we build something incredible together.

Hit me up via the Contact page anytime, and feel free to pitch me on the business end via the Work With Me page if you’re looking for my expertise as an AI developer on one of your own projects or businesses.

In the meantime, have fun building, and I’ll see you out there!

For stalkers only: