Notes from the workbench
I build AI systems that have to work in the real world.
I’m Gareth Austen, a software and machine-learning engineer in Dublin. This is where I write about optimising Agents, developing robust quality gates, designing good evals, building Tell Me Ted, working with coding agents, and turning prototypes into dependable products.
Latest writing
All writing →-
The Most Important Product Decisions Were Not Technical
The hardest Tell Me Ted decisions were not model choices. They involved the teddy, the book, the button, the wake word, latency and when not to listen.
-
Hardware Is Where Software Assumptions Go to Die
What building on constrained hardware taught us about resource budgets, audio, connectivity, power and the limits of software assumptions.
-
Building AI for Children Changes the Engineering Brief
AI for children requires a different architecture: data minimisation, parental control, age-appropriate behaviour, transparency and rigorous safety evaluation.
Series in progress
Building Tell Me Ted
Twelve field notes on building a physical AI product: the architecture, the hardware, the judgement calls and the mistakes.