Pages from the fire

The transparent (AI) brain project

Last updated: 20 Jul 2026

I aim to build a little box that runs a small(ish) LLM that does some kind of continuous video/audio processing and has a bunch of knobs (real or virtual) that will let you peer into the neurons and watch them work as the AI runs.

The watching should be educational i.e. it shouldn’t be all blinken lights: We should gain some insight by matching up the input and output of the brain with the visualization of its processing.

Bonus: There are knobs (real or virtual) that allow us to mess around with the AI brain, and change what it does.

Project log

  1. Motivation (20 Jul 2026)
  2. Materials (06 Aug 2026)
  3. Prototyping: Video input (30 Sep 2026)