Rob Gordon
I am a creative technologist & researcher interested in whether AI can help us build stronger social fabric. I like to theorize about and prototype software that draws ideas from digital democracy, coordination, and tools for thought spaces. I'm drawn to this research because I believe we have a chance to improve our (humanity's) lives and the planet we live on through intentional tech — in particular, through technology that helps us better understand ourselves and how we relate to each other.
My background
I studied music composition at California Institute of the Arts. I entered software development by way of coding sound and visuals for performance art and installations. In 2017 I began building websites for nonprofits at Constructive. Over time making websites led to making apps, which led to building tools alongside machine learning researchers at Mila. Covid happened. In 2022 Nathan Young invited me to build forecasting tools with him at Goodheart Labs. In 2025 Nathan and I participated in the AI for Human Reasoning Fellowship, during which we built the bot responsible for the first AI Community Note displayed on X. At present, our bot is among the top 50 CN authors and has served notes to tens of millions of users. Late last year I received a grant from the Future of Life Foundation to research coordination technologies. That led me to where I currently work, BRKT Labs, a small research group exploring AI-mediated collaboration and healthier social fabric.
If you're working on coordination, collective intelligence, deliberative process, or anything nearby — I'd love to connect.
Things I'm Reading
Let Cities Build Utopia — Elle Griffin / Elysian Collective · A case for why cities, not nations or corporations, should be the ones building better places to live.
Adaptive Democracy — Blaine Hansen · A framework for governance that can actually keep up with the rate things change.
Plurality — E. Glen Weyl & Audrey Tang · How collaborative technology can deepen democracy rather than undermine it.
Projects
Some tools I actively maintain — spanning diagramming, visualization, and group coordination.
TeamSort — Instant polls for prioritizing tasks and making group decisions. No login required.
Flowchart Fun — The fastest text-to-flowchart tool on the web. Maintained since 2021.
Docugram — Upload a document, get an editable diagram.