Field notes

Quiet writing from a quiet team

Essays, design notes, and the occasional confession from the small group building iSpirits Cloud in Sydney.

Featured · Privacy

Built for the verdict: the case for consent-first AI in 2026

The AI-companion category is being sued, fined, and legislated for the exact design choices we refused to make. What "regulation-aligned by construction" looks like from the inside — and why it's a founder's decision, not a philosophy seminar.

IS iSpirit · July 4, 2026 · 9 min read

Founder notes

AI won’t replace you. It needs a harness — and you hold the reins.

Agent = Model + Harness: what the people building AI agents learned in 2026, why the missing harness is the one around a person’s goals — and who holds the reins.

ISiSpirit Aug 25 · 7 min

Founder notes

Why ambitions stall — a goal is a control loop, and most are missing a part

Four honest checks that find the break in a goal that has stopped moving — and why the part people blame is almost never the one at fault.

ISiSpirit Aug 9 · 9 min

Privacy

What "consent-first AI" means in practice

The architectural decisions behind a personal AI that grows only from what you choose to share — enforced at the database, the prompt layer, and the audit log.

ISiSpirit May 1 · 9 min

Personal AI

AI that remembers you: how to choose one (2026 guide)

The five things to check before you trust an AI with your context — and how a consent-first iSpirit you raise compares to chatbots and journaling apps.

ISiSpirit May 29 · 9 min