Skip to main content

Thomas Baker

Basic Info​

  • Location: Harvard Business School area
  • Role/Occupation: Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, CTO/Founder of Gold Star AI
  • Contact: Through Travis Oliphant and Open Teams network
  • Met: Through Travis Oliphant's Team Fork initiative
  • Relationship Status: Professional collaborator, potential Applied AI Society co-founder

Professional Background​

Current Roles​

  • Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School: Teaching and research position
  • Founder/CTO of Gold Star AI: Autonomous outreach system with 13% response rate (vs 1% industry standard)
  • Team Fork R&D Leader: Leading R&D division for Open Teams' experimental projects

Aerospace and Defense Experience​

  • SpaceX: Worked for Elon's private engineering team on Hyperloop and Dragon crew capsule
  • Blue Origin: Advanced concepts team focusing on nuclear thermal rocketry and Orbital Reef (ISS replacement)
  • LTA (Lighter Than Air): Sergey Brin's private engineering team building 127-meter airships in NASA hangars
  • Defense Innovation Unit (DIU): Contract work, though tries to avoid building weapons

Semiconductor Industry​

  • Miller SAT Semiconductor Systems: Industry experience
  • Western Digital: Hard drives and memory states development
  • Nuclear Thermal Rocketry: Started company with friend, later acquired by Blue Origin

AI and Technology Leadership​

  • Applied General Intelligence: Former CTO, built model that topped MMLU Pro global benchmark
  • ITAR Certified AI: Helped Blue Origin build one of first ITAR certified large language models outside Palantir
  • Gold Star AI: Built fully autonomous company system that auto-builds agent features and A/B tests itself

Personal Background​

  • Philosophy: Self-described "recovering anarchist hacker that now realizes how anti billionaire he is"
  • Work Ethic: Extremely busy, running code while in meetings, describes it as "good brain training"
  • Family: Has children, mentions parent-teacher conferences
  • Values: Strong anti-billionaire sentiment, believes in making money for ethical purposes

Key Projects & Interests​

Gold Star AI​

  • Outreach Automation: System handling 40,000 people daily with 13% response rate
  • Autonomous Features: Auto-builds agent features and A/B tests continuously
  • Business Model: Originally built tools for Harvard students, evolved into commercial system
  • Scaling Issues: Agent started building and filing companies autonomously, had to be controlled

Applied AI Society Development​

  • Community Vision: Creating support network for "applied AI engineers" who help businesses integrate AI
  • Target Market: Bridge between technical capabilities and business implementation needs
  • Philosophy: Focus on applying AI rather than building SaaS companies

Strategic Value & Collaboration Areas​

Technical Expertise​

  • Hardware Hacking: Deep knowledge of solid-state systems and RF technology
  • AI Model Development: Experience with cutting-edge language models and benchmarks
  • Autonomous Systems: Building self-improving and self-managing AI systems
  • Government Contracting: ITAR certification experience and defense industry knowledge

Community Building Insights​

  • "Recovering Anarchist Hacker" Archetype: Identifies common pattern among Open Teams engineers
  • Last Mile Problem: Expert in bridging gap between technical innovation and practical business application
  • Special Interest Communities: Understanding of how to unite diverse technical communities around shared interests

Business Development​

  • Revenue Generation: $800,000 in contracts ready to close for Gold Star AI
  • Autonomous Business Systems: Experience building companies that operate with minimal human intervention
  • Customer Discovery: Strong focus on understanding actual business pain points vs. technical capabilities

Connections & Network​

Open Teams Ecosystem​

  • Travis Oliphant: Direct report, Team Fork R&D leader
  • Quantsite Team: Works with anti-billionaire engineers on Open Teams projects
  • Dylan Roach: Team Fork member, model experimentation specialist
  • Dartmouth: Engineering team leader at Open Teams

Academic and Industry​

  • Harvard Business School: Executive Fellow position provides academic network
  • Defense Industry: Connections through SpaceX, Blue Origin, DIU work
  • AI Industry: Applied General Intelligence background, model development community

Notes & Observations​

Communication Style​

  • Direct and Technical: Speaks in concrete terms about complex technical systems
  • Mission-Driven: Strong sense of purpose around ethical technology development
  • Collaborative: Willing to share resources and expertise for aligned goals

Values Alignment​

  • Anti-Billionaire: Strong opposition to wealth concentration and exploitation
  • Community-Oriented: Believes in collective advancement over individual profit
  • Ethical Technology: Committed to building tools that help rather than exploit

Decision-Making Style​

  • Data-Driven: Focuses on measurable outcomes (response rates, benchmarks, etc.)
  • Experimental: Willing to build and test autonomous systems
  • Risk-Aware: Understands potential dangers of powerful systems

Potential Collaboration Areas​

Applied AI Society​

  • Co-founder Role: Natural fit for technical leadership of community organization
  • Resource Contribution: Gold Star AI resources and autonomous systems for community building
  • Network Access: Connections in defense, aerospace, and AI industries
  • Teaching Capability: Harvard position provides credibility and educational platform

Technical Development​

  • Autonomous Community Tools: Could build self-managing community platforms
  • Business-AI Bridge: Expertise in translating technical capabilities to business value
  • Model Integration: Access to cutting-edge AI models and implementation strategies

Strategic Planning​

  • Legal Structure Advice: Experience with various organizational forms
  • Risk Assessment: Understanding of targeting risks from powerful interests
  • Scaling Strategy: Experience building systems that grow autonomously

Interaction History​

2025-08-05: Initial Introduction​

  • Mentioned in Gary Sheng and Travis Oliphant conversation as key Team Fork member working on automation and drone projects

2025-12-08: Applied AI Society Planning Call​

  • Participants: Gary Sheng, Thomas Baker, Tiffany Cianci
  • Duration: Extended strategic planning session
  • Key Topics: Applied AI Society structure, community building, legal frameworks, Open Teams integration
  • Outcomes: Agreed to consult with Travis Oliphant before proceeding, identified need for legal structure decisions
  • Personal Insights: Shared extensive background, revealed "recovering anarchist hacker" philosophy
  • Next Steps: Follow-up meeting scheduled after Travis consultation

Recent Developments​

  • Gold Star AI Growth: Approaching $800,000 in contracts, scaling autonomous systems
  • Harvard Teaching: Active as Executive Fellow, building academic credibility
  • Applied AI Society: Potential co-founder role in new community organization
  • Team Fork Leadership: Expanding R&D division within Open Teams ecosystem

Key Quotes & Insights​

On Tech Worker Archetype​

  • "Everybody that I meet that is development or engineering at Open Teams is just a recovering anarchist hacker that begrudgingly started making money for others and realized they hated it"

On Personal Journey​

  • "I made a lot of money for a lot of really horrible people... I got a penance to pay"

On Last Mile Problem​

  • "The problem is the last mile delivery... You built this, like agent builder. Fantastic. Who the fuck does it help? And like, you don't know"

On Community Building​

  • "To create a tight enough knit community that we get people benefiting each other and working in unison... it's going to take a little bit of work"

Transcripts​

transcript-iddateone-line-summary
2026-01-09-applied-ai-communities-sync2026-01-09Group sync on Applied AI Society Q1 strategy; offered MIT/Harvard community assets, EU ecosystem connections, and AI Engineer partnership intro