I build AI tools that give humans more utility and autonomy.

Hi, I'm Yev! I build AI tools that give humans more agency and autonomy.

Most of what I build starts as something I needed myself: a way to keep a website on-brand while an agent writes it, a way to make an agent write in my voice, a catalog of the tools worth using. I ship them, use them daily, and refine them in the open.

I also collect public reports of AI incidents — cases where AI systems fail in the real world — as an ongoing thought-leadership project. As more decisions get handed to agents, the failures are worth paying attention to.

I'm always glad to compare notes with people building in this space.

How I got here

I was born in Moscow and came to the US in 1989. I grew up in Brooklyn and went to Edward R. Murrow High School.

In 2006 I moved to Texas for Texas A&M. I started in electrical engineering, switched to civil with a plan to go to medical school, and graduated in 2010 with an engineering degree. Somewhere in there I got hooked on software — building things with code was the part I couldn't put down.

So I skipped the traditional early-career path and chased my own projects instead — including an automated trading system for the Forex market. I did web development and agency work until 2017, when iCIMS hired me. The rest is on my résumé.

Teaching has been a thread throughout. I tutored my way through college, taught middle-school math at Kealing Middle School here in Austin around 2012–2013, and these days I provide supplementary STEM and computer-science education to homeschool families.

Outside the terminal

I'm into fitness and calisthenics — handstands, front levers, that kind of thing.

When I'm not building software I'm usually building something that moves. I'm deep into electric vehicles — mostly building e-bikes and electric motorcycles.

I document some of the builds on YouTube.