Emma Coats

ex-Pixar, ex-Google. Formerly led personality-writing team for Google Assistant. Wrote “22 Story Rules,” should have called them guidelines. Hindsight 20/20. 🌈

[pedro lucca @pedro_computer]

We're about to face one of the most important challenges of our generation.

We will coexist with millions of synthetic beings whether we like it or not. Hundreds of millions of people already talk to AI companions daily. Robots are advancing faster than anyone predicted.

Billions of dollars are being spent making these beings smarter, faster, more useful. But almost nobody is asking the most important question: who should these beings be?

We believe AI needs what our favorite characters already have — personality, warmth, emotional range, and a soul. Only then will they inspire us, just like stories have done for thousands of years.

We made some incredible progress last year. Check it out below 🧵

[ごだか @G_Godaka]

馬を拡大するゲーム。
インディーゲームは本当に自由で良い。

『Horse Magnifier』

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

Post-pandemic, I only take jobs working for people who respect Dwarf Fortress as much as I do. Case in point, @tobi

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

So this is what I've been doing for the past year - https://t.co/3jDaMQ80K6 , on our first call @pedro_computer referenced Dwarf Fortress and the rest is history

[pedro lucca @pedro_computer]

ai models already have functional emotions that causally drive behavior.

but these are "accidents" - emergent, local, undesigned. no persistence, no memory, no personality shaping them.

writers and animators at Disney and Pixar solved this problem decades ago. they knew exactly how to make a character's emotional life feel intentional, coherent, and worth caring about. that craft has never been applied to AI. so we are doing it!

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

One of the most fun things I get to do is work on things like this 😁

[tobi lutke @tobi]

One of the most fun things I get to do is host amazing people in our Shopify internal podcast (called Context).

What do we talk about? Things like this with @waitbutwhy.

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

@AlisonMcMahan This sounds awesome.

[Alison McMahan @AlisonMcMahan]

M BENEDICT x TIKTIKBOOM. Paris1896. Art schools only want men,
so Alice works @ Gaumont's filmCo & proves movies are art & women artists.
She fights off men who want her job. But Gaumont won’t admit
she makes films for him,
so she strikes out on her own.
#PitMad #A #HF #WF

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

@iamjustjez @graemetcook @IanJSmall @AlexandraBarke1 @BeMorePirate @DanielPink @mattbellringer I can't take credit for the formula, it's actually called The Story Spine, created by playwright Kenn Adams, I learned it in improv class and didn't realize...

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

@MLHarris_Writes @NMCannon I mean, what could possibly go wrong? 😀

[Winona Nelson 🌈 @winonanelson]

19-year-old Jamie is *obsessed* with goth/punk icon Azazel. Sure he’s like 43 and she’s dead, but now she can possess him! Maybe she can even find life after trauma. The Sandman/Almost Famous/punk rock - A posthumous coming of age story. #PitMad #NA #H #UF #GN #POC #OWN #LGBT

[Lauren @LaurenEddy17]

Soft SONG OF ACHILLES x young GENTLEMAN JACK 🏳️‍🌈

Renaissance Spain: 16-year-old Lina becomes Antonio, hoping to convince his secret girlfriend that escaping their convent is worth sacrificing a comfortable life if they can live freely in love.

#pitmad #YA #HF #OWN for #LGBT

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

@elpeanote I think it is! Thanks for the RT 👋

[Winona Nelson 🌈 @winonanelson]

Gender-questioning teen Jamie has died, but the party’s just starting: she’s haunting her rockstar crush. Possessing him, she learns she’s not alone in her trauma—he’s already got bigger ghosts. The Sandman X Almost Famous X punk rock #PitMad #NA #PR #GN #H #UF #POC #OWN #LGBT

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

@jamesshedden I love this, reminds me of old Lane Smith illustrated books. The Stinky Cheese Man's more pleasant cousin, Sleepy Pip

[James Shedden @jamesshedden]

Good night apple 💤

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

"Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child...when he loves to recall it and dwells upon its recollection with entire delight, fiction is called romance." - Robert Louis Stevenson: A Gossip on Romance
https://t.co/wv8oRIJqCn

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

Thin silver lining of the pandemic: You can take UCLA Extension courses from anywhere in the world (NYC for example)... I took this one last quarter and it was excellent. The current instructors are probably almost as good as @froonium was. Check it out! https://t.co/fBVZF7CBEp

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

A classic gem... I try to reread it every couple of years. Preserved and available online forever thanks to Google Books https://t.co/hpSagl15ck

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

https://t.co/f385XpzDJe So good! Reference footage from animator Pei-Hsuan (Emma) Shih for her shots on Into the Spiderverse.

[Emma Coats @lawnrocket]

"I ain't out here for me. I'm out here for my kids, I'm out here for your kids, I'm out here for your grandkids."

[Zach Williams @ZachReports]

Man addressing riot police at Manhattan end of Manhattan Bridge