Nat Friedman

Friedman co-founded Ximian with Miguel de Icaza in 1999 and later co-founded Xamarin. Microsoft’s biography records earlier CTO work for Novell’s Linux business and two MIT degrees. He served as GitHub CEO from 2018 through 2021. In 2025, Meta assigned him responsibility for AI products and applied research.[2][3][4]

Give an AI assistant a physical interface

Friedman introduced Muse Gadgets as a side project: open-source SDKs and firmware for connecting Muse with ESP32 or Linux devices. A board can expose displays, audio, sensors or actuators, while the Linux path can connect commands and other systems. The Meta repository supplies separate device implementations and pairing instructions. The release opens a hardware interface around the assistant; it does not make every connected device autonomous by itself.[1][5][6]

Organize a challenge around inaccessible evidence

Vesuvius Challenge combines virtual unwrapping of scanned scrolls with ink detection. The material is too fragile to open conventionally. Researchers must trace papyrus surfaces through damaged volumes and make ink models transfer between scrolls. The project uses prizes, shared technical work and papyrology expertise to connect those engineering tasks with readable ancient text. Its current team credits Friedman as instigator, director and founding sponsor.[7]

His personal notes emphasize enthusiasm, small teams and speed as ways to learn through making things. The relevant feedback comes from a working project: a user trying software, an experiment with a device or a legible region of a scroll. These are organizing ideas in his public work, rather than a claim that every fast experiment succeeds.[2]