Researcher.Engineer. Writer.
I'm Zawwar Sami, an independent researcher and engineer in Canada. My work crosses philosophy, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. I publish research, build the systems behind ZAI, and test ideas beyond the page.
My work crosses philosophy and engineering. I don't see a good reason to keep the two separate.
I work independently across philosophy, AI, and computing. I'm interested in consciousness, personhood, soul-body unity, and what survives when an AI's model or context changes. I've begun making that research public through preprints and research papers recorded on Zenodo and PhilPapers. They're arguments I'm willing to put under scrutiny, not final answers.
I've spent years building alongside the writing. ZAI (Zawwar Autonomous Intelligence) is my long-running personal AI project, and ZAI Memory Hub carries structured memory across assistants and sessions. I've also worked on open-source tools such as zhub and Pocket, and built systems for market and geopolitical research. Different problems, but the same habit: build enough to discover where an idea holds and where it breaks.
Security is part of that practice too. I've reached Guru rank on Hack The Box and keep public CTF writeups and methodology in my security notebook. Anteroom Studio is where the projects live. The writing, experiments, and shipped tools each stand on their own work.
- ResearchPhilosophy & AI
- SystemsZAI
- SecurityHTB · Guru
- Based inCanada
How I approach the work
Question the premise
Before I build something or write about it, I want to know which assumption is doing the work. Sometimes that's the whole problem.
Show the trail
A paper should say what it argues. A system should show what it does. I keep sources, revisions, and technical notes so those two things don't get blurred.
Respect the boundaries
A model is not automatically an agent. A result in a lab is not a finding about the real world. I try to be precise about what the evidence can support.
Keep testing
Questions change when you put them in front of code, data, or an adversarial test. I'd rather revise an idea than defend a version that no longer holds.
A focused, iterative process
I follow connected questions across research and engineering, often working privately for extended periods. I publish in batches, then return to exploration, testing, and revision.
Research & release- 01
Question
Start with the premise. What is being asked, and what would count as an answer?
- 02
Research
Read the literature, inspect evidence, and separate what is known from what is proposed.
- 03
Build & Test
Write, prototype, or investigate in a controlled setting. Find the limits of the idea.
- 04
Publish & Revise
Document results, show the sources and limitations, then improve when the evidence changes.
A question worth exploring.
Open to thoughtful correspondence, research exchange, authorized security work, and engineering collaborations where the problem is worth investigating.