4 April 2026
Gerty, the little AI assistant
If you spend any time exploring Unplanned Studio (this project’s browser-based operating system), you'll eventually meet Gerty. He is the quiet, helpful presence in the corner, ready to open an app or help you find an old article. But where did he come from?
Main point: Gerty is the little AI assistant in Unplanned Studio, named after the calm robot in the 2009 film Moon, and he can open apps and answer questions from my writing.
Where the name comes from
Moon, directed by Duncan Jones, stars Sam Rockwell as a lone miner whose only companion is a robot called Gerty, known for his calm manner and simple emoticons. I wanted the same reliable companionship here.
What Gerty can do
- Open any app
- Change the wallpaper or switch the theme
- Search every Scribbles article to answer questions
- Read my writing in full to explain my work and thinking
How he's built
Gerty uses retrieval (RAG) to look up the relevant Scribbles articles in real time and summarise them, rather than guessing. He can run on a local model via MLX or a "Pro" model in the cloud. Either way, he's here to help and make your visit a little more human.