About
Why NOPE exists
Every day, people disclose crises in chat—suicidal thoughts, abuse, self-harm. Most platforms lack the tools to detect these moments and respond appropriately. Manual moderation is too slow for urgent situations. Simple keyword filters generate overwhelming false positives while missing subtle risk signals.
NOPE exists because this is a solvable engineering problem. LLMs can be powerful safety evaluators, not just content generators. With careful design grounded in clinical frameworks, we can give platforms the signals they need to intervene when it matters.
Founder
James Padolsey is a software engineer and published author working at the intersection of AI accessibility and social impact.
Previously at Meta, Stripe, Twitter, and The Guardian, he helped build integrity systems, launched payments infrastructure across Europe, and led engineering teams. At Meta, his work focused specifically on reducing harm on platform—building metrics-informed systems to identify and address problematic content at scale.
Following an intentional departure from Silicon Valley, James trained as a paramedic before having a stroke in 2019. The experience reshaped his perspective on what technology should be for: giving voice to those disempowered and ensuring critical tools aren't shaped solely by those with the most resources.
He additionally works as a Founding Engineer at the Collective Intelligence Project, focused on democratizing AI and frontier technologies. He develops AI tools for book recommendations, legislative analysis, and disability advocacy. He lives between London and Beijing.
Personal Website & Blog: j11y.io
Open roles
Roles will be listed here soon. If you're interested in working on safety infrastructure for AI and chat platforms, reach out at hello@nope.net.