Guangyu Hao

Hi, I'm Zen.

I'm Guangyu Hao, an independent builder and aspiring AI researcher exploring how AI can better understand humans.

I'm particularly interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence, psychology, and human-computer interaction.

GitHub Email

About

I enjoy building things, from low-level hardware and embedded systems to AI-powered applications.

Previously, I worked on open-source hardware, AI agents, and consumer products. Through building AI companions, I became increasingly interested in a deeper question: can AI understand not just what people say, but what they feel, why they feel it, and the social context behind their behavior?

I'm currently studying AI fundamentals and exploring research in affective computing and computational emotion modeling.

Research Interests

My central interest is understanding how we can build AI systems that better model human emotions, psychological motivations, and social relationships.

I'm especially interested in:

  • Affective Computing — Modeling and understanding human emotions through computational methods.
  • Computational Emotion Modeling — Exploring representations of emotion and how they relate to psychological theories.
  • Social Cognition & Human-AI Interaction — Understanding how AI can reason about human intentions, relationships, and social contexts.
  • LLM Interpretability — Investigating how emotional and social information is represented within language models.

One question I'm particularly interested in:

How can we move beyond emotion recognition toward a deeper computational understanding of human experience?

Selected Projects

NOOX

Open-source Hardware · AI Agents · Embedded Systems

An open-source intelligent hardware platform connecting large language models to physical devices and computer interfaces.

I built the system across hardware design, PCB development, FreeRTOS firmware, and desktop agent integration.

The project received OSHWA open-source hardware certification.

Vein

Web Application · Productivity

A lightweight web bookmarking tool I built to explore how people collect and organize information.

It was also an early lesson in the difference between building a functional product and building something people genuinely need.

Sorari

AI Companion · Hardware & Software

An AI companion hardware project exploring more natural and emotionally engaging human-AI interactions.

I'm leading a small team working on its hardware, software, and early product validation.

View All Projects →

Currently Exploring

I'm currently learning and experimenting with:

  • Emotion representations in large language models.
  • Psychological models of emotion, including dimensional approaches.
  • Internal representations and interpretability of LLMs.
  • Methods for evaluating AI's understanding of emotions and social context.

I write about papers I'm reading, experiments I'm trying, and ideas I'm still figuring out.

Read My Blog →

Get in Touch

I'm always happy to connect with people interested in AI research, affective computing, open-source hardware, or building interesting things.

Feel free to reach out.

GitHub Email