Ciana Tzuo

I follow questions until they turn into projects.

I'm interested in technology, history, culture, and why people and systems behave the way they do. Usually, curiosity starts small. It rarely stays that way.

A question about AI becomes research into how humans use it. A fascination with Broadway becomes a digital exhibition tracing its history. Years of competitive golf become a stroke-by-stroke archive of 100+ tournaments.

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Signature Projects

Some interests don't stay interests for long.

Research & Writing

Questions I'm still following.

How do people respond when technology changes faster than they do?

Historical anxiety around technological change, human–AI interaction, and AI literacy.

What happens when security collides with individual rights?

Research into American surveillance, free speech, privacy, and state power.

What can culture tell us about the people who made it?

From Broadway to journalism, exploring how cultural artifacts preserve the anxieties, values, and arguments of their time.

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Writing & Media

Ideas are better when they leave the notebook.

I write about technology, history, culture, and the questions in between—through research, journalism, independent publishing, and conversation.

Beyond the Desk

Some things I try not to turn into research.

I've spent years on stages and golf courses, singing, performing, competing, missing putts I should have made, and occasionally making ones I probably shouldn't have.

I'm also the kind of person who can lose an afternoon to Formula 1 strategy, Broadway history, or a question I wasn't planning to research.

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Elsewhere

Other places curiosity has taken me

Autonomous racing

Competing in Berkeley's ROAR simulation series — where Formula 1 strategy meets self-driving cars.

The Concord Review

Working as an editorial assistant on long historical essays by students around the world.

AI literacy

Advocating for public understanding of AI through CCVA and community outreach.

Stripe

Building and testing product ideas in a setting where ideas have to survive contact with real users.