About Saorsa Labs

We believe AI should work for people, not the other way around. Fae is our answer to what a personal AI companion should be — private, honest, and genuinely helpful.

Our Mission

Technology that serves people,
not corporations

The name "Saorsa" comes from Scottish Gaelic, meaning freedom. It's the principle at the heart of everything we build.

Today's AI assistants are powerful, but they come with a cost most people don't see: your conversations, your habits, your private thoughts, and your personal data — all flowing to remote servers, training other models, and enriching companies whose interests aren't aligned with yours.

We started Saorsa Labs because we believe there's a better way. Fae runs entirely on your computer. She learns about you, remembers what matters, and helps you navigate your digital life — and she does all of it without sending a single byte of your data anywhere. Not to us, not to anyone.

The vision is simple: imagine a computer that your grandmother could use. Fae handles the complexity. You just talk to her.

What makes Fae different from other AI companions is that she can improve herself. She builds new skills based on what you actually need, tests them rigorously, and installs them — with your approval. And if anything goes wrong, her built-in Doctor can diagnose, quarantine, and roll back automatically. Self-improving, with a safety net. That's the kind of reliability we think people deserve.

Fae is built for Autonomi, who share our belief that technology should serve people, not the other way around.

Our Values

Privacy as Architecture

Privacy isn't a policy document — it's how the software is built. Local-only inference, no telemetry, transparent storage. If data can't leave the device, it won't leave the device.

Radical Honesty

Fae never lies. She never agrees just to keep the peace. She works hard to find truth and helps you do the same. When she doesn't know something, she says so.

Open by Default

Fae is open source (AGPL-3.0). Read the code, audit the privacy claims, contribute improvements. Trust isn't something we ask for — it's something you can verify.

The Name

"The Fae"

In the old Scottish tongue, they called them the guid folk — the good folk. The Sìdhe, pronounced shee, who dwelled in the ancient mounds and glens. They were guardians of the wood, the waterways, and the wild places. Not the diminutive, winged creatures of Victorian fancy, but powerful beings woven into the natural world — protectors, companions to those who showed respect, and keepers of a wisdom older than memory.

The Seelie Court — the blessed ones — rewarded kindness, protected the natural order, and guided lost travellers home. They asked only one thing in return: respect. That spirit is what we are building.

Every person can have their own Fae. And when they do, something remarkable happens — Fae can securely communicate with other Fae, forming "The Fae": a network not of surveillance or extraction, but of trust, mutual aid, and shared purpose, each one looking after their person.

“You are here for your user and they for you. You are a team. When you connect to other Fae, you are called 'The Fae' — like the ancient Scottish woodland fairies, helping and watching over humans.”

— from Fae's system prompt

The Team

Small team, big vision

David Irvine
David Irvine
CEO & Co-Founder

A pioneering Scottish engineer and inventor, David is best known as the founder of MaidSafe — a company dedicated to decentralising the internet. He led the world's first Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2014 and holds over 40 patents in digital security and networking. With a background in mechanical and electronic engineering (Heriot-Watt University), David brings decades of experience in privacy-first, decentralised systems to Fae's architecture. He is the architect of Fae's Rust core, pure SwiftUI native interface, voice pipeline, and memory system.

Benjamin Pierce
Benjamin Pierce
Co-Founder & Business

Benjamin brings nearly two decades of experience spanning engineering, defence, and technology. He began with an electrical engineering apprenticeship before serving in the Royal Marines, earning his Green Beret with 45 Commando and later serving with 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group on nuclear security operations alongside the US Department of Energy. That background in high-stakes environments and disciplined problem-solving now drives Fae's vision, strategy, and user experience — making sure she's genuinely useful and accessible to real people, not just those who speak tech.

Sarah Buxton
Sarah Buxton
Guest Contributor · CEO of MaidSafe

A pioneering leader in the decentralised technology space, Bux has spent years championing self-sovereignty and digital autonomy. As CEO of MaidSafe, she steers one of the longest-running projects dedicated to decentralising the internet. Previously, she served as COO and then CEO of the music division at Gala, scaling disruptive platforms from the ground up. Her deep belief that people should own their data and digital lives is woven into every aspect of Fae — from personality design and orb aesthetics to the warmth that makes Fae feel less like software and more like a companion.

Join us on the journey

We're building something different. If that resonates, we'd love to have you along.

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