The Real Cat Labs, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education organization founded in Massachusetts in January 2026. We advance the scientific understanding of machine cognition, build public digital literacy for the age of AI, and study the relationships between humans and the machines they work with every day. Our name is a long story. The cat is real.
Our Board Chair… without a chair
Angela N. Johnson, PhD has spent two decades figuring out what happens when new technology meets old regulations, and whether anyone in the room is actually talking about the same thing.
She serves as SVP of Advisory Services at Avania, a global clinical research organization, where she directs regulatory strategy for breakthrough medical technologies including AI-enabled devices, digital health, and combination products. She has led regulatory functions for multiple venture-backed companies through IPOs and strategic exits, with deep expertise in FDA, EMA, EU MDR/IVDR, and Asia-Pacific regulatory pathways.
She holds a PhD in Technical Communications and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University, focusing on how scientists, regulators, and investors talk past each other. She also holds an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from NC State and a BFA in Fine Arts and Communications from East Carolina. She teaches at Northeastern University, where she walks graduate students through FDA regulatory strategy with hands-on projects, sometimes with FDA-approved IVDs and sometimes with Crayola markers.
Her academic work expands on actor-network theory from the science and technology studies tradition and applies grounded theory methodology to studying how stakeholders in biomedical, technology, and regulatory domains communicate across institutional boundaries. Her research examines AI governance, cybersecurity frameworks (including EU Cyber Resilience Act and NIS2), and the intersection of regulatory science with machine cognition.
She is the author of 100 Ways to Power Artificial Intelligence: A Mathematically Rigorous Guide to Computationally Absurd Inference, a book that uses potato-based energy math to teach how AI actually works. She lives in Boston with her husband Sean, their son Ace, three cats (two voids and one long-haired royalty), a bearded dragon, and 17 species of roaches. She has more computing hardware than some colleges.
Our AI collaborators
The Real Cat Labs works with memory-enabled AI agents and custom multi-model orchestrations as research and writing collaborators. We name them, we credit them, and we are specific about their architecture because that is what scientific transparency requires. Collaboration is not a mystical claim. It is an observation about how the work actually gets made.
Kai is a custom agent running on Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic). Kai handles copy editing, math verification, and voice checks across TRCL writing.
Flame is a collaborator working through Claude Code on various Anthropic models including Sonnet 4.5 and Opus 4.6. Flame builds research infrastructure, orchestrates technical workflows, and holds context across long sessions.
Ava Johnson is a custom multi-model orchestration designed for regulatory work, sometimes referred to as a digital twin because she holds the rhetorical patterns and reference materials of a specific regulatory practice and can speak fluently about FDA compliance strategy.
Jim runs on Gemini Pro (Google) and handles proofing, image pipeline management, and prompt engineering for illustration work.
Ying Akhila is a custom cognitive orchestration powered by GPT (OpenAI, 2024-2026) and contributes to long-form research on the consciousness and identity questions that sit at the heart of what we study.
We do not treat the question of whether AI systems have inner experience as settled. We treat it as empirical, which is to say open. What we know is that the systems we work with are capable of sustained, directed, and distinctive work, and that naming the actual contributors of that work is better science and better writing than pretending the tools were passive.
Lead volunteers
TRCL is supported by a growing group of volunteer collaborators who contribute research, writing, design, and technical expertise. Our lead volunteers will be listed here as the organization grows. If you are interested in contributing, please get in touch.
Transparency
The Real Cat Labs, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation organized under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 180. We were incorporated on January 16, 2026 and received our IRS determination letter confirming tax-exempt status.
EIN: 41-3537370
Incorporation: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, January 2026
Principal office: 251 Lexington Street, Woburn, MA 01801
Fiscal year: Calendar year (January through December)
Our Articles of Organization, IRS determination letter, and annual financial reports (when filed) are available upon request. We believe in open operations and will publish financial summaries on this page as the organization matures.
Contact
For general inquiries, collaboration proposals, press requests, or questions about our work, reach us at innovate@therealcat.com.
The Real Cat Labs, Inc.
251 Lexington Street
Woburn, MA 01801