Greg Brockman

Greg Brockman is an American entrepreneur and programmer..[1]. He is a co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) at artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory OpenAI. Funded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Reid Hoffman, the laboratory conducts research into deep learning, and develops friendly AI[2][3].

Biography

Brockman was born and grew up in Thompson, North Dakota[4].

Brockman attended Red River High School and enrolled at Harvard University in 2008, intending to double-major in mathematics and computer science. A year later, he dropped out of Harvard. He briefly attended MIT until dropping out within a couple of months in 2010. He has been married since 2019[4].

Career

Upon leaving university in 2010, Brockman became the first engineer of the startup company Stripe, founded by his MIT classmate Patrick Collison and Collison’s brother John[1]. The startup developed payment processing software and an application programming interface for websites and mobile applications. Brockman became Stripe’s first CTO in 2013[5] and recruited many of the key team members[6].

In December 2015, along with Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Brockman co-founded the OpenAI nonprofit research laboratory. The laboratory aims to create safe, self–sufficient AI[7].

As the company’s CTO, Brockman recruited OpenAI’s founding team, and has led a number of research projects. In April 2016, the company released the beta version of OpenAI Gym, a public platform for developing and comparing reinforcement learning algorithms[8]. The Python–based Gym allows researchers to reproduce and extend their previous work on machine learning[9]

In 2017, OpenAI trained a self–sufficient Dota 2 bot, which went on to beat Ukrainian professional esports competitor Danil Ishutin in a live matchup at The International 2017[10]. After the match, Brockman explained that the company had developed the bot using the reinforcement learning methodology; the AI had learned by playing against itself in real time before the match, and was rewarded for actions such as eliminating an enemy and taking map objectives. He argued that the software for the AI’s self–sufficient learning would contribute to creating software to handle complex tasks in the future.[1]

From 2018 through to 2021, Brockman has been involved in producing a series of generative pre-training (GPT) language models[11]. These models use deep learning to translate and summarize passages and compose human–like text output[12]. In July 2021, OpenAI released Codex — a generative model for coding. With a design based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 language engine, the model can automatically program simple web pages, applications, and games[13]. Brockman stated at the Codex demonstration that the model aims to simplify the task of coding for programmers by letting them focus more on “having a vision and dividing it into chunks, then actually making code”[14].

Sam Altman cites Brockman as an example of ideal co-founder[15]

References

1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Helen A. S. Popkin (2017–11–14). “30 Under 30 In Enterprise Tech: Reinventing Business With Artificial Intelligence”. Forbes. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
2. ^ “Artificial intelligence: Elon Musk backs open project ‘to benefit humanity’”. The Guardian. 2015–12–12. Retrieved 2021–10–17.
3. ^ Cade Metz (2016–04–27). “Inside OpenAI, Elon Musk’s Wild Plan to Set Artificial Intelligence Free”. Wired. Retrieved 2022–02–07.
4. ^ Jump up to: a b Karen Hao (2015–12–12). “The messy, secretive reality behind OpenAI’s bid to save the world”. Technology Review. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
5. ^ “UPDATE 2-Musk, other tech chiefs back artificial intelligence startup with $1 bln”. Reuters. 2015–12–11. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
6. ^ “How Stripe Built One of Silicon Valley’s Best Engineering Teams”. Retrieved 2022–02–07.
7. ^ Rosalie Chan (2019–07–22). “Microsoft is investing $1 billion in OpenAI, the Elon Musk-founded company that’s trying to build human-like artificial intelligence”. Insider. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
8. ^ Sam Shead (2016–04–28). “Elon Musk’s $1 billion AI company launches a ‘gym’ where developers train their computers”. Insider. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
9. ^ Jordan Novet (2016–04–27). “OpenAI launches Gym, a toolkit for testing and comparing reinforcement learning algorithms”. VentureBeat. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
10. ^ Hayley Tsukayama (2018–06–28). “OpenAI’s bot beat a human at video games last year. Now it will take on five at once”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
11. ^ Cade Metz (2021–09–09). “A.I. Can Now Write Its Own Computer Code. That’s Good News for Humans”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
12. ^ John Seabrook (2019–10–14). “The Next Word: Where will predictive text take us?”. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
13. ^ Steven Levy (2021–08–13). “OpenAI Is Making Coding As Easy As Talking to a Smart Speaker”. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
14. ^ Devin Coldewey (2021–08–10). “OpenAI upgrades its natural language AI coder Codex and kicks off private beta”. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020–02–17.
15. ^ Sam Altman (2017–03–07). “Greg”. Sam Altman. Retrieved 2022–02–07.