Verify me.

Two acquired companies.

I built Hunch with Chris Dixon and Caterina Fake, as its Chief Scientist. eBay acquired Hunch in 2011. I later built ArtAdvisor with Lucas Zwirner; Artsy acquired it in 2017, and I joined Artsy as Chief Scientist.

Three MIT degrees.

S.B. in Computer Science (2001), M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (2002), and Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences (2006).

AI research since 1999.

Across 39 publications, I worked on common sense, natural-language programming, affect, taste, and computational point of view. The public record had 6,637 citations on September 11, 2026; the ConceptNet paper alone had 2,473.

A result that lasted.

My 2003 paper on recognizing affect from everyday language won ACM IUI's Best Paper Award. In 2018, the conference gave the same work its test-of-time Impact Award.

Work inside museums.

I co-developed Åzone Futures Market, the Guggenheim's first online exhibition, and presented Computing Taste at the Museum of Modern Art’s R&D Salon 15 on 29 April 2015; Paola Antonelli’s salons invited me back as a guest in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The Helsinki work was a formal Guggenheim commission: an independent-contractor agreement dated 23 February 2015 for the Guggenheim Helsinki Now interactives, and a program agreement dated 17 April 2015 for the Play Today discussion. The agreements are on file and not published.

First job: Mars Pathfinder.

My first job, in the summer of 1997 when I was seventeen, was a public-relations internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the Mars Pathfinder landing; Wayne Lee, a Mars mission planner there, opened the door. I organized media logistics and watched mission control through glass. My Science Bowl coach’s note from that spring reads “fifth in the nation.”

Taught at MIT.

Fall 2005: Common Sense Reasoning for Interactive Applications (MAS.969), Media Arts and Sciences. Fall 2006: Feeling and Imagination in Art, Science & Technology (24.262), Linguistics and Philosophy, co-taught with the philosopher Irving Singer.

Advised six startups; five were acquired.

SiteAdvisor, acquired by McAfee in April 2006; ScanScout, by Tremor Media in December 2010; Jill’s List, by MINDBODY in May 2013; Collaborate.com, by Cisco in December 2013; Smarterer, by Pluralsight in November 2014. Seven Bridges Genomics, advised from 2012.