PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alexander Reben

Alexander Reben is an artist and roboticist whose work with AI and social robots explores how people relate to technology. He studied applied mathematics at Stony Brook, completed an MIT Media Lab MS, and built Boxie, a story-gathering robot that led to a paper on structured social video. His career included interaction design at Cisco, research leadership at Stochastic Labs, and psychology research at UC Berkeley. He became OpenAI’s first artist in residence and made works including the AI Am I? retrospective and AI and the Anvil. Since 2025, he is Phyzify’s co-founder and CTO; as of October 2026, he is an artist in residence at Google.

Now at
Phyzify and Google
Works
9
Citations
33
h-index
3
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2011

    Boxie and a social robotics paper

    He earns a Stony Brook BS in applied mathematics in 2008 and an MIT MS in media arts and sciences in 2010. His Boxie robot gathers structured story videos, and he and Joseph A. Paradiso publish the ACM Multimedia paper “A Mobile Interactive Robot for Gathering Structured Social Video” in 2011.

  2. 2010–2017

    Robots in Residence at Tribeca

    After completing his MIT MS in 2010, he works as an interaction design strategist at Cisco. In 2013, he and Brent Hoff present Robots in Residence at Tribeca’s Storyscapes, where robots interview people and invite them to share personal thoughts with artificial intelligence. He becomes director of technology and research at Stochastic Labs in 2014 and a visiting scholar in psychology at UC Berkeley from 2015 to 2017.

  3. 2023–2024

    AI Am I? and OpenAI

    His AI Am I? exhibition opens at the Crocker Art Museum in October 2023 and runs through April 2024; it includes objects he makes or commissions from AI-generated concepts. During 2023–2024, he is OpenAI’s first artist in residence.

  4. 2024

    AI and the Anvil

    In 2024, he makes AI and the Anvil, turning language into digital instructions for robotic systems that shape metal with Machina Labs.

  5. 2025

    Artist in residence at Meta

    He joins Meta as an artist in residence in 2025.

  6. Since 2025

    Co-founding Phyzify

    In 2025, he becomes a co-founder and CTO of Phyzify. The company aims to connect human imagination with physical production through AI.

  7. As of October 2026

    Artist in residence at Google

    As of October 2026, he is an artist in residence at Google.

A language model matched the links in this timeline to people, organizations and papers (provisional, model-judged).

Career

  1. Since 2025PhyzifyCo-founder and CTO
  2. NowGoogleArtist in residence
  3. From 2025MetaArtist in residence
  4. 2023–2024OpenAIArtist in residence
  5. 2015–2017University of California, BerkeleyVisiting scholar in psychology
  6. From 2014Stochastic LabsDirector of technology and research
  7. From 2010CiscoInteraction design strategist

Education

  1. 2010Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMS
  2. 2008Stony Brook UniversityBS

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Fake AI2021 · 12 citationsWith Abeba Birhane, Alex Hanna, Arvind Narayanan and Inioluwa Deborah Raji
  2. A mobile interactive robot for gathering structured social video2011 · ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM MM) · 7 citations
  3. MoSS: Mobile Smart Services for ubiquitous network management2011 · International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS) · 6 citations
  4. FlickInk2012 · SIGGRAPH Asia Emerging Technologies · 3 citations
  5. A need-driven design approach2012 · ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) · 2 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Google alumni founded or led 79 other organizations, the most among the labs we compareIncludes Alexander Reben. We trace 181 organizations founded or led by AI lab alumni, and 187 career moves between the labs.
  2. 11 of 73 people shaping AI with a former OpenAI role now work at AnthropicIncludes Alexander Reben. Our estimates of where OpenAI recruits came from and where people with former OpenAI roles work now.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1962 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Alexander Reben yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Embracing AI - SBU Magazine mag.stonybrook.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. The Boxie Project resenv.media.mit.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. About / CV — Alexander Reben areben.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Alexander Reben – Stochastic Labs stochasticlabs.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. Alexander Reben and Brent Hoff on Robots in Residence | Tribeca tribecafilm.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. AI Am I? ARTificial Intelligence as Generated by Alexander Reben | Crocker Art Museum crockerart.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Alexander Reben at the AI Art Gallery | NVIDIA nvidia.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. Manifesto — Phyzify phyzify.ai. Checked 18 October 2026.