PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Arjun Desai

Arjun Desai is a machine-learning researcher and Cartesia co-founder whose work connects robust medical imaging with efficient AI systems. He earned a BSE in biomedical engineering and computer science at Duke and MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering at Stanford, completing his doctorate on MRI systems in 2023. His 2022 work includes VORTEX, Monarch and the SKM-TEA dataset, spanning robust MRI reconstruction, efficient neural-network training and clinical evaluation. He wrote about Meerkat and workflow-based ML validation and co-founded Cartesia in 2023, where the founding team develops state-space models for foundation-model training. In 2025, Forbes included him on its 30 Under 30 AI list and he spoke about voice AI at AI Engineer World’s Fair; as of October 2026, he is a Cartesia co-founder.

Now at
Cartesia
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Timeline

  1. 2022

    VORTEX for robust MRI

    In 2022, he coauthors VORTEX, which pairs physics-driven data augmentations with consistency training for robust accelerated MRI reconstruction. The paper receives the 2022 Best Paper Award at Medical Imaging with Deep Learning.

  2. 2022

    Monarch at ICML

    In 2022, he coauthors Monarch, a structured matrix family formed from products of two block-diagonal matrices. ICML names the paper an Outstanding Paper runner-up for methods that support efficient neural-network training and fine-tuning.

  3. 2022

    SKM-TEA clinical MRI dataset

    In 2022, he coauthors SKM-TEA, a knee-MRI dataset and evaluation framework for clinically meaningful MRI reconstruction and analysis. The dataset combines quantitative scans with dense tissue and pathology labels for end-to-end assessment.

  4. June 2023

    Stanford PhD in MRI systems

    In June 2023, he completes a PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford under Akshay Chaudhari and Chris Ré, with a thesis on machine-learning systems for MRI. His earlier degrees are a BSE in biomedical engineering and computer science at Duke and an MS in electrical engineering at Stanford. At Stanford’s MIMI group, his work spans robust signal reconstruction and clinical deployment and validation systems.

  5. August 2023

    Meerkat and workflow validation

    In August 2023, he argues that machine-learning validation should evaluate complete user workflows, using medical imaging as an example. Meerkat connects ML models with data interfaces and supports large-scale visualization, exploration and qualitative validation.

  6. 2023

    Co-founding Cartesia

    He co-founds Cartesia in 2023 with Stanford AI Lab peers Karan Goel, Albert Gu and Brandon Yang. The company builds real-time generative AI models focused on voice AI.

  7. 2025

    Forbes 30 Under 30

    In 2025, Forbes includes him on its 30 Under 30 AI list as a Cartesia co-founder. At AI Engineer World’s Fair in 2025, he speaks about serving voice AI at scale.

  8. As of October 2026

    Co-founder at Cartesia

    As of October 2026, he is a co-founder at Cartesia. The founding team develops state-space models as a primitive for training large-scale foundation models.

Career

  1. Since 2023CartesiaCo-founder

Education

  1. 2023Stanford UniversityMS
  2. Duke UniversityBSE

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Stanford University. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. VORTEX: Physics-Driven Data Augmentations Using Consistency Training for Robust Accelerated MRI Reconstruction proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Arjun Desai: Bio, Work & Ideas | AI Engineer ai.engineer. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. ICML 2022 Awards icml.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. SKM-TEA: A Dataset for Accelerated MRI Reconstruction with Dense Image Labels for Quantitative Clinical Evaluation | arXiv arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. RAD/RSL Researchers Earn Doctoral Degrees | Stanford Medicine med.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Alumni | Machine Intelligence for Medical Imaging (MIMI) | Stanford Medicine med.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. A Paradigm Shift in ML Validation: Evaluating Workflows, Not Tasks | Hazy Research hazyresearch.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Exclusive: Cartesia, voice AI startup, raises $64 million Series A | Fortune fortune.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Cartesia AI | Forbes 30 Under 30 - AI 2025 forbes.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Company | Cartesia cartesia.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.