George Hotz

Also known as geohot, tomcr00se

George Hotz is an American hacker and entrepreneur whose AI work spans the openpilot driver-assistance software and the tinygrad deep learning framework. At 17, in 2007, he became the first person reported to remove the SIM lock on an iPhone; in 2010 he hacked Sony's PlayStation 3, and the lawsuit that followed was settled in 2011. After stints at Facebook, Google's Project Zero and Vicarious, he founded comma.ai in 2015, and Consumer Reports ranked its openpilot software above Tesla Autopilot in 2020. He stepped back from running comma.ai in 2022 and founded the tiny corp, which raised $5.1 million in 2023 to build computers for machine learning and develop tinygrad. His comma.ai work ended in November 2025, and he now works on tinygrad at the tiny corp, which builds the tinybox AI computer.

Now at: Tiny Corp
Born: 1989
Badges: Founder
Wayfarer

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

2007

Unlocking the iPhone at 17

A student at the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey, he wins a $20,000 Intel scholarship at the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for a 3D imaging project. In August 2007, at 17, he becomes the first person reported to remove the SIM lock on an iPhone, and he trades an unlocked phone for a Nissan 350Z and three more iPhones.
2010–2011

Cracking the PlayStation 3

In January 2010, he tells BBC News that he has hacked Sony's PlayStation 3, and he releases the exploit to the public. He posts the console's private key in January 2011, Sony sues him, and the two sides settle out of court in April 2011 on the condition that he never again hacks Sony products.
2011–2015

Facebook, Project Zero and Vicarious

He works at Facebook from May 2011 to January 2012, and he is part of Carnegie Mellon's Plaid Parliament of Pwning team that wins the DEF CON Capture the Flag tournament in 2013 and 2014. Google hires him in July 2014 for its Project Zero team, where he develops Qira for dynamically analysing application binaries. He spends January to July 2015 at the startup Vicarious.
2015–2016

Founding comma.ai

He founds comma.ai in September 2015 to develop advanced driver-assistance systems using machine learning, and demonstrates a self-driving Acura ILX prototype on California's Interstate 280. In October 2016, he cancels the company's first product, the comma one, after a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and comma.ai then releases its driving software, openpilot, as open source.
2020–2021

Consumer Reports ranks openpilot

Comma.ai builds hardware to run openpilot, including the comma two in 2020 and the comma three in 2021. In November 2020, Consumer Reports ranks openpilot above all other advanced driver-assistance systems, including Tesla Autopilot, Cadillac Super Cruise and Ford Co-Pilot 360.
2022

Stepping back from comma.ai

In October 2022, he steps down from day-to-day leadership of comma.ai and remains its sole board member and president. He joins Twitter for a 12-week internship in 2022 to fix its search, and resigns in December 2022 after less than five weeks.
2022–2024

Founding the tiny corp

He founds the tiny corp in November 2022 around tinygrad, a deep learning framework he started as a toy project to teach himself how convolutions work; tinygrad comes to run openpilot on comma.ai's hardware. In May 2023, the company announces $5.1 million in funding to build computers for machine learning and develop tinygrad. In March 2024, it prices its six-GPU tinybox AI computer at $15,000 with AMD graphics cards and $25,000 with Nvidia cards.
As of October 2026

Building tinygrad at the tiny corp

By 2025, openpilot supports more than 300 vehicle models, and his work on comma.ai ends in November 2025. He continues to work on tinygrad at the tiny corp, which builds the tinybox, an AI computer for local model training and inference.