PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Max Schwarzer

Max Schwarzer is a reinforcement-learning researcher whose work spans deep-RL evaluation and AI model post-training. He earned a BA in computer science and mathematics at Pomona College in 2018, an MSc at Mila, Université de Montréal, in 2020, and a PhD there in 2024 under Aaron Courville and Marc Bellemare. His 2021 paper on deep-RL evaluation received a NeurIPS Outstanding Paper Award. Work he coauthored in 2022 and 2023 examined primacy bias and introduced the Atari agent BBF. He joined OpenAI in 2023, led post-training for o1 and o3, and became VP of Research in 2025; he is a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic, which he joined in March 2026.

Now at
Anthropic
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2014–2018

    Computer science at Pomona

    He earns a Bachelor of Arts in computer science and mathematics at Pomona College in 2018.

  2. 2015–2018

    Early research and data roles

    He works as a bioinformatics intern at IGM Biosciences in 2015, a lead data science intern at Kaspect in 2016, and a summer research intern at Pomona College in 2016. In 2017 and 2018, he works as a research intern at Numenta.

  3. 2018–2024

    Graduate degrees at Mila

    He completes an MSc in computer science at Mila, Université de Montréal, in 2020. He earns a PhD in computer science at Mila in March 2024 under Aaron Courville and Marc Bellemare, studying scaling and sample-efficient reinforcement learning.

  4. 2021

    A NeurIPS Outstanding Paper

    He coauthors “Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Edge of the Statistical Precipice” in 2021, arguing that reliable evaluation of few-run deep-RL experiments must account for statistical uncertainty. The paper receives a NeurIPS Outstanding Paper Award in 2021.

  5. January 2022–September 2023

    Research at Google Brain and Apple

    From January 2022 to June 2023, he is a student researcher at Google Brain. In June 2023, he starts a research internship in Samy Bengio’s machine-learning research group at Apple.

  6. 2022–2023

    Primacy bias and Atari 100K

    In 2022, he coauthors “The Primacy Bias in Deep Reinforcement Learning,” which describes how deep-RL agents can overfit early experience and neglect later evidence. At ICML 2023, he coauthors “Bigger, Better, Faster: Human-level Atari with human-level efficiency,” which introduces BBF, a value-based agent that achieves super-human performance in Atari 100K.

  7. November 2023–March 2026

    Post-training at OpenAI

    He joins OpenAI as a Member of Technical Staff in November 2023 and becomes VP of Research in September 2025, a role he holds through March 2026. He leads post-training for o1 and o3.

  8. Since March 2026

    Member of Technical Staff

    He joins Anthropic as a Member of Technical Staff in March 2026.

Career

  1. Since 2026AnthropicMember of Technical Staff
  2. 2023AppleResearch Intern
  3. 2023–2026OpenAIMember of Technical Staff, VP of Research
  4. 2022–2023Google BrainStudent Researcher
  5. 2017–2018NumentaResearch Intern
  6. 2016KaspectLead Data Science Intern
  7. 2016Pomona CollegeSummer Research Intern
  8. 2015IGM BiosciencesBioinformatics Intern

Education

  1. 2024Université de MontréalPhD
  2. 2020Université de MontréalMSc
  3. 2018Pomona CollegeB.A.

From the biography.

  1. 22 of 133 people shaping AI with a former OpenAI role now work at AnthropicIncludes Max Schwarzer. Our estimates of where OpenAI recruits came from and where 133 people with former OpenAI roles work now, including the companies and labs they founded.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Max Schwarzer. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes Max Schwarzer. Our estimates of where the 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google and Google DeepMind work now: 446 at Google and 452 across 278 other organizations.
  4. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Max Schwarzer. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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

  1. Background maxschwarzer.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. About Me maxschwarzer.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. [2108.13264] Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Edge of the Statistical Precipice arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Edge of the Statistical Precipice agarwl.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. [2205.07802] The Primacy Bias in Deep Reinforcement Learning arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Bigger, Better, Faster: Human-level Atari with human-level efficiency proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.