PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Richie Steigerwald

Also known as Richard Steigerwald

Richie Steigerwald is a machine-learning researcher who has worked on reinforcement learning and generative world models. A master's degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, came in 2013, with a thesis on sketch recognition. He later coauthored In-context Reinforcement Learning with Algorithm Distillation in 2022, Vision-Language Models as a Source of Rewards in 2023, and Genie in 2024, an 11-billion-parameter foundation world model from Google DeepMind. Genie received a Best Paper award at ICML 2024. He works at Reflection AI.

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Timeline

  1. 2013

    A sketch recognition thesis

    He completes an MS in computer science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in June 2013, advised by Zoë Wood. His thesis, Computer Sketch Recognition, concerns how well computers classify sketches drawn by humans.

  2. 2022

    The Algorithm Distillation paper

    In 2022, he is among the authors of In-context Reinforcement Learning with Algorithm Distillation. The paper proposes distilling reinforcement learning algorithms into neural networks by modeling their training histories with a causal sequence model.

  3. 2023

    Vision-language models as rewards

    He coauthors Vision-Language Models as a Source of Rewards in 2023. The paper investigates whether off-the-shelf vision-language models can supply rewards for reinforcement learning agents.

  4. 2024

    Genie, a foundation world model

    He is a Google DeepMind coauthor of Genie, an 11-billion-parameter foundation world model released in 2024. Genie generates action-controllable virtual worlds from text, images, photographs and sketches.

  5. 2024

    Best Paper at ICML

    Genie receives a Best Paper award at ICML 2024 and is presented there as an oral. He is one of the 25 authors listed on the paper.

  6. As of October 2026

    Work at Reflection AI

    As of October 2026, he works at Reflection AI.

Career

  1. NowReflection AI

Education

  1. 2013California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoMS

From the biography.

  1. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes Richie Steigerwald. 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.
  2. Among employers with 30+ full-time cases, OpenAI leads primary technical role H-1B pay at $310,000, and Amazon, Google and Microsoft file 57% of all casesIncludes Reflection AI. Across 440,669 certified US H-1B filings from 44 employers (FY2020–FY2026), OpenAI leads primary technical role base pay at $310,000 and xAI leads overall base pay at $290,000.
  3. 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 each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Sources and credits

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

  1. "Computer Sketch Recognition" by Richard Steigerwald digitalcommons.calpoly.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Richie Steigerwald - Google Scholar scholar.google.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. In-context Reinforcement Learning with Algorithm Distillation arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Vision-Language Models as a Source of Rewards arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Genie: Generative Interactive Environments arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Genie: Generative Interactive Environments — Google DeepMind deepmind.google. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. ICML 2024 Awards icml.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.