Sophie Lebrecht

Sophie Lebrecht built an AI career that connected visual neuroscience with computer vision and open vision-language models. She earned a PhD in Cognitive Science at Brown in 2012, pursued postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon, and co-founded Neon Labs, turning her visual-preference work into thumbnail-selection software. The World Economic Forum named Neon a Technology Pioneer in 2015, and at Xnor.ai she directed operations for computer vision while the company pursued a 60-frame-per-second image-tracking goal before Apple's early 2020 acquisition. She coauthored the open Molmo and PixMo work in 2024, then served as Ai2's COO in December 2025, where she said strong human input helped AI tools align with real-world expectations and teams used feedback for video-language models and vision systems. As of October 2026, she is a Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft and spoke about MAI models at a Microsoft Reactor event in August 2026.

Now at: Microsoft
Works: 25
Citations: 782
h-index: 8
Badges: Founder
Bridge
Boomerang
Wayfarer
Links: LinkedIn

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

2012–2013

A Brown PhD and CMU postdoc

She earns a PhD in Cognitive Science at Brown University in 2012; her research examines the neural basis of visual preference for everyday objects. By 2013, she is a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon, continuing work with Michael Tarr at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.
2014

Co-founding Neon Labs

In 2014, she is Neon Labs' CEO and co-founder, translating visual-preference research into software for choosing online video thumbnails.
2015

Neon named a Technology Pioneer

In 2015, the World Economic Forum selects Neon as a Technology Pioneer; Lebrecht is the company's CEO and co-founder.
2018–2020

Xnor.ai and Apple's acquisition

In 2018, she is Xnor.ai's director of operations; the company builds software to improve computer vision and aims to track images at 60 frames per second. In early 2020, Apple acquires Xnor.ai after she serves as its senior vice president of strategy and operations.
2024

Molmo and PixMo

In 2024, she coauthors Molmo and PixMo, presenting an open family of vision-language models and datasets for detailed image captions, free-form image question answering, and 2D pointing.
December 2025

Human feedback at Ai2

In December 2025, she is Ai2's Chief Operating Officer and says strong human input helps AI tools align with real-world expectations. Ai2's Large Language Model and Multimodal Model teams develop video-language models and vision systems that require ongoing human feedback.
August 2026

Speaking about Microsoft's MAI models

In August 2026, she speaks at Microsoft's Model Mondays event about the MAI family of models.
As of October 2026

Technical staff at Microsoft

She is a Member of Technical Staff at Microsoft.

Career

Since 2026MicrosoftMember of Technical Staff
From 2020Apple
2018–2020Xnor.aiDirector of operations, Senior vice president of strategy and operations
2017–2018Brown University
From 2014Neon LabsCEO and co-founder
2013–2015Carnegie Mellon UniversityPostdoctoral Fellow
Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)Chief Operating Officer