Yejin Choi, who was named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and one of Time’s Most Influential People in AI for her work in natural language processing, is leaving the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) in Seattle.
She plans to move to California and continue working in the field. Her new position hasn’t been finalized. Her departure was announced internally at Ai2 and the UW Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering over the past week.
Choi previously spoke to GeekWire about such topics as whether AI can be sentient and about a neural network project at UW to combat disinformation.
AI researchers are in high demand right now, given the intense interest in the field, leading to more movement among personnel at top companies and institutes.
On a related note, Ai2 announced two new researchers who will be joining its team, both of whom are 2024 PhD graduates from the UW Allen School, and are highly regarded as AI researchers.
— Sewon Min is joining Ai2 as a research scientist. Min is also an assistant professor at UC Berkeley and is affiliated with Berkeley AI Research and the Berkeley NLP Group. She was previously a part-time visiting researcher at Meta AI and a recipient of the JP Morgan PhD Fellowship. She also spent time at Google Research and Salesforce Research.
— Tim Dettmers is joining Ai2 as an AI researcher. Dettmers specializes in efficient deep learning at the intersection of machine learning, NLP, and computer systems with a focus on quantization and sparsity. Dettmers has also accepted a position as a professor with Carnegie Mellon University, where he will be starting in the fall of next year.
Ai2 is led by CEO Ali Farhadi, who is also a UW Allen School professor. Ai2 has emerged as a leading advocate in the field of AI for open-source large language models, with the release last year of its Open Language Model, or OLMo.
Choi led a separate team at Ai2 called MOSAIC, focused on common-sense reasoning. Responding to an inquiry from GeekWire, an Ai2 representative did not answer a question about what Choi’s departure means for the MOSAIC team.
Ai2 said in a statement about Choi’s departure, “Yejin has been an important part of the team, and we thank her for all her contributions to Ai2. We wish her the best.”
In a note to her Allen School colleagues, Choi described her 10 years there as “a literal paradise for me, both intellectually and spiritually,” expressing gratitude for the “amazing, life-changing opportunity for learning and growth.”
She told GeekWire via email that she would say the same about Ai2, where she worked for more than six years.
“Even though everything is so wonderful here, I am adventure-seeking by nature,” Choi wrote in her email to her UW colleagues. “After a prolonged period of hesitation, I realize that I have to see and experience a different world, even if it turns out to be a mistake, to be authentic to myself.”
Magdalena Balazinska, UW computer science professor and director of the UW Allen School, said, “Yejin has had a transformative impact on the Allen School and is leaving us in a very strong position.”
Balazinska added, “We have a fantastic set of AI faculty members, many jointly appointed with Ai2 or other organizations, and all doing leading-edge work. Yejin played an important role in helping us to build out that group. Her work on common-sense reasoning has been both impactful to the community and inspiring to our students.”
She concluded, “In addition to being a fantastic researcher, she’s also a wonderful colleague. So we are really sad to see her go, but we wish her all the best in her next adventure.”
In other Tech Moves …
— Margi Tooth began her new role as CEO of Seattle pet insurance company Trupanion. Tooth was previously president and joined the company in 2013. She takes over from Trupanion founder Darryl Rawlings, who started the company in 2000 and will remain chair of the board.
— Lauren Wilson joined Seattle healthcare startup Kevala as a vice president and general manager. Wilson was previously a sales exec at TSOLife and IN2L.
— The Washington State Academy of Sciences announced 36 new members and four new additions to its board of directors: Nathan Baker, Brian French, Kristi Morgansen, and Susmita Bose.
