Hi there!

I'm Brian Kihoon Lee (한글: 이기훈; 漢字: 李基薰).

I want to understand the world, in the broadest possible sense. I enjoy thinking about math, physical sciences, computer science, economics, irreducibly complex systems, but also about classical music, aesthetics, and philosophy. I write.

I'm currently working on a stealth startup.

Stuff I've worked on

  • (2024-25) Helped Databricks customers evaluate and improve the quality of their AIs/Agents.
  • (2023-24) First engineer at Lilac AI, which was acquired by Databricks.
  • (2023) I worked on fixing technical, organizational, and cultural issues at Motional.
  • (2022) I helped evaluate climate project proposals as part of Google's internal Climate Diligence Group.
  • (2019-22) I was TL of a chemistry and machine learning research team investigating olfactory perception. Papers:[1][2][3][Science][Google AI blog]. I wrote an essay summarizing our progress. This work was spun off in 2022 into Osmo, a startup digitizing the sense of smell with $60M in funding.
  • (2018) I helped launch AutoGraph, a Python to TensorFlow compiler featured in TensorFlow 2. As a byproduct of my pre-alpha experience with AutoGraph / TensorFlow 2, I wrote the immensely popular Effective TF 2, viewed by hundreds of thousands of unique readers, as well as the official tf.function guide.
  • (2017) I co-created (with Andrew Jackson) MiniGo (a full replication of AlphaGoZero) based on work I'd done in MuGo.
  • (2017) I worked on EHRs and data pipelines at Verily.
  • (2016) I created MuGo, a partial replication of AlphaGo, as a starter project in machine learning.
  • (2014-16) I worked on content migration at HubSpot.
  • (2013) I mastered/dropped out of Harvard's Chemistry & Chemical Biology department.
  • (2012) I started the Collegiate Go League, a competitive league for college Go clubs.
  • (2012) I created ChemWOOT, an online training program to prepare students for the USNCO and IChO, in conjunction with Art of Problem Solving Inc.
  • (2011) I graduated from MIT with a degree in Chemistry, and ran the MIT Go Club for three years.
  • (2010-12) I mentored students at the USNCO Study Camp in 2010-2012
  • (2007) I won a silver medal at the 2007 IChO in Moscow, Russia.
  • (2005-07) I was math team captain at Bergen County Academies and competed twice in the USAMO.

linkedin | github | google scholar | brian.kihoon.lee@gmail.com