Our Team
Boson AI was founded by experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence with almost a century of expertise in AI between them. It is our vision to make communication with machines as easy, natural and fun as talking to a human.
Our team combines deep technical expertise in data, statistical modeling, optimization, training, tuning and model serving with the practical expertise to create AI solutions that deliver real value. We're a diverse group of researchers, engineers, and industry specialists united by a passion for innovation and a commitment to scalable AI development.
Founders
Dr. Alex Smola
Co-Founder & CEO
Dr. Alex Smola is a renowned expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence with 30 years of experience in the field. He received his doctoral degree in computer science from the University of Technology Berlin in 1998. His career spans institutions including Australian National University, NICTA, Yahoo! Research, Google Research, and Carnegie Mellon University where he served as a professor from 2013-2017. Prior to founding Boson AI, he was VP/Distinguished Scientist at Amazon Web Services, leading the development of machine learning services. Dr. Smola has co-authored 6 books including "Dive into Deep Learning" (2019) and has made significant contributions to deep learning, kernel methods, and scalable machine learning algorithms.
Dr. Mu Li
Co-Founder & CTO
Dr. Mu Li is a distinguished researcher and engineer specializing in deep learning and distributed systems. Before co-founding Boson AI, he was a Principal Scientist at Amazon Web Services, where he led the development of deep learning frameworks and infrastructure. Dr. Li has co-authored the highly influential book "Dive into Deep Learning" (2019), which has received over 1,700 citations. His research spans numerous areas including gradient boosting (XGBoost), diffusion models, prompt learning, multimodal systems, transformers, and large language models. He has published extensively in top-tier venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, and IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. Throughout his career, Dr. Li has focused on making AI technologies more accessible, efficient, and scalable for real-world applications.
Leadership Team
Xingjian Shi
Cofounder
Xingjian Shi is a founding engineer at Boson AI with expertise in generative models, multimodal AutoML, and deep learning for earth science. Previously, he was a senior applied scientist at Amazon leading projects like AutoGluon Multimodal and DeepEarth. He received his Ph.D. from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2018.
Shuai Zheng
Cofounder
Shuai Zheng is a cofounder at Boson AI, focusing on building next generation foundation models and LLM-powered products. He received his Doctoral Degree in computer science from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2019. Previously, he was a scientist at Amazon Web Services where he led distributed system and LLM training efforts across Amazon.
Yi Zhu
Cofounder
Yi Zhu is a cofounder at Boson AI with research interests in large language models, multi-modality learning, self-supervised learning, and video understanding. Before Boson AI, he was a senior applied scientist at Amazon AI working with Dr. Mu Li and Dr. Alex Smola. He received his PhD from UC Merced and has contributed to open source projects including AutoGluon and GluonCV.
Yizhi Liu
Cofounder
Yizhi Liu specializes in optimizing deep learning models and developing efficient tensor programs. His research focuses on model inference optimization across various hardware platforms including CPUs and GPUs. He has published numerous papers on topics such as automatic optimization for dynamic tensor programs and task-mapping programming paradigms for deep learning.
Oksana Bundzyak
Chief Financial Officer
Oksana Bundzyak, CPA, oversees Boson AI's financial operations and strategy. With her extensive background in accounting and finance, she ensures the company's financial health and sustainable growth as it scales its AI solutions globally.
Our Team
Beyond our leadership, Boson AI is powered by a talented team of 30 professionals across research, engineering, product, design, and operations. We're headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with additional offices in Toronto, Canada, and a state-of-the-art datacenter in Barrie, Ontario.
Interested in joining our team? Check out our careers page for current opportunities.