Central Casting AI
Jeff Orkin, Ph.D. has a diverse and extensive work experience in the field of artificial intelligence and data science. Jeff is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Central Casting AI, a company founded in 2022. Prior to this, they worked at Drift, where they held multiple roles including Head of the Drift AI Lab from 2019 to 2022, and Head of Data Science from 2018 to 2019. Jeff also founded and served as CEO of Giant Otter Technologies, a conversational AI company that was acquired by Drift in 2018. Before that, they worked as a Doctoral Student and Research Assistant at MIT Media Lab, specializing in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and crowdsourcing from 2005 to 2013. Jeff also has experience as a Senior Engineer and Artificial Intelligence Lead at Monolith Productions from 2001 to 2005, and as a Lead Software Engineer at Sierra On-Line from 1996 to 2001. Jeff started their career as a Programmer Analyst at American Management Systems (AMS) in 1995.
Jeff Orkin, Ph.D. completed their education in a chronological order. Jeff began their academic journey in 1991, where they attended Tufts University and obtained a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Computer Science in 1995. The next step in their education was pursuing a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Computer Science at the University of Washington, which they completed from 1999 to 2003. Following that, Orkin enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2005 to 2007, where they earned a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Media Arts & Sciences. Jeff'seducation culminated at MIT, where Orkin obtained their highest level of education, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Artificial Intelligence, which they achieved from 2007 to 2013.
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Central Casting AI
Our company: Central Casting AI is a Boston based startup that provides game developers of any level with pre-trained non-player characters (NPCs) for games. Soldiers, villagers, waiters, bartenders, sheriffs, bandits, bank robbers, clerks, you name it. Using generative AI and automated planners, Characters come with intelligence, behaviors, and dialogue; can interact with objects in the world and dynamically converse with each other; and can be dropped into any game engine or user-generated content (UGC) platform. Central Casting AI is building the Character Hub, where creators can browse, customize, and share NPCs, to refine their dialogue, moods, and personality traits to suit any desired use case. Founding team: Dr. Jeff Orkin and Sarah Rudzki have been building AI products together since 2016. For four years, they led development of AI products at Drift.com, contributing to Vista Equity Partners’ acquisition, in which Vista valued Drift at over $1B. Jeff and Sarah's previous AI company, Giant Otter Technologies, Inc grew out of Jeff's Ph.D. research at the MIT Media Lab and was acquired by Drift in 2018. Previously, Jeff spent a decade developing award winning AI in the video game industry at Warner Bros and Vivendi (FEAR, NOLF2). Sarah served as a Staff Product Manager at Drift, and held product management and operations roles at Giant Otter. Sarah holds an MFA in Arts Leadership from DePaul University, and a BA in Theater from Dartmouth College.