Sebastian Thrun

Sebastian Thrun is a scientist, educator, inventor, and entrepreneur, founding several companies, including Google X, Udacity, and Kitty Hawk. Thrun is a professor at Stanford University. He is known for his research on AI, robotics, education, human-computer interaction, and medical devices. Thrun led the Stanford Racing Team that won the DARPA Grand Challenge with their robot “Stanley.” While at Google X, he led projects, including Self-Driving Car and Google Glass.

Thrun has been named the 5th Most Creative Person in Business (Fast Company), among the 50 Smartest People in Tech (Fortune), and highlighted in the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 (Time). He has received numerous awards and honors, including the inaugural Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Education and the Max Planck Research Award. He was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and the German Academy of Sciences at age thirty-nine. Google Scholar ranks Thrun's h-index as number 143 in the world in all of computer science.

Sebastian Thrun was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1967. He attended the University of Hildesheim, graduating in 1988 with a "VordiPlom" (first diploma) in computer science, economics, and medicine. Thrun went on to study at the University of Bonn, completing a "Diplom" in computer science and statistics in 1993. He remained at the University of Bonn, completing a PhD in computer science and statistics, publishing his thesis titled "Explanation-Based Neural Network Learning: A Lifelong Learning Approach" in July 1995. His PhD advisors were Armin Bernd Cremers and Tom Michael Mitchell. After completing his education at the University of Bonn, Thrun emigrated to the United States.

Thrun took a position as a computer science researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in 1995, becoming assistant professor in 1998. In 2001, he became an associate professor of computer science, robotics, and automated learning.

Thrun became a tenured associate professor of computer science at Stanford University in 2003. In 2004, he became director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Throughout the years at Stanford, Thrun has become an associate professor of electrical engineering (2006), a full professor of computer science and electrical engineering (2007), a research professor of computer science (2013), and an adjunct professor in computer science and electrical engineering (2016). While the director of SAIL, Thrun led the Stanford Racing Team to victory at the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005. The winning robot, Stanley, was developed for high-speed desert driving without human intervention. Its software system relied predominately on state-of-the-art AI technologies, including machine learning and probabilistic reasoning.

Thrun joined Google in 2007. While working at Google, he founded Google X, the company's hardware innovation shop, and Waymo, the company's self-driving car team (previously called the Google Chauffeur Project).

While director of Google X, Thrun worked on a number of projects:

• Project Iris—glucose-sensing contact lenses
• Wing—drones for food delivery
• Loon—stratospheric balloons for telecommunication
• Google Brain—deep learning
• Google Glass—smart glasses

Founded in 2011, Udacity began with Stanford lecturers Thrun and Peter Norvig wanting to offer their "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course online for free. Thrun became CEO of the company, which has grown into an e-learning company with over 160,000 students enrolled in more than 190 countries. Thrun stepped down as CEO in 2019, remaining as a member of the board.

Originally founded in 2010 by Stanford aerodynamicist Ilan Kroo, Larry Page rebranded the company as Kitty Hawk in 2016, putting Thrun in charge as CEO and founder. Kitty Hawk developed electric aircraft with the goal of making air taxis.

In September 2022, Kitty Hawk announced it was shutting down on Twitter and LinkedIn, stating:

We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk. We’re still working on the details of what’s next.

The company had operated mostly in secret, developing its aircraft. Kitty Hawk built and flew 111 aircraft, conducting over 25,000 successful crewed and uncrewed flights with its fleet. Its flyer program was shuttered in June 2020 with around seventy employees being laid off. "Cora," a two-person autonomous flying taxi, was first revealed in 2018 and was spun off in late 2019 in a joint venture with Boeing, now called Wisk. Thrun held the position of CEO until December 2022.

Thrun was part of the founding team of Cresta in 2017, a company with the goal of using AI to help employees learn high-value skills. Thrun remains a member of Cresta's advisory board. In 2017, he also cofounded Crossing Minds, an e-commerce personalization platform powered by AI.

On October 3, 2023, Thrun announced he was launching Sage AI Labs, a well-funded start-up with industry partners, with his previous student Bret Kuprel. The stealth start-up will be operating in the autonomous robotic agents space.