Hello, I’m Kory 👋
My goal is to understand intelligent interactions between humans and machines.
Email: korymath@gmail.com
I’m a Senior Research Scientist with Google DeepMind and an Associate Industry Member at Mila - the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute in Montreal, Canada. I am also a Lab Scientist with the Creative Destruction Lab where I support massively scalable science-based startups and an improvisor with Rapid Fire Theatre and Improbotics.
I’ve interned at Google Brain and Magenta, Apple, and Twitter. I hold a Ph.D. in Computing Science from the University of Alberta with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. I completed my Masters and Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alberta.
Writing #
Teaching The Disruption
Early Adoption of Generative AI
AI Will Fail. That’s A Good Thing.
AI and Filmmaking
After you read these, there are many more Posts to explore.
Research #
My research examines how humans and machines work alongside one another in creative collaborations.
2024 - Launched Google Veo for video generation + VideoFX consumer tool + led collaboration with professional filmmakers effort (including collaboration on Filmmaking with Donald Glover and his creative studio, Gilga). Published on measuring divergent creativity in humans and LLMs and an evaluation of LLMs’ humour alignment with comedians.
2023 - Launched Dramatron for professionals co-writing screenplays and scripts with language models (code, paper, patent) and published on cultural general intelligence and communicative capital.
2022 - Published a guide to designing and evaluating human-centred interactive machine learning, research in emergent communication in populations and at scale, and BIG-bench for evaluating the capabilities of language models.
2021 - Launched StoryCentaur for using large language models as creative writing tools (code, paper), published research on collaborative storytelling with humans and AIs, tele-immersive improvisational performance, generating diverse and realistic laughter for interactive art, and symbolic behaviour in artificial intelligence.
2020 - Published research on shaping narrative arcs via information-theory and collaborative dialogue, on imitating interactive intelligence, and on using AI to perform improv in any language.
2019 - Published Ph.D. thesis Humour-in-the-loop: Improvised Theatre with Interactive Machine Learning Systems and launched TalkGenerator.com for automatically generating engaging presentation slide decks.
2018 - Launched Improbotics, a theatre lab pioneering performance alongside generative AI.
2017 - Launched HumanMachine and A.L.Ex. the Artificial Language Experiment**, published improvised theatre alongside artificial intelligences and improvised comedy as a Turing test.
2016 - Built and performed with an Artificial Improvisor – a chatbot and projected puppet to perform alongside.
Short Biography #
Kory Mathewson is a Senior Research Scientist with Google DeepMind and an Associate Industry Member at Mila - the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute in Montreal, Canada. Kory holds a Ph.D. in Computing Science from the University of Alberta with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. His research focuses on understanding intelligent interaction between humans and machines, most recently in the domains of interactive, conversational systems, and creative applications of artificial intelligence.
Long Research Biography #
Kory Mathewson is a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and an Associate Industry Member at Mila - the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute in Montreal, Canada. Driven by a passion for human-machine collaboration, Kory’s research paints a compelling picture of the future, where technology and ingenuity converge to create intelligent and interactive systems.
He has not only gained recognition in the scientific community, but also in the realm of theatre and improvisation, combining his AI expertise with his performance art.
He holds a PhD in Computing Science from the University of Alberta, where he did research as an student with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. Kory works on interactive, conversational systems and explores innovative applications of artificial intelligence in creative disciplines.
His work has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and has served as an advisor for the National Research Council.
Along with Piotr Mirowski, he is the co-founder of Improbotics, a pioneering improv show featuring an AI performer, which has received acclaim from audiences and critics alike. He also regularly performs with Rapid Fire Theatre in shows such as Improvised TED Talks, which he co-created with the incomperable Julian Faid.
As Kory Mathewson continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the nexus of artificial intelligence and human creativity, his unique blend of research and innovation continues to inspire new generations of researchers and performers.
Artistic Biography #
Kory Mathewson is a Canadian Comedy Award-winning improvisor, producer, and innovative theatre creator currently living in Montreal, Canada. He is known for his productions and performances around the world including Improvised TED Talks (alongside Julian Faid), The Professors and Plays by Bots (alongside Joe Vanderhelm), as well as Improbotics and HumanMachine (alongside Piotr Mirowski). Kory provided technical direction on Surveil with Hip.Bang! and I Don’t Even Miss You with Tiny Bear Jaws. Kory developed the first artificial intelligence to perform improvisation alongside, has improvised non-stop for over 50 hours on multiple occasions, and was invited to perform improv at the 2012 London Summer Olympics! At the forefront of the art form of improvisation, Kory brings new techniques and formats inspired by his work in cybernetics and artificial intelligence. He improvises with Rapid Fire Theatre, Improbotics, and Die Nasty. Kory co-led the symposium “Machines. Perform. Humans.” and presented the work HumanMachine as a featured performance art installation in the exhibit “100 Ways of Thinking” at the Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland.