Biography:Sam McCandlish
Sam McCandlish | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Brandeis University Stanford University |
| Known for | Neural-network scaling laws; Anthropic's Responsible Scaling Policy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Machine learning Theoretical physics |
| Institutions | OpenAI Anthropic |
Sam McCandlish is a machine learning researcher and theoretical physicist who co-founded Anthropic.[1] He previously worked at OpenAI, where he co-authored research on large-batch training and scaling behaviour in neural language models.[2][3]
Education
Brandeis University listed him (as Samuel McCandlish) among recipients of its physics department's Berko Memorial Prize (2012).[4]
In 2017, Stanford University's Department of Physics announced McCandlish's Ph.D. dissertation defense, titled Depth Perception in Holography.[5]
Career
Theoretical physics
McCandlish co-authored work in high-energy theory and holography, including papers on integral geometry and AdS/CFT.[6][7] He was also a co-author of Modular Berry Connection for Entangled Subregions in AdS/CFT, which was published in Physical Review Letters.[8]
OpenAI
At OpenAI, McCandlish was credited as an author of the company's 2018 post How AI training scales describing empirical results on training efficiency and batch-size effects.[9] He also co-authored OpenAI research on large-batch training and scaling behaviour in neural language models.[2][3]
Anthropic
In 2023, VentureBeat interviewed McCandlish about Anthropic's Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP), a framework intended to manage catastrophic-risk thresholds for frontier AI systems.[10]
In 2024, Business Insider described McCandlish as Anthropic's chief technology officer and said he served as the company's Responsible Scaling Officer.[11] In October 2024, Anthropic announced an updated RSP and said that co-founder Jared Kaplan would serve as the company's Responsible Scaling Officer, succeeding McCandlish in that role.[12]
In October 2025, TechCrunch reported that McCandlish moved from CTO to a new role as chief architect when Anthropic hired Rahul Patil as chief technology officer; Anthropic also announced the transition.[1][13]
Selected works
- McCandlish, S.; Kaplan, J.; Amodei, D. (with the OpenAI Dota Team) (2018). An Empirical Model of Large-Batch Training. arXiv:1812.06162.
- Kaplan, J.; McCandlish, S.; Henighan, T.; Brown, T. B.; et al. (2020). Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models. arXiv:2001.08361.
- Czech, B.; Lamprou, L.; McCandlish, S.; Sully, J. (2018). "Modular Berry Connection for Entangled Subregions in AdS/CFT". Physical Review Letters 120 (9): 091601.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brandom, Russell (2 October 2025). "Anthropic hires new CTO with focus on AI infrastructure". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/anthropic-hires-new-cto-with-focus-on-ai-infrastructure/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 McCandlish, Sam; Kaplan, Jared; Amodei, Dario (2018). "An Empirical Model of Large-Batch Training". arXiv:1812.06162 [cs.LG].
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kaplan, Jared; McCandlish, Sam; Henighan, Tom; Brown, Tom B. (2020). "Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models". arXiv:2001.08361 [cs.LG].
- ↑ "Recipients". https://www.brandeis.edu/physics/events/berko-prize/winners.html.
- ↑ "PHYSICS Ph.D. DISSERTATION DEFENSE: Sam McCandlish". 16 May 2017. https://physics.stanford.edu/events/physics-phd-dissertation-defense-sam-mccandlish.
- ↑ Czech, Bartlomiej; Karczmarek, Joan; Nogueira, Fernando; Van Raamsdonk, Mark; McCandlish, Sam (2015). "Integral Geometry and Holography". Journal of High Energy Physics (10). doi:10.1007/JHEP10(2015)175. Bibcode: 2015JHEP...10..175C.
- ↑ Czech, Bartlomiej; Karczmarek, Joan; Nogueira, Fernando; McCandlish, Sam (2016). "A stereoscopic look into the bulk". Journal of High Energy Physics (7). doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2016)129. Bibcode: 2016JHEP...07..129C.
- ↑ Czech, Bartlomiej; Lamprou, Lampros; McCandlish, Sam; Sully, James (2018). "Modular Berry Connection for Entangled Subregions in AdS/CFT". Physical Review Letters 120 (9): 091601. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.091601. PMID 29547313. Bibcode: 2018PhRvL.120i1601C. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.091601. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
- ↑ "How AI training scales". 14 December 2018. https://openai.com/index/how-ai-training-scales/.
- ↑ "Anthropic's new policy takes aim at 'catastrophic' AI risks". VentureBeat. 21 September 2023. https://venturebeat.com/ai/anthropics-new-policy-takes-aim-at-catastrophic-ai-risks/.
- ↑ Rafieyan, Darius (9 October 2024). "Anthropic's power players: Here are the 11 leaders helping shape the future of the Amazon-backed AI company". Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-executives-running-anthropic-right-now-2024-10.
- ↑ "Announcing our updated Responsible Scaling Policy". 15 October 2024. https://www.anthropic.com/news/announcing-our-updated-responsible-scaling-policy.
- ↑ "Rahul Patil joins Anthropic as Chief Technology Officer". 7 October 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/rahul-patil-joins-anthropic.
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