LARISSA SCHIAVO
PORTFOLIO, LINKS, PRESS
A selection of some of my recent work:
Convening During Covid-19: lessons learnt from organizing virtual workshops in 2020 - an overview of the remote workshop design process behind the 2020 WiML Un-Workshop, which I helped to organize
The Loom and the Thresher: Lessons in Technological Worker Displacement - Long-form historic essay
https://blog.openai.com/tag/larissa-schiavo/
Gym-retro:
Helped to creat the Gym Retro dataset - 1,116 retro games ready for RL training - the largest dataset of its kind in the world. Worked in Python / Lua, contributed >5,000 lines of code. https://github.com/openai/retro
OpenAI Scholars:
OpenAI Scholars - initial program announcement, call for applicants
OpenAI Scholars final presentations - from Scholars Demo Day 2018
OpenAI Scholars finale - covers progress made by Scholars during the program, and their next steps.
OpenAI Scholars Class of 18 intro - introduces the first Scholars cohort.
Scholars Winter 2019 announcement - after a very successful summer cohort, we decided to hold another cohort in January in addition to another Summer cohort. https://blog.openai.com/openai-scholars-2019/
MuseNet, created by Christine Payne, a Scholar and a Fellow: https://openai.com/blog/musenet/
OpenAI Scholars interview, coverage in Synced Review
OpenAI Fellows, Interns:
OpenAI Fellows Winter 2019 announcement
OpenAI Fellows initial announcement
HackerNoon interview with Christine Payne, OpenAI Fellow
Spinning up in RL coverage (VentureBeat) - produced with significant input from Fellows, Scholars
OpenAI media I produced:
OpenAI Five - produced video in tandem with Dota team, produced live event test match
Learning Dexterity - edited sound, produced
OpenAI Scholars final presentations - from Scholars Demo Day 2018
OpenAI Five Benchmark - produced a large-scale publicity event showmatch for OpenAI Five. More than 175,000 views currently, peak live viewership at 80,000 (I got a shout-out at 57:37 :) )
August 2021 - ongoing
STAYING IN, HELPING OUT
Directing, editing, and interviewing for a documentary series focused on unusual ways people worked towards fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Produced with funding from OpenPhilanthropy and Centre for Effective Altruism. Read more at www.coviddocumentary.org
March 2020 - August 2020
WOMEN IN MACHINE LEARNING
ORGANIZER, Women in Machine Learning Un-Workshop at ICML 2020
Organized a virtual workshop alongside other women in machine learning, featuring 100+ posters, ~30 breakout sessions, and ~400 participants with an international team. Hosted panel with Doina Precup, Anima Anandkumar, and others. Wrote a paper coauthored with other organizers (Convening during COVID-19).
2019 - ongoing
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
Independent research focused on technological history, as well as AI and general purpose technologies' impact on humanity, examined from a long timescale.
Writing featured in the import.ai newsletter (largest AI policy newsletter), total reach of ~30,000 views (The loom and the thresher: Lessons in technological worker displacement).
2017-2018
OPENAI
PROGRAM MANAGER | AI TRAINER
Created Scholars, Fellows program at AI research organization to surface and address social, ethical, and accessibility issues. Managed teams of up to 20 scholars, interns, and fellows. Partnered with mentors across globe and firms throughout bay area. Reported to COO.
Top achievements:
Created OpenAI Scholars Program with co-founder—secured $250K sponsorship with AWS. Created cross-company effort for Scholars Program to change demographics of ML and engage in mentorship, introduced new researchers from all across US, The Navajo Nation, and the world.
Led the creation of educational curriculae on ML and frameworks on subjects like equity and inclusion, AI ethics, and leading with empathy. Created technical-skill-based selection process that reduced bias and increased accessibility—scaled process and reduced time from 40 hours to 10 hours
Helped to create gym-retro dataset– reverse-engineered >1,000 retro games for RL training
Developed Fellows program playbook and curriculum for beginning RL researchers with input from every research team at OpenAI, collaborated with dozens of different researchers, gave guidance on intersectionality
Produced Dota Showmatch event with 80K viewers on Twitch that yielded onslaught of
public relations and interest in Deep RL, produced numerous paper release videos
2015-2016
MURAL
CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
First hire in San Francisco. Collaborated with a team distributed across the United States and Argentina. Created promotional materials and scripts still in use. Pushed adoption among Fortune 500-level organizations.
2015
SOMATONE INTERACTIVE
PRODUCER
Managed voiceover producing, sourcing, and engineering for Riot Games, Super Evil Mega Corp., Gameloft, and Frima.