Joining Paradigm

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined Paradigm as a Research Partner.

My respect for Paradigm dates back to when I was in high school – logging onto Twitter and seeing this small, legendary team consistently put out impactful open source code and research that shaped the frontier of technology. When I started working on EVMbench at OpenAI, years later, it was Paradigm’s open source tooling – Forge, Cast, and Anvil – that I used as a foundation. And when we needed more domain-specific expertise, Paradigm was the obvious partner.

This past year, working closely with Alpin on EVMbench and spending time with the rest of the team, I’ve been able to experience more of the magic that drives this organization. Paradigm’s technical depth, long-term orientation, and commitment to open source work that benefits the public – under the leadership of Matt and Alana – made it an easy decision for me to join.

I’ll initially be focusing on the measurement and evaluation of AI models. In the near term, I’m particularly interested in understanding recursive self-improvement, metrics that can inform better policy decisions, and powerful cybersecurity and crypto capabilities. In general, I’m interested in frontier research that can help put humanity on a path to a better future. If you want to collaborate, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at jw@paradigm.xyz or on X.

Thank you to the people who believed in me early. In particular, thanks to Eric Joraskie, Jaclyn Chan, and Andy Zou. And thanks to my friends and family as well, for supporting me. You have given me a lot to pay forward.