Lex Fridman

Full Name: Alexei Fedotov (known professionally as Lex Fridman)

Date of Birth: August 15, 1983

Place of Birth: Chkalovsk, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union (now Buston, Tajikistan)

Nationality: American

Profession: Computer Scientist, Artificial Intelligence Researcher, Podcaster

Early Life and Education

Lex Fridman was born in Chkalovsk, Tajik SSR, and grew up in Moscow, Russia. He is of Jewish heritage. His father, Alexander Fridman, is a plasma physicist and professor at Drexel University. When Lex was about 11 years old, his family moved to the United States, settling in the Chicago area. He attended Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. Lex earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Drexel University in 2010, followed by a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the same institution in 2014. His doctoral thesis focused on active authentication using behavioral biometrics.

Career

After a brief stint at Google working on AI for identity authentication, Lex joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2015. At MIT, he worked at the AgeLab, focusing on human-centered artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and driver behavior analysis. As of 2023, he is a research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).

Podcasting

Lex Fridman is the host of the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he conducts in-depth interviews with experts, scientists, thinkers, and creators in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, neuroscience, and philosophy. Some of his notable guests include Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and Andrew Huberman. The podcast is available on platforms like YouTube and Spotify.

Personal Life

Lex is known for his disciplined lifestyle and passion for martial arts, particularly jiu-jitsu. He frequently discusses topics like existential philosophy, the future of AI, and the human condition in his podcast and public appearances.