Tim Shi

Co-Founder, CTO, Cresta
San Francisco Bay Area,United States
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Who Is Tim Shi?

Total Experience12 years
CompanyCresta
CountryUnited States

Tim Shi is a distinguished expert in artificial intelligence and the Co-founder and CTO of Cresta, a company that deploys real-time, generative AI to enhance contact center agent performance and business outcomes. His work at Cresta is a direct application of his deep expertise in reinforcement learning. Prior to founding Cresta, Tim was a Research Scientist at OpenAI, where he was a key contributor to pioneering research on 'Deep Reinforcement Learning from Human Preferences.' This foundational work is critical to developing AI systems that align with human goals and is a core technique behind models like ChatGPT. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab, focusing on AI, robotics, and deep learning.

How Did Tim Shi's Career Path Shape Their Journey?

Tim Shi's work history includes a series of influential roles in various companies. Here is a detailed list of his professional journey:

Cresta - Co-Founder, CTO(2017 to Present)
Various Startups - Angel Investor(2022 to Present)
OpenAI - Member of Technical Staff(2017 to 2017)
DJI Research - Deep Learning Research(2016 to 2016)
Dropbox - Software Engineering (Machine Learning)(2015 to 2015)

What Are Tim Shi's Key Achievements?

Co-founder & CTO of Cresta

Co-founded Cresta in 2017, an AI unicorn company that applies cutting-edge generative AI to revolutionize the customer service industry by providing real-time intelligence to contact center agents.

Pioneering Research in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF)

As a Research Scientist at OpenAI, co-authored the influential paper 'Deep Reinforcement learning from Human Preferences,' a foundational technique now widely used in training large language models to be more helpful and harmless.

Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's BAIR Lab

Completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the prestigious Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab, a leading academic institution for AI research, under the supervision of renowned AI expert Pieter Abbeel.

What's Tim Shi's Educational Background?

PhD Dropout, Artificial Intelligence

Stanford University - Year 2015

Exchange Student, Computer Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Year 2014

Bachelor's Degree, Computer Science

Tsinghua University - Year 2011

Buying Intent Signals for Tim Shi

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Notable news
Hiring actively
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance

Company Overview

Cresta
Total employees250
HeadquartersSan Francisco
Founded2017

Cresta provides a real-time intelligence platform for contact centers, leveraging generative AI to enhance customer conversations. The software assists sales and service agents by offering live coaching, automated note-taking, and performance insights. From an end-user perspective, Cresta aims to make every customer support agent as effective as the top performer, leading to improved customer satisfaction, increased sales, and greater operational efficiency for businesses.

Cresta Funding Information
Unknown - Total Funding Raised
$80M - Most recent funding amount
5 - Number of funding rounds
22 Mar, 2022 - Latest funding round
Lead Investors:
Sequoia Capital
Greylock
Tiger Global Management
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
Porsche Ventures
Genesys
Five9

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