Brian Christian (born 1984 in Wilmington, Delaware) is an American non-fiction author, researcher, poet, and programmer,[1][2] best known for a bestselling series of books about the human implications of computer science, including The Most Human Human (2011),[3]Algorithms to Live By (2016),[4] and The Alignment Problem (2020).[5]
Christian's research spans computational cognitive science and AI alignment, examining how formal systems in computer science intersect with human-centered questions in philosophy and psychology. Christian's work investigates topics including the computational structure of decision-making, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), and how reward models operationalize human preferences.[13]
Christian competed as a "confederate" in the 2009 Loebner Prize competition,[1] attempting to seem "more human" than the humans taking the test, and succeeded.[15][16] The book he wrote about the experience, The Most Human Human, became a Wall Street Journal best-seller,[17] a New York Times editors' choice,[18] and a New Yorker favorite book of the year.[19] He was interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on March 8, 2011.[20]
In 2020, Christian published his third book of nonfiction, The Alignment Problem, which looks at the rise of the ethics and safety movement in machine learning through historical research and the stories of approximately 100 researchers. The Alignment Problem was named a finalist for the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize for best science and technology book of the year.[24]The New York Times in 2024 named The Alignment Problem one of the "5 Best Books About Artificial Intelligence," writing: "If you're going to read one book on artificial intelligence, this is the one."[25]
Christian worked in web development beginning in the 1990s,[27] and has contributed to open-source projects such as Bundler and Ruby on Rails.[28] From 2013 to 2022, he served as Director of Technology at McSweeney's Publishing, where he oversaw the successful launch of a new version of McSweeney's Internet Tendency in 2016[29] and its first audio issue, in collaboration with Radiotopia, in 2021.[30]
Influence and impact
In 2010, film directorMichael Langan adapted Christian's poem "Heliotropes" into a short film of the same name, which was published in the final issue of Wholphin magazine.[31]
In 2014, Vanity Fair magazine reported that The Most Human Human was the "night-table reading" of Elon Musk.[32]
Writer Peter Brown has cited The Most Human Human as an inspiration for his book series The Wild Robot, which was adapted into the 2024 film of the same name.[38][39]
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