Who’s Who In AI: A curated directory of influential builders, researchers, founders, engineers, investors, writers, and public figures shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
About This Directory
Artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly, driven by a relatively small group of individuals whose ideas, research, products, and companies influence the direction of the industry.
This directory serves as a practical reference guide for anyone seeking to understand the people behind today’s most important AI breakthroughs, businesses, platforms, and conversations.
Whether you’re researching industry leaders, discovering influential voices, following emerging startups, or simply learning who’s shaping the future of AI, this directory provides a structured place to begin.
Who’s Who in AI
There are currently 3 names in this directory beginning with the letter G.
Gary Steele
CEO, Shield AI
Gary Steele is a 30-year technology industry veteran who founded Proofpoint in 2002 and served as its CEO, growing it from zero to IPO and ultimately to a $12 billion enterprise value before its sale to Thoma Bravo. He then became CEO of Splunk, leading it to profitability, growing revenue 58%, and selling the company to Cisco for $28 billion in 2024 — one of the largest acquisitions in enterprise software history.
Steele joined Shield AI as CEO in May 2025, stepping into a defense technology company valued at $5.3 billion following a $240 million Series F-1 round. His mandate is straightforward but demanding. Steele has set a target of growing Shield AI's revenue 70–100% per year until it hits $1 billion in annual revenue by the year ending March 2028, up from approximately $300 million in the year ending March 2025.
Central to that strategy is convincing legacy defense contractors that Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software can power platforms beyond the company's own aircraft — and commercializing the X-BAT, the world's first AI-piloted VTOL fighter jet unveiled in October 2025.
In April 2025, China added Shield AI to its Unreliable Entities list, barring the company from sourcing parts or operating in the country — a geopolitical signal of Shield AI's growing stature as a U.S. defense technology asset.
Submitted by: Admin Gary Steele is a 30-year technology industry veteran who founded Proofpoint in 2002 and served as its CEO, growing it from zero to IPO and ultimately to a $12 billion enterprise value before its sale to Thoma Bravo. He then became CEO of Splunk, leading it to profitability, growing revenue 58%, and selling the company to Cisco for $28 billion in 2024 — one of the largest acquisitions in enterprise software history.
Steele joined Shield AI as CEO in May 2025, stepping into a defense technology company valued at $5.3 billion following a $240 million Series F-1 round. His mandate is straightforward but demanding. Steele has set a target of growing Shield AI's revenue 70–100% per year until it hits $1 billion in annual revenue by the year ending March 2028, up from approximately $300 million in the year ending March 2025.
Central to that strategy is convincing legacy defense contractors that Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software can power platforms beyond the company's own aircraft — and commercializing the X-BAT, the world's first AI-piloted VTOL fighter jet unveiled in October 2025.
In April 2025, China added Shield AI to its Unreliable Entities list, barring the company from sourcing parts or operating in the country — a geopolitical signal of Shield AI's growing stature as a U.S. defense technology asset.
Geoffrey Hinton
University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto; Nobel Laureate
Geoffrey Hinton is a University Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and one of three researchers collectively known as the "Godfathers of AI." His work helped pioneer deep learning and artificial neural networks, leading to advances in speech recognition, object classification, and virtually every domain of modern AI.
Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics — shared with John Hopfield — for discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. He left Google in 2023 to speak more freely about AI's risks.
At NeurIPS 2025, the University of Toronto announced the creation of the Hinton Chair in Artificial Intelligence, funded by $10 million from Google and matched by the university — one of U of T's most generously supported research roles.
His public warnings have grown increasingly urgent. Hinton has stated AI will have the capabilities to replace many, many jobs, warning it will make a few people much richer and most people poorer. He has also argued that large language models genuinely understand language rather than merely regurgitate it, and that they may have subjective experiences — contending they are "quite close to humans" in terms of consciousness.
At 77, Hinton remains one of the most listened-to voices in the field — not because he built a company or raised a fund, but because he helped build the technology itself, and is now its most credible internal critic.
Submitted by: Admin Geoffrey Hinton is a University Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and one of three researchers collectively known as the "Godfathers of AI." His work helped pioneer deep learning and artificial neural networks, leading to advances in speech recognition, object classification, and virtually every domain of modern AI.
Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics — shared with John Hopfield — for discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. He left Google in 2023 to speak more freely about AI's risks.
At NeurIPS 2025, the University of Toronto announced the creation of the Hinton Chair in Artificial Intelligence, funded by $10 million from Google and matched by the university — one of U of T's most generously supported research roles.
His public warnings have grown increasingly urgent. Hinton has stated AI will have the capabilities to replace many, many jobs, warning it will make a few people much richer and most people poorer. He has also argued that large language models genuinely understand language rather than merely regurgitate it, and that they may have subjective experiences — contending they are "quite close to humans" in terms of consciousness.
At 77, Hinton remains one of the most listened-to voices in the field — not because he built a company or raised a fund, but because he helped build the technology itself, and is now its most credible internal critic.
Grant Lee
Co-founder and CEO, Gamma
Grant Lee is a Stanford graduate with a BS in biomechanical engineering and MS in mechanical engineering, and previously served as COO of ClearBrain — acquired by Amplitude — and CFO of Optimizely. His motivation for founding Gamma was personal: years of grinding through slide decks as a consultant and banker left him convinced the category was overdue for reinvention.
Lee founded Gamma in 2020 during the rapid shift to remote work, and the company began integrating AI in 2023, growing quickly as users responded. The product replaces the rigid slide paradigm with a card-based, writing-first system that uses AI to generate polished presentations, websites, and documents from a prompt.
Gamma has scaled to 50 million customers and $50 million in annual recurring revenue with fewer than 50 employees — a capital efficiency ratio that stands out even in a sector full of lean AI-native companies. In November 2025, Gamma raised a $68 million Series B, reaching a $2.1 billion valuation.
Forbes named Gamma a Next Billion-Dollar Startup in 2025. Lee's framing of the mission is consistent: he is not building a better PowerPoint — he is reinventing how people communicate and share ideas with the world.
Submitted by: AdminGrant Lee is a Stanford graduate with a BS in biomechanical engineering and MS in mechanical engineering, and previously served as COO of ClearBrain — acquired by Amplitude — and CFO of Optimizely. His motivation for founding Gamma was personal: years of grinding through slide decks as a consultant and banker left him convinced the category was overdue for reinvention.
Lee founded Gamma in 2020 during the rapid shift to remote work, and the company began integrating AI in 2023, growing quickly as users responded. The product replaces the rigid slide paradigm with a card-based, writing-first system that uses AI to generate polished presentations, websites, and documents from a prompt.
Gamma has scaled to 50 million customers and $50 million in annual recurring revenue with fewer than 50 employees — a capital efficiency ratio that stands out even in a sector full of lean AI-native companies. In November 2025, Gamma raised a $68 million Series B, reaching a $2.1 billion valuation.
Forbes named Gamma a Next Billion-Dollar Startup in 2025. Lee's framing of the mission is consistent: he is not building a better PowerPoint — he is reinventing how people communicate and share ideas with the world.
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