Hi there ❤️ I’m Amanda.
I’m a Kiwi, born and raised on warm beaches and meadows of sheep. I’m now living in San Francisco, getting my fill of inspiration and we-can-do-anything energy and crazy ambition. I worked at Ought for a while, building the LLM research tool, Elicit. I’m pretty proud of it.
I care deeply about human wellbeing. All we have is our experience of being alive, and making our experience of being alive good feels like the goal underneath everything. I care about it at all levels: from showing up authentically and with kindness in each interaction, to orienting government and society around wellbeing, to embedding wellbeing in the development of ML & LLMs.
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I’m trying to be much better at just being, but sometimes I compulsively do things too. Here are some of the things I’ve done.
Recently
Built Elicit.org from inception to 100k+ monthly users, leading a team of 5 engineers and designers
Presented on forecasting, safe AI systems, and LLM research tools at conferences (EAG, Foresight Institute)
Ran a 60-person hackathon with FiftyYears using LLMs to improve our wellbeing (event, write up)
Analyzed Ideal Parent Figure transcripts and built an automated IPF chatbot (demo)
Co-organized a 400-person retreat for Interact, a technology for social good fellowship
From a past life
Did research with Dr. Angela Duckworth and Dr. Katey Milkman on the effect of personal rules on self control (thesis)
Co-founded a community oriented around authentic connection and working on what you care most about
Built a gratitude app
Reported on the Israeli technology scene as a journalist (article)
Done growth analytics and growth product strategy at Upstart
Coached college students on career plans & life mapping (framework)
Dabbled in animation (video)
Ran a podcast capturing mental models used by experts in different disciplines
