About
Hi.My name is Charlie Deck. I'm an AI researcher and builder working where research, product, and engineering meet.
My work tends to live at the seams: identifying promising surfaces for frontier models, building the evaluative and operational structures around them, and helping teams turn emerging capability into systems that are actually worth using.
I care especially about the places where product exploration, evaluation, and technical judgment sharpen one another. At their best, those are not separate functions; they are how a lab learns what is real.
Before AI labs, I independently built a wide range of creative software, games, and experimental tools. That background still shapes how I work: I care about taste, usability, technical leverage, and whether the thing actually changes what people can do.
selected case studies
// leadership in practiceFinding the product surface
At Reflection, I helped lead early product explorations that clarified where frontier-model capability could land immediate value for real teams. That work sharpened the product intuition inside the lab and helped set up the later refocus around open models.
Building judgment into the loop
A recurring part of my work is turning vague impressions about model quality into sharper judgment. That means evaluation systems, research UX, and feedback loops that let teams reason more clearly about what is working, what is noisy, and what is changing.
Making technical judgment public
I also build public-facing analytical artifacts, like the AI Exposure Atlas, that make model judgment more inspectable and debatable. I care about work that can withstand scrutiny, not just sell a narrative.
Past Work
Before joining frontier AI labs, I reached millions of users by independently building products across mobile, web, and desktop platforms. I created everything from music software and creative tools to oddball games and interactive experiments.
That body of work matters to me because it taught me how to pursue novel interfaces, shape products end to end, and stay close to what people actually experience. I still bring that sensibility to AI research work now.
get in touch
// nycI'm in NYC. Reach out if you want to talk about frontier AI, evaluation, product direction, or unusual software.