By Kc Ifeanyi

OpenAI’s first artist in residence is launching a new company that aims to turn your thoughts into actual products. Today, entrepreneur and roboticist Alexander Reben announces Phyzify, a lab using AI tools to rapidly prototype physical objects based on your imagination.

“There’s a huge gap between idea and [bringing that] thing into existence,” says Reben, cofounder of Phyzify. “And I really think AI and robotics and quantum computing and all the technology that’s about to come is going to accelerate [closing] that gap [and] make walking across that bridge a lot easier.”

Phyzify is a natural evolution of Reben’s career that sits at the intersection of advanced technology and creative experimentation. In 2010 at MIT Media Lab, Reben’s graduate research focused on social robotics. One of his early creations, Boxie, became the inspiration of the character Baymax in Disney’s Big Hero 6.

In 2014, Reben became the director of technology and research at Stochastic Labs, a residency program in Berkeley convening minds across tech, art, and science. He’s made headlines for his various AI-based artworks. And in 2024, he was announced as OpenAI’s first artist-in-residence, where he spent the better part of the year gaining access to the company’s technology to explore how AI systems can participate in artistic practices.

And now, Reben wants to push the boundaries of AI and creativity even further with Phyzify—but with a clear intent on keeping humans at the center of it all.