Jared Kaplan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kaplan in 2025 | |
| Born | Jared Daniel Kaplan |
| Education | Stanford University (B.S.) Harvard University (Ph.D.) |
| Known for | Neural language-model scaling laws; Responsible Scaling Policy at Anthropic |
| Awards | Hertz Fellowship (2005) Sloan Research Fellowship NSF CAREER Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics Machine learning |
| Institutions | Johns Hopkins University OpenAI Anthropic |
| Thesis | Aspects of holography (2009) |
| Doctoral advisor | Nima Arkani-Hamed |
Jared Daniel Kaplan is a theoretical physicist and artificial intelligence researcher. He is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Physics & Astronomy,[1] and a co-founder and chief science officer of Anthropic.[2][3]
Education
Kaplan received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from Stanford University and a PhD in physics from Harvard University.[4] His doctoral thesis is titled Aspects of holography, advised by Nima Arkani-Hamed.[5][6]
Academic career and physics research
Kaplan’s research interests include quantum gravity, holography (AdS/CFT), conformal field theory, and related topics in particle physics and cosmology.[1][4] He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at SLAC and Stanford University and has been a professor at Johns Hopkins University since 2012.[4]
Machine learning research
Kaplan joined OpenAI in 2019 as a researcher,[7][8] where he co-authored Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models (2020), which reported that empirically, the performance of language models steadily improves with their size and the amount of data and compute used for training.[9][10] He is also a co-author of Language Models are Few-Shot Learners (2020), which introduced GPT-3.[11] At the company, he was also involved in the development of Codex.[12]
Anthropic
Kaplan co-founded Anthropic and serves as its chief science officer.[2][3] In October 2024, Anthropic announced that Kaplan would serve as the company's "Responsible Scaling Officer", overseeing its responsible scaling policy (RSP).[13] In this role, Kaplan determines the safety assessments and precautions to adopt before model release.[2]
In December 2025, The Guardian published an interview with Kaplan about AI autonomy and recursive self-improvement timelines.[7]
Honors and recognition
Kaplan was a Hertz Fellow (2005).[12] He has also received a Sloan Research Fellowship and an NSF CAREER award (PHY-1454083).[4][14]
Selected works
- Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models (2020).[9]
- Language Models are Few-Shot Learners (2020).[11]
- A Natural Language for AdS/CFT Correlators (2011).[15]
Personal life
As of 2026[update], Forbes estimated Kaplan's net worth at $3.7 billion. He lives in Pacifica, California,[16] and has a son.[7]
References
- ^ a b "Jared Kaplan". Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University. May 14, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ a b c Perrigo, Billy (August 27, 2025). "Time100 AI | Jared Kaplan". Time. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ a b "John Schulman leaves AI startup Anthropic". Reuters. February 6, 2025. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ a b c d "Jared Kaplan, Ph.D." Simons Foundation. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ Kaplan, Jared Daniel (2009). Aspects of holography (Thesis). Harvard University. Bibcode:2009PhDT.......100K.
- ^ Wolchover, Natalie (January 26, 2026). "Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard?". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
- ^ a b c Booth, Robert (December 2, 2025). "'The biggest decision yet': Jared Kaplan on allowing AI to train itself". The Guardian. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ Heaven, Will Douglas (December 21, 2021). "2021 was the year of monster AI models". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
- ^ a b Kaplan, Jared; et al. (January 23, 2020). "Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models". arXiv:2001.08361 [cs.LG].
- ^ Newport, Cal (August 12, 2025). "What if A.I. Doesn't Get Much Better Than This?". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
- ^ a b Brown, Tom B.; et al. (2020). "Language Models are Few-Shot Learners". NeurIPS. arXiv:2005.14165.
- ^ a b "Jared Kaplan". Hertz Foundation. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ "Announcing our updated Responsible Scaling Policy". Anthropic. October 15, 2024. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ Kaplan, Jared (2015). "CAREER: Conformal Field Theory and Quantum Gravity from the Bottom-Up (PHY-1454083)". NSF Award. 14. Bibcode:2015nsf....1454083K. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, A. Liam; Kaplan, Jared; Penedones, Joao; Raju, Suvrat; van Rees, Balt C. (July 2011). "A natural language for AdS/CFT correlators". Journal of High Energy Physics (11) 95. arXiv:1107.1499. Bibcode:2011JHEP...11..095F. doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2011)095.
- ^ Baron, Ethan (January 22, 2026). "More than half of California's billionaires call the Bay Area home: Who are they?". The Mercury News. Retrieved January 30, 2026.
