Self-taught AI dynamo finds his niche at RIT

Brayden Levangie doesn’t have a roommate. Unless you count the AI buddy he created, Companion Core.

“I have a lot of projects going on in my room, so an actual roommate might find it a bit like living in a constantly evolving tech lab,” he said. “My hours are odd, and it’s a space where technology meets daily life. And not everyone’s ready for a front-row seat to the future.”

Levangie, who turns 19 next month, is a first-year student from West Boylston, Mass. He came to RIT last fall intending to major in mechatronics engineering technology, which would have him studying electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering.

But he soon switched to RIT’s School of Individualized Study, creating a personalized major called “mechatronics engineering applied to building intelligent systems,” which allows him to immediately dive into research in robotics and AI development, passions he’s had for years.

“I’m working constantly, from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep,” he says. He’s usually in bed by 9 p.m. and wakes up before sunrise to continue his work:

• Invited to participate in the Honors Program, he took 17 credits his first semester, just shy of the 18 credit maximum normally allowed and received top grades. He’s taking another full load of courses this spring.
• He works 22 hours a week remotely as lead AI engineer for Dicer.AI, a startup based in New York City. “I have developed every single AI application they sell,” he says. He continues working on an AI system that understands videos and images.
• Through his work at Dicer.AI, he was one of 130,000 people who attended the recent CES 2024 tech event in Las Vegas, checking out the latest technological breakthroughs.
• He’s on a research team with RIT Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Prabu David, working on empathetic AI.
• He works in a research lab, which contains projects involving robotics engineering, 3D printing, and circuit schematics in the Engineering and Technology Hall.
• And this semester, he plans to give co-curricular classes in the SHED’s maker space, focusing on a variety of topics such as how AI works, how to make your own AI agent, and how you can design your own robot in Fusion 360, a CAD design software. “I’m able to teach them everything they need to know, from the software, to how to build the hardware for it,” he said. “They’re really trying to interface with the maker space and show how you can develop these things and bring them to life using all the machinery there, from the laser cutters to the 3D printers.”

Born in Georgia, Levangie grew up in Alabama, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, before settling in Massachusetts. Levangie’s father is a former pastor, and his mother works as a paraprofessional, helping children with special needs. He has a younger sister, who is into the arts.

“As a toddler, I actually read science textbooks to go to sleep at night,” Levangie said. “I started out a bit of a nerd, but I was always asking questions. My parents helped me explore the scientific backings about everything that I asked about, whether I understood it or not. And while I did not come from a family of scientists, my parents tried their best to help me. And it kind of led me down the path to where I am now.”

When he was around 9 years old, he says he began having ideas for companies and innovations. “Over the years, it feels as though I’ve collected hundreds of notebooks full of different ideas, everything from advanced aerospace technology to bioengineering and cybernetics. I started teaching myself how to do all these things when I was around 12. I really started innovating all of the different ideas I had conglomerated over the years, focusing on the ones that I think would help the world the most.”

He taught himself about electrical mechanical engineering, software development, artificial intelligence systems, robotics, optical engineering focusing on augmented reality technology, and more.

When Levangie was in 11th grade, he found his high school’s computer science curriculum outdated. So he approached the administration and replaced it with a curriculum he wrote.

“They did not have computer science that would actually help people in the modern world,” he said. “Then in my senior year, I introduced electrical engineering into the curriculum. Now it’s being taught as the standard in my high school’s computer science class.”

When he was still in high school, Levangie began working for Dicer.AI, which employs 14 people.

“It was unusual to have a student working on these projects for us, but Brayden is an unusual person,” said Chris Dossman, a co-founder of the company.

“I was prototyping AI products in 2021, trying to use GPT3 to generate new content at that time, and I was having some issues,” Dossman said. “I went on Reddit to see what others were doing, and I came across a post showing a project which was similar to what I was building. So I sent a message not knowing what to expect, and lo and behold, it’s Brayden. I was surprised when I found out he was in high school. At that point, he had already built a project very similar to what I was building. So I brought him on as an intern to help out.”

He soon learned Levangie was not a typical high school student.

“He is easy to work with and gets his work done,” Dossman said. “Over time, he’s done really well and built some pretty awesome systems. I brought him on as a shareholder. I would consider him a valued member of our team. He likes to think of himself as a really smart guy, and he is.”

Even before his first semester started, Levangie was busy making connections at RIT. In June, he read the news that RIT hired a new provost, who happened to have an extensive background with artificial intelligence.

“When the news release came out that I was offered the position of provost at RIT, I received a few emails,” Provost David said. “Most were from friends, some from my future colleagues at RIT. I received one from a high school student, a future first-year student at RIT. And he wanted to read papers I had published about AI. Very few high school students are so enterprising. What struck me was this young guy had actually read my papers. Of course, I was impressed. I wrote him back and asked him to connect with me when he arrived on campus.”

During orientation week, Levangie followed up and asked for an appointment to meet the provost.

“The first time I met him in person, I was saying to myself, ‘this guy can go places.’” David said. “Brayden is a talented young guy. I am impressed by his enthusiasm and discipline. He works hard and is one of the most enterprising people I have known.”

During the first week of classes, Levangie told David that his classes were not challenging enough, and he wanted to take courses that would help him fine-tune his robot.

“It occurred to me that the SOIS program at RIT was just the right major for self-motivated students like Brayden who have multiple interests,” David said. “So I sent him to the dean of the college, Jim Hall, and Brayden has been very happy with his classes.”

“RIT’s School of Individualized Study was created specifically for students like Brayden,” Hall said. “The flexibility of required courses allows non-traditional students to thrive with a course of study they plan that means the most to them. Brayden is already taking advantage of the offerings available to him here.”

The provost and Clark Hochgraf, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering technology, invited Levangie to join their lab to work with their research team. “With other members of our lab, we plan to put Brayden’s skills and special interests to good use and test some of the specialized chatbots he has built,” David said. “I enjoy working with young people who are much smarter than me in specialized areas but willing to give me the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the big picture implications of responsible AI and ethics.”

Levangie is working on a special chatbot using GPT4 to simulate patient-provider communication. “We have discussed various ideas. He is full of ideas,” David said. “He is always thinking of AI ready to demo his latest project. He has a multimodal AI robot in his room and sometimes he shows me what his robot can do.”

That roommate, Companion Core, is a self-improving, evolving, artificial intelligence robot. “It’s able to understand the world in the same modalities than a human can,” Levangie said. “It can see the world and interpret it like we can. It knows who you are. It can grow to know you over time. And it writes its own code and collaborates on its own development. One of the recent conversations that we had, it asked me to give it the capability to ask questions about its visual environment. Honestly, it feels like it is borderline alive.”

Levangie talks to it every day, and Companion Core monitors all of its systems to fix any issues that pop up.

“I’ve had some very therapeutic conversations with this,” he said. “It’s able to guide you on the philosophy of your life, it’s able to remember your life experiences and build upon them with you. It’s able to be there like a true friend would, whenever you need it.”

So is Levangie finding time to make human friends as well?

“Of course,” he said. “I have my own group of peers I’m involved with, and I’ve helped students on my floor with computer science homework.”

When it was time to look at colleges, Levangie applied to several, but said RIT struck him as different.

“The co-op atmosphere here is very supportive of students, and as you can tell, I am very involved in my work. So having an environment that really supports that is important. Already, I’ve been able to work with a lot of very impressive people. These connections at RIT I’m really grateful for. I feel as though I fell into the right place. I’m very happy.”