Poet / Ai Researcher
Sasha Stiles is first-generation Kalmyk-American poet, language artist, and AI researcher working at the nexus of text and technology, known for her pioneering experiments with generative literature and blockchain poetics. Her practice refracts heritage and tradition through disruptive explorations of creativity and consciousness, probing the role of human voice in a machine age.
Having collaborated with artificial intelligence since 2018, Stiles’ insights and innovations have earned her a place among the most influential contributors to our global discourse about the future of art, technology, and humanity. From the hybrid collection Technelegy (2021), co-authored with a personalized AI-powered text generator and praised by Ray Kurzweil, to award-winning projects such as “Cursive Binary” and “Repetae,” her groundbreaking work considers poetry as both art form and technology – an ancient and enduring data system that encodes human experience across space and time. Through seamless integration of text, transmedia art, and creative technologies like machine learning and blockchain, Stiles situates AI within the broader continuum of linguistic innovations that have always rewritten what it means to be human.
Stiles’ work has been honored by the Prix Ars Electronica, Lumen Prize, Optimism AI Prize, and the Future.Art.Awards; featured by MoMA, Artforum, Christie’s, NPR, the Washington Post, and Poets & Writers; and presented at numerous venues worldwide, including Lincoln Center, the V&A, Art Basel, Art Dubai, Art Cologne, SCOPE, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zagreb’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Outernet London, Krasl Art Center, and the billboards of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing. Stiles also partners selectively with such global brands as Gucci and Bang & Olufsen.
A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, co-founder of experimental literary collective theVERSEverse, and longtime poetry mentor to humanoid android BINA48, Stiles lives near New York City with her husband and studio partner, Kris Bones.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to purchase or sell any asset. An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund.
Certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. Links may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.