Leon Tang
Born 2001 · Age 24
Co-founder and CEO of Haize Labs, focused on AI safety, reliability, adversarial testing and automated evaluation tools. Former Harvard CS & Math student with multiple industry research and internship experiences.
Compare Your Trajectory
See how your career milestones stack up against Leon Tang and other industry leaders.
Life & Career Timeline
Estimated birth
Estimated birth year based on reported ages in 2024 profiles (22–23). Exact date not public.
Matriculated at Harvard University (approx.)
Began undergraduate studies at Harvard (later earned Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science and Mathematics). Exact matriculation year not stated; inferred from age/graduate timing.
Internship at Gamalon (formative mentorship)
Early internship at Gamalon where he was mentored by the CEO; credited as formative in shaping research-to-product thinking. Date approximate (during Harvard years).
Research Intern at Allen Institute for AI (AI2)
Completed a research internship at AI2. No specific months provided; listed among prior research/intern experiences.
Researcher at Berkeley AI Research (BAIR)
Worked as a researcher with Berkeley AI Research (Per sources listing prior research experience). Exact dates not specified; placed during undergraduate research period.
Quantitative Research Intern at Cubist Systematic Strategies
Completed a quantitative research internship at Cubist Systematic Strategies. Exact dates not provided; included on public bios.
Published research including PNAS (date unspecified)
Authored or co-authored papers published in peer-reviewed venues, including PNAS. Exact paper titles and dates not provided in sources.
Accepted to Y Combinator for a hardware verification idea (attempt)
Reported to have been accepted to Y Combinator with a hardware-focused functional verification idea; he resisted dropping out of school at the time. Date approximate; YC acceptance mentioned but undated.
Perception team internship at Snap Inc.
Served on Snap Inc.'s perception team in an internship capacity (timing inferred during Harvard period).
ML infrastructure internship for autonomous vehicles at NVIDIA
Worked on ML infrastructure for autonomous vehicles at NVIDIA as an intern. Exact dates not specified.
Software Development Engineer Intern at Amazon
Completed an SDE internship at Amazon. Exact timing not given; included in career history.
Graduated Harvard with Bachelor's and Master's (reported as recent grad)
Reported to have completed both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Harvard. Exact graduation month/year not specified; reported as 'recently graduated'.
Founded Haize Labs (co-founder)
Co-founded Haize Labs, an AI safety and reliability startup focused on automated evaluations, adversarial testing, synthetic data and scalable oversight.
Built core research focus at Haize Labs
Set Haize Labs' research priorities: adversarial attacks, synthetic data generation, scalable oversight, active learning and automated evaluation tools.
Haize Labs publicly launched
Company officially launched in January 2024 to focus on trust, safety and reliability for AI products.
Secured Anthropic as a client
Haize Labs reported securing notable clients including Anthropic (Claude model creator). Timing in 2024 as reported in public profiles.
Raised angel support and advisory backing (undisclosed)
Haize Labs attracted advisors and angel investors from prominent tech and academic backgrounds. No public funding amounts disclosed.
Developed high-quality low-latency automated evaluation tools (product milestone)
Company pursued building automated evaluation tools that are low-latency, affordable and don't require foundation model budgets.
Explored AI content moderation product area
Haize Labs researched and began work on applying its evaluation and safety tools to content moderation, especially for text where complexity and cultural nuance pose challenges.
Public stance against 'demoware' in AI
Publicly criticized over-hyped AI demos and emphasized need for robust, reliable evaluations — a motivating factor for founding Haize Labs.
Advised Harvard students and alumni (public advice)
Provided public advice to Harvard students to seek inspiring people and use the university network — included in the Medium profile.
Haize Labs engaged on multimodal vulnerability testing
Company work described as 'jailbreaking' leading models across text, image, video, voice and code to measure vulnerabilities and reliability.
Planned Stanford CS PhD start (scheduled for September)
Reportedly accepted/planned to begin a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford in September (year inferred as 2024 from interviews); later chose not to start.
Podcast appearance: Thinking On Paper — 'How a 23-Year-Old is Making AI Safer and Smarter'
Guest appearance on the Thinking On Paper podcast discussing Haize Labs, AI safety and reliability (episode published Nov 20, 2024).
Decided to forgo Stanford PhD to focus full-time on Haize Labs
After planning a PhD start, Leonard chose to dedicate himself fully to Haize Labs rather than begin doctoral studies.
Featured interview: Harvard in Tech AI Edition (Medium) — profile and mission
In-depth profile interview (Dec 11, 2024) describing Leonard's decision to forgo a PhD, YC experience, Gamalon mentorship, and Haize Labs' mission to build trust/safety for AI.
Public profile and bios updated (Clay & other platforms)
Professional profile listings (e.g., Clay) summarize education, internships, Haize Labs founding and early client traction; used as source of verified career highlights.
Ongoing product and research development at Haize Labs
Continued building evaluation tooling and research-led product strategy; no public funding rounds or acquisition reported as of sources.
Key Achievement Ages
Explore what Leon Tang and others achieved at these notable ages:
Similar Trajectories
Andrea Antonelli
Born 2006 · Age 19
Italian racing driver from Bologna; Mercedes works Formula One driver (joined F1 in 2025). Multiple karting and junior formula champion; Mercedes Junior Team member since 2019.
Dylan Harper
Born 2006 · Age 19
American professional basketball player. Played at Don Bosco Prep and Rutgers; consensus five-star recruit from the class of 2024; drafted 2nd overall by the San Antonio Spurs in 2025.
Macklin Celebrini
Born 2006 · Age 19
Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the San Jose Sharks. Starred at Shattuck-Saint Mary's, led the USHL, won numerous junior and college awards, won the Hobey Baker as a 17-year-old freshman at Boston University, was selected 1st overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, and debuted with the Sharks in 2024.
Cooper Flagg
Born 2006 · Age 19
American basketball player from Newport, Maine. Starred at Nokomis and Montverde Academy, reclassified to 2024 class, played one season at Duke (2024–25) earning consensus national player of the year honors, and was selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Linda Caicedo
Born 2005 · Age 20
Colombian professional footballer (forward) for Real Madrid and the Colombia national team; cancer survivor; multiple individual awards and international standout.
Connor Bedard
Born 2005 · Age 20
Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the Chicago Blackhawks. Considered one of the greatest prospects of his generation; 1st overall pick in 2023 NHL Entry Draft and 2024 Calder Trophy winner.