Cody Coleman

Cody Coleman grew up in New Jersey in the care of his grandparents, after being born while his mother was incarcerated. He fell in love with technology, especially computers, at an early age. “With a computer and internet connection, someone like me could create something that would impact the lives of thousands, millions, even billions of people,” he reflected. He became the first student from his high school accepted into MIT, and went on to earn a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford.

As the co-founder and CEO of Coactive AI, Coleman is taking on the unprecedented surge in visual information. Images and videos now represent 80% of internet traffic—but it’s challenging to work with such data. Most companies spend months or years painstakingly tagging and adding descriptive information. Coleman’s technology uses AI to search and analyze visual content, allowing data, marketing, and product teams to find a powerful clip in seconds or identify a photo that violates standards as soon as it goes live.