Mark Stephen Meadows is an American author, entrepreneur, and artist. He is the inventor of several US patents relating to artificial intelligence and avatars, and he lectures internationally on this work. In addition to developing software, Meadows is known for his hitchhiking adventures, specifically for visiting Baghdad in 2003, and his interviews with terrorists in Sri Lanka. He holds a USCG captain's license.
Career
Meadows is founder and CEO of Botanic.io, a company that provide conversational characters. The company's AI platform is a scalable system that allows chatbots, assistants and avatars to handle routine, repetitive tasks, engage in conversation, and listen to conversants. Meadows initially invented the system in 2003 as a means of developing interactive portraits. Meadows is a thought leader in the robotics field, frequently speaking about ethics, the future of social robots, and contextual conversation through technology. In 1993 Meadows helped design WELL.com, the world’s third dot-com, and also helped develop the first open-protocol 3D multi-user environment in 1995. He worked as researcher and artist at Xerox-PARC, as Creative Director for a Stanford Research Institute venture, and as creative director and co-founder of a VR and Internet company, which he co-founded, named Construct. In 2001 he opened a gallery in Paris where he sold his paintings for two years before spending time in the Waag Society in Amsterdam, the Netherlands as a researcher. In 2005 he founded HeadCase Humanufacturing, and in 2012 he founded Botanic, formerly Geppetto Labs, both companies dedicated to artificial intelligence and avatars. Since 1987, Meadows has been selling his artwork in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Europe. He has received awards from Ars Electronica, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, among others. He has founded three companies and published five books, including two on robotics and the cultural implications of technology. Meadows is also a regular contributor to robotics publications
Books
Meadows' first book concerns narrative, visual art and video games and is entitled, "Pause & Effect." His second book, "I, Avatar" is a first-person travelogue of Second Life and an examination of the culture and consequences of using avatars in virtual worlds. Meadows' third book is a travelogue of Sri Lanka and study of the Tamil militant movement titled, "Tea Time With Terrorists,". Other books include a travelogue of Iraq in 2003 and 2013, a book on robots titled, "We, Robot," and a book of illustrated fables, titled "7 Fables." Meadows is represented by Renee Zuckerbrot, New York.
