Ben Berman

Software engineer · San Francisco

ben@appmana.com · 847 579 9336 · 440 N Barranca Ave #6339, Covina, CA 91723

benberman.com · github.com/doctorpangloss · linkedin.com/in/benbermansf

Benjamin Berman is a software engineer based in San Francisco. He builds tools and platforms for games, film, and applied research, and has developed software for filmmakers, writers, and fine artists. Today, he is working on AppMana, Hidden Switch, and research projects in generative AI, image processing and language modeling.

Experience

2021–present AppMana chief executive
2017–present Hidden Switch chief executive
2014–2015 Workpop chief technology officer and co-founder
2013–2014 Scopely game developer
2011–2016 Invivia consultant
2010–2013 Fourth Floor Productions assistant to Errol Morris
2010–2011 Radcliffe Institute assistant to Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Education

2015–2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology master of science
2008–2012 Harvard University bachelor of arts

Selected work

2026 Scopely: Monopoly GO! generative art pipeline A custom image-generation system developed for Scopely allowed the studio's art team to produce on-brand marketing art and live-ops assets for Monopoly GO!.
2019 Monster Match Funded by Mozilla's Creative Media Awards, this dating app for monsters shows players how recommendation algorithms narrow who they see.
2024 Rangers Wanted Developed with Niantic for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, this AR conservation game has Theodore Roosevelt deputize kids as rangers to rewild their own rooms and yards.
2015 The Baskerville Experiment A quiz on nytimes.com secretly tested whether a sentence's typeface affects its believability across New York Times readers, with Baskerville emerging as the most trusted. The findings were later published as Pentagram Paper 44.
2022 PGA Jr. League Safari Par-Tee Created for the PGA of America, this augmented reality game for children transforms an ordinary room into a nine-hole golf course.
2012 Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck? Originally built and co-bylined for Errol Morris's New York Times series about his brother and the invention of electronic mail, this 1965 CTSS terminal has been restored here and is playable again.
2013 The Unknown Known Animated sequences and archival research for Errol Morris's film about Donald Rumsfeld and his thirty years of memos.
2016 Demon in the Freezer Errol Morris's New York Times Op-Doc on the smallpox stockpiles that were never destroyed.
2023 Visa: FIFA Women's World Cup A playable Visa experience for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, reached straight from a social feed, where the average session ran half again as long as the platform benchmark.
2023 Oreoverse A multiplayer cookie-tossing game for Oreo that allowed strangers to play together directly inside the same advertisement.
2016 Virtual High Visual effects and an executive producer credit on a Disney Channel short set in a high school that runs in virtual reality.
2023 Hyundai IONIQ 5 Virtual Test Drive Meta Creative Shop's flagship Infinite Window placement put a photoreal Hyundai IONIQ 5 test drive inside a browser tab.
2023 Nike LeBron XX An interactive Facebook ad for the LeBron XX launch let audiences play as LeBron James against Father Time inside Meta's Infinite Window placement.
2026 Propaganda Tennis A pixel-art swipe tennis game.
2023 Wendy's March Madness Developed with VMLY&R for Wendy's NCAA tournament campaign, this browser basketball minigame concluded with a food offer on the end card.

Clients

Scopely · Nike · Mondelēz · Visa · Hyundai · Nissan · Prada · Samsung · Meta · Roblox · NHL · PGA of America · Niantic · The New York Times · Mozilla · OpenAI · Microsoft · Disney Channel · United Nations · Harvard · MIT Media Lab

Talks & appearances

2026 Guest lecture: AI Ethics and Policy (2026) guest lecturer
2024 Guest lecture: AI Ethics and Policy (2024) guest lecturer
2024 RightsTech AI Summit: Copyrighting Generative AI panelist
2023 Microsoft talk (AppMana)
2023 Land of the Giants: The secret algorithms that control your love life interview
2022 MIT Media Lab E14 Fund Startup Showcase presenter, AppMana
2022 Call Me Curious: Can Your Dating App Predict Chemistry? interview
2020 Vox: Answered interview
2019 BBC Radio 4: Why does Facebook want you to date? interview
2019 NBC News: Swipe Right interview
2019 Roguelike Celebration: Tips, Tricks and History for Card Game Roguelike Design speaker
2017 Roguelike Celebration: Level Generation Using Machine Learning speaker
2015 The Grolier Club: Pentagram Paper 44 appearance
2014 General Assembly: Million Dollar Games instructor
2014 Worldwide Meteor Day, Los Angeles host and speaker

Selected press

8 Aug 2012 The New York Times Hear, All Ye People; Hearken, O Earth (Part 1)
2 Apr 2014 The New York Times Deciphering Donald H. Rumsfeld in 'The Unknown Known'
20 Jun 2011 The New York Times Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck? (Part Two)
6 Jan 2010 The New York Times Sweetgrass: The Last Ride of the Montana Sheepherders
24 Aug 2016 WIRED How Designers and Scientists Are Using Bees to Map NYC's Microbes
27 Jun 2021 WIRED It's 2021, why are dating app algorithms still so bad?
25 May 2019 WIRED This Dating App Exposes the Monstrous Bias of Algorithms
4 Oct 2019 NBC News Swipe Right: Are dating apps helping or hurting our love lives?
2026 CBS News Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening in North Dakota Badlands
2026 Bloomberg AI Teddy Roosevelt greets library visitors
14 Feb 2020 Vox Tinder may not get you a date. It will get your data.
2019 BBC Radio 4 Beyond Today: Why does Facebook want you to date?