Xiao Ma

Xiao Ma

About

Xiao is currently a software engineer at Google Deepmind (2024 - present), working on instruction following in Gemini post-training. Most recently, Xiao led the development of a novel reinforcement learning method for Gemini 2.0 that leverages self-critique and reasoning, leading to improved safety without sacrificing quality.

Xiao's prior research focuses on understanding how AI increasingly mediates social exchange and its societal impact on trust. Previously, Xiao worked at Facebook Core Data Science (2018) on trust in social groups and Airbnb (2016) on trust in host profiles.

Education

Xiao holds a PhD in Information Science from Cornell (NYC campus) on Networked Trust: Computational Understanding of Interpersonal Trust Online. Xiao was fortunate to be advised by Mor Naaman, Karen Levy, Serge Belongie, and Jeff Hancock. Before moving to the U.S., Xiao completed a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering at Peking University (2010-2014) in Beijing.

Art

Xiao is passionate about the intersection of art and technology. She serves on the board of the pioneering performing arts venue National Sawdust. Additionally, she was a technical volunteer at Rhizome, aiding in digital art preservation. Xiao also makes art under the name Maximal Margin. Reach out if you'd like to collaborate!

Contact

xm75 at cornell o edu

Seattle, WA