# Max Spero

Co-founder and CEO, Pangram Labs. TIME100 AI 2026, Shapers. His AI-text detector Pangram says its monthly users jumped from 2,700 in June 2025 to 120,000 in June 2026. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram_(AI_detector)))

- Education: MS, Artificial intelligence, Stanford University, 2019; BS, Theoretical computer science, Stanford University ([medium.com](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/max-spero-of-pangram-labs-how-ai-is-disrupting-our-industry-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-881e92efa7af), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxspero))
- Career: Pangram Labs (Co-founder and CEO, 2023 to now); Nuro (Senior Software Engineer, 2022–2023); Google (Software Engineer, 2019–2022) ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram_(AI_detector)), [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxspero))
- TIME profile: https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/max-spero/
- Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/most-influential-people-in-ai/max-spero

- Worked on self-driving delivery vehicles at Nuro, leading its active learning effort, right before starting an AI text detector. ([medium.com](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/max-spero-of-pangram-labs-how-ai-is-disrupting-our-industry-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-881e92efa7af))
- Says Pangram was "close to shutting down" before demand spiked in late 2025 as AI slop spread online. ([time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/max-spero/))
- Pangram's monthly users went from 2,700 in June 2025 to 120,000 in June 2026, and annualized revenue grew 35 times. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram_(AI_detector)))
- His team's study of about 186,000 articles from 1,500 U.S. newspapers flagged about 9% as partly or wholly AI-generated. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram_(AI_detector)))
- Launched the detector in October 2023 under the name Checkfor.ai, before renaming the company Pangram Labs in April 2024. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram_(AI_detector)))
- Refuses to release a tool that rewrites AI text to dodge detection, saying "The LLMs aren't static, but neither is Pangram." ([time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/max-spero/))