Rick Staa

Background

About Rick Staa

Curiosity for how things work led me from early robotics and AI research—studying Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Cognitive Robotics and reinforcement-learning control, co-authoring one AI paper and supporting several others—to building and contributing to open-source projects. That open-source work eventually drew me to Livepeer, where I helped prototype and launch the first AI video compute jobs and fees on the network. As the network and team grew, I transitioned from core engineering into building and leading the AI Special Projects Engineering (SPE) team—from a solo effort into a five-person group driving AI infrastructure and product initiatives. I now serve as Technical Director and co-founder of the Livepeer Foundation, where I focus on technical vision, protocol architecture, and decentralized ecosystem growth, while still contributing hands-on when critical. I’m passionate about open source and decentralization as a way to give builders real ownership and to create reliable, community-owned infrastructure for media-centric AI. Let’s connect if you’re excited about AI, distributed systems, or open-source ecosystems that empower creators.