Camille Fassett

welcome

I'm at Pantograph, where we're building capable robots that learn the way humans do — from first principles; through exploration and failure. We design our own hardware and train generally intelligent models using unsupervised reinforcement learning.

I'm fascinated with embodied knowledge — the kind that lives in the body rather than in words. Personally, I'm always chasing new forms of movement, especially trail running and aerial/circus arts. Some things can't be taught through instructions. You learn them by doing, by feeling your way through. Having a strong and capable body is an incredible gift and it's a privilege to expand what you can do in the world.

I'm compelled by the possibility of robots as tools that expand human agency. The way LLMs have expanded the universe of tasks someone can do alone, I dream about how robotics could make it possible for a parent to easily build a treehouse, make it easier to construct ambitious infrastructure like desalination plants or energy projects, and keep humans out of hazardous work.

Before robotics, I spent a lot of time thinking about energy: electrification, grid flexibility, the practical mechanics of how projects actually get built. At WattTime, I helped companies understand the real-world emissions consequences of their energy decisions. Abundant clean energy unlocks possibilities we haven't fully mapped yet: new modes of production, different patterns of living, technologies that only make sense when power is cheap and clean.

Before that, I spent four years as a data reporter at the Associated Press, building tools for investigative journalism and finding stories through data — patterns in wildfire spending, water infrastructure failures, the human impacts of environmental change. I've also worked as a data science fellow at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), was a venture capital fellow at Third Sphere, and developed privacy-preserving tools for journalists and whistleblowers at Freedom of the Press Foundation. I was a board member of Lucy Parsons Labs, a transparency non-profit based in Chicago, and an advisory board member of Distributed Denial of Secrets, a non-profit that archives and publishes public interest data.

I live in San Francisco and am often playing in the mountains. Feel free to say hi at camille@sempervirens.io.