Nick Frosst (born January 5, 1993) is a Canadian computer scientist and musician. He is a co-founder of Cohere, a Toronto-based artificial intelligence company, and the lead singer of the indie rock band Good Kid.
Frosst studied computer science and cognitive science at the University of Toronto, where he was a student of Geoffrey Hinton. He later worked as a machine learning researcher at Google Brain in Toronto.
Early life and education
Frosst was born on January 5, 1993. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and cognitive science from the University of Toronto in 2015. During his studies, he was a student of Geoffrey Hinton, who later hired him at Google Brain.
Career
Frosst was among Geoffrey Hinton's earliest hires at Google Brain in Toronto, working as a machine learning researcher on deep learning and neural network architectures. He worked there from 2016 to 2020.
In 2019, Frosst co-founded Cohere with Aidan Gomez and Ivan Zhang. The company builds large language models and enterprise AI tools. Frosst has publicly explained Cohere's focus on industries like finance and health, where there are privacy and other regulatory considerations.
Frosst has spoken openly about his belief that artificial intelligence will not replace humans, but rather streamline and automate mundane tasks. He has also expressed his belief that AGI is less "imminent" than many in the field claim.
Frosst and the other Cohere co-founders were listed first on Maclean's AI Trailblazers Power List and The Logic's Innovation Leaders.
Music
After spending time in a prior band which played "weird" music featuring a glockenspiel, Frosst and fellow computer science students at the University of Toronto formed the indie rock band Good Kid in 2015. Frosst is the lead vocalist for the band. While on tour with the band, Frosst continues his work in the tech industry remotely.
Frosst has described the band as a way for him to relax and not constantly think about tech. His vocals have been compared to that of Kele Okereke. In 2024, the band was nominated for the Juno Awards Breakthrough Group of the Year. As of 2026, the band, which has performed at Lollapalooza, has 3.1 million monthly Spotify listeners.
Discography
Good Kid
- Can We Hang Out Sometime? (2026)