My Take
George Hotz — geohot — is one of those rare people who makes you feel genuinely inadequate in the best possible way. At 17 he became the first person to unlock the original iPhone, not for money but basically for the sport of it, and that set the tone for everything that followed. He reverse-engineered the PlayStation 3, survived a very public legal fight with Sony, and then turned around and started comma.ai, building open-source self-driving software in a style that felt more like a hacker's weekend project than a Silicon Valley startup. Whether you think he's a genius or an agitator, the guy has a real gift for picking the most technically guarded locks in the industry and walking right through them. I find his unapologetic anti-establishment attitude either refreshing or exhausting depending on the day, but I can never quite look away.
Overview
George Francis Hotz (born October 2, 1989), alias geohot, is an American security hacker, entrepreneur, and software engineer. He is known for developing iOS jailbreaks, reverse engineering the PlayStation 3, and for the subsequent lawsuit brought against him by Sony. From September 2015 until November 2025, he worked on his vehicle automation machine learning company comma.ai.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- George Hotz
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョージ・ホッツ
- Reading
- じょーじ・ほっつ
- Born
- October 2, 1989 (age 36)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Snake
- Origin
- Glen Rock, New Jersey, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- blogger / programmer / computer scientist / photographer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | openpilot | — |
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.