Shane Legg
Shane Legg CBE | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 or 1974 (age 49–50) |
Alma mater |
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Known for | DeepMind Technologies |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Machine Super Intelligence (2008) |
Doctoral advisor | Marcus Hutter |
Shane Legg
Early life and education
Legg attended
Research interests
In the early 2000s, Legg re-introduced and popularized with Ben Goertzel the term "artificial general intelligence" (AGI), to describe an AI that can do practically any cognitive task a human can do.[9] He said that at this time, talking about AGI "would put you on the lunatic fringe".[4]
Legg is known for his concern of existential risk from AI, highlighted in 2011 in an interview on LessWrong[3][10] and in 2023 he signed the statement on AI risk of extinction[11][12]
Career
Before his PhD and before cofounding DeepMind, Shane Legg worked at "a number of software development positions at private companies", including the "big data firm Adaptive Intelligence"[13] and the startup WebMind founded by Ben Goertzel.[4]
Research
Legg later made a PhD at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (IDSIA), a joint research institute of USI Università della Svizzera italiana and SUPSI.[13][14] He worked on theoretical models of super intelligent machines (AIXI) with Marcus Hutter, and completed in 2008 his doctoral thesis entitled "Machine Super Intelligence".[4][15] He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in finance at USI,[13] and began a further fellowship at University College London's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.[13]
DeepMind
Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg first met in 2009 at University College London, where Legg was a postdoctoral researcher.[16]
In 2010, Legg cofounded the
According to a 2017 article, a significant part of his job as the chief scientist was to supervise recruitment, decide where DeepMind should focus its efforts, and to lead DeepMind's AI safety work.[3]
As of July 2023[update], Legg works at Google DeepMind as the Chief AGI Scientist.[2]
Awards and honors
Legg was awarded the $10,000 prize of the Canadian Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence for his PhD done in 2008.[15]
Legg was appointed
References
- ^ Henshall, Will (7 September 2023). "TIME100 AI 2023: Shane Legg". Time. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ a b "About". www.deepmind.com. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b c Shead, Sam. "DeepMind's elusive third cofounder is the man making sure that machines stay on our side". Insider. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Artificial general intelligence: Are we close, and does it even make sense to try?". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Ryan, Holly (10 January 2016). "Soaring Kiwis: Programmed Early for Success". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ^ "Dr Shane Legg, Distinguished Alumni Award and Public Lecture".
- ^ "Research Groups - CDMTCS - Research - Groups - CDMTCS - Docs". www.cs.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ Legg, Shane (March 1997). Solomonoff Induction (Thesis). Auckland, New Zealand: Dept. of Mathematics, University of Auckland.[full citation needed]
- ^ "Who coined the term "AGI"? – goertzel.org". Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "Q&A with Shane Legg on risks from AI". LessWrong. 17 June 2011.
- ^ "Statement on AI Risk | CAIS". www.safe.ai. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ McKee, Jake (30 May 2023). "AI creators fear the extinction of humanity". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d Shead, Sam (26 January 2017). "DeepMind's Elusive Third Cofounder is the Man Making Sure that Machines Stay on our Side". Insider.com. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
Before DeepMind, Legg spent several years in academia, completing a Post Doc in finance at the University of Lugano in Switzerland and a PhD at Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (IDSIA). He also held a research associate position at University College London's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit and a number of software development positions at private companies like big data firm Adaptive Intelligence.
- ^ IDSIA Staff (4 August 2022). "Institute: Our Institute—A Short Description of IDSIA". IDSIA.ch. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
[IDSIA] is a not-for-profit research institute for artificial intelligence. It is a joint institute of both the Faculty of Informatics of the Università della Svizzera Italiana and the Department of Innovative Technologies of SUPSI, the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland.
- ^ a b "Seminar: Dr Shane Legg, "What can the architecture of the brain teach…". Oxford Martin School. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "TIME100 AI 2023: Shane Legg". Time. 7 September 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
- ^ "Google Buys U.K. Artificial Intelligence Company DeepMind". Bloomberg. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Google makes £400m move in quest for artificial intelligence". Financial Times. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Google consolidates AI research labs into Google DeepMind to compete with OpenAI". VentureBeat. 20 April 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "Birthday Honours 2019: the Prime Minister's list (CSV) - GOV.UK". assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2023.