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Yoshua Bengio

Yoshua Bengio

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About Yoshua Bengio

Yoshua Bengio is one of the three "Godfathers of AI" alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. He received the 2018 Turing Award for their work on deep learning. He is the most-cited computer scientist in the world and a leading voice on AI safety.

Career Highlights

  • Mila (1993-present): Founder and Scientific Director
  • Université de Montréal (1993-present): Full Professor
  • Turing Award (2018): With Hinton and LeCun for deep learning
  • Most-cited computer scientist: Over 750,000 citations
  • AI Safety: Signed statements warning about extinction risk from AI

Research Contributions

Deep Learning Foundations

Bengio's work laid the groundwork for modern AI:

  • Neural language models (2003): Pioneered neural approaches to NLP
  • Attention mechanisms: Early work leading to transformers
  • Generative models: Contributions to GANs and VAEs
  • Curriculum learning: Training neural networks progressively

AI Safety Focus

Unlike some peers who remain optimistic, Bengio has become increasingly focused on AI risk:

  • Signed the 2023 statement that AI extinction risk should be a global priority
  • Advocates for international coordination on AI safety
  • Calls for pausing development of systems more powerful than GPT-4

Notable Positions

On AI Risk

Bengio has become one of the most prominent voices warning about AI dangers:

"I believe we are not ready for the current capabilities of large language models, let alone the more powerful versions to come."

On Scientific Responsibility

"Scientists have a duty to speak up when their work might lead to potential catastrophic consequences for humanity."

Key Quotes

  • "AI risk should be a global priority."
  • "We need international coordination before it's too late."
  • "Scientists have a duty to speak up."