Yoshua Bengio facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yoshua Bengio
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Yoshua Bengio in 2019
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| Born | March 5, 1964 Paris, France
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| Citizenship | Canada |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Known for |
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| Relatives | Samy Bengio (brother) |
| Awards | Marie-Victorin Prize (2017) Turing Award (2018) AAAI Fellow (2019) Legion of Honor (2022) VinFuture Prize (2024) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Machine learning Deep learning Artificial intelligence |
| Institutions | Université de Montréal MILA Element AI |
| Thesis | Artificial Neural Networks and their Application to Sequence Recognition (1991) |
| Doctoral advisor | Renato de Mori |
| Notable students | Ian Goodfellow |
Yoshua Bengio (born March 5, 1964) is a Canadian computer scientist. He is a leading expert in artificial intelligence (AI), especially in areas like artificial neural networks and deep learning. He works as a professor at the Université de Montréal. He is also the scientific director of a big AI research center called MILA.
Bengio won the 2018 Turing Award. This award is often called the "Nobel Prize of Computing." He shared it with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. They received it for their important work on deep learning. These three scientists are sometimes called the "Godfathers of AI." Yoshua Bengio is one of the most-cited computer scientists in the world. This means his work is referenced by many other researchers. In 2024, TIME Magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Yoshua Bengio was born in France into a Jewish family. His family had moved to France from Morocco. Later, they moved to Canada. He studied at McGill University. There, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He also got his Master of Science and PhD degrees in computer science.
Yoshua has a brother named Samy Bengio. Samy is also a famous computer scientist. He works with neural networks at Apple. Their father was a pharmacist and a playwright. Their mother was an actor and helped start a multimedia theater group.
His Amazing Career in AI
After finishing his PhD, Bengio worked as a researcher at MIT and AT&T Bell Labs. Since 1993, he has been a professor at the Université de Montréal. He leads MILA, which is a top research institute for AI. He also helps direct a program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Many people, including journalist Cade Metz, see Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun as the main people who pushed deep learning forward in the 1990s and 2000s. Bengio is known for having a very high "D-index." This is a way to measure how much a scientist's work is cited by others. He has one of the highest D-indexes among computer scientists.
In 2016, Bengio helped start a company called Element AI. This company aimed to turn AI research into useful business tools. The company was later sold to ServiceNow in 2020. Bengio continues to advise companies on AI.
In 2023, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked Bengio to lead an international report. This report was about the safety of advanced AI. It looked at things like cyber attacks and how to keep AI under control. The report was shared in May 2024.
His Thoughts on AI Safety
Yoshua Bengio is very concerned about the safety of powerful AI systems. In March 2023, he signed an open letter. This letter asked AI labs to pause training very powerful AI systems for at least six months. Over 30,000 people, including many AI experts, signed this letter.
In May 2023, Bengio told the BBC he felt "lost" about his life's work. He worried about "bad actors" using AI for harmful purposes. He believes governments need to get more involved. He wants rules, product registration, and ethical training for AI developers.
He also suggested that access to AI systems like ChatGPT should be monitored. This would help track any illegal or dangerous uses. In an article for The Economist, he wrote that the risk of AI causing a "catastrophe" is real. He believes action is needed right now. Bengio also supported a California bill called SB 1047. This bill would require AI companies to check for risks before releasing very expensive AI models. He called it the "bare minimum" for regulating this technology.
Awards and Honors
Yoshua Bengio has received many important awards and honors:
- In 2017, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada. This is a high honor in Canada.
- He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and won the Marie-Victorin Quebec Prize in 2017.
- In 2018, he won the Turing Award with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun.
- In 2020, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- In 2022, he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific Research. He shared this with his colleagues Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton, and Demis Hassabis.
- In 2023, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. This is France's highest award.
- In August 2023, the United Nations asked him to join a scientific advisory council. This council advises on new technologies.
- In 2024, TIME Magazine included him in their list of the 100 most influential people.
- Also in 2024, he won the VinFuture Prize's grand prize. He shared this with Geoffrey E. Hinton, Yann LeCun, Jen-Hsun Huang, and Fei-Fei Li. They were recognized for their groundbreaking work in neural networks and deep learning.
Key Publications
Yoshua Bengio has written many important scientific papers and books. One of his most famous books is:
- Deep Learning (2016), which he wrote with Ian Goodfellow and Aaron Courville. This book is a key text for anyone studying deep learning.
He also contributed a chapter to the book Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building it (2018) by Martin Ford.
See also
In Spanish: Yoshua Bengio para niños
