Stuart Russell

Professor of Computer Science and Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Stuart Russell is a pioneer in the understanding and uses of artificial intelligence (AI), its long-term future, and its relation to humanity. He also is a leading authority on robotics and bioinformatics. He is the author or coauthor of three books on knowledge, reasoning, and machine learning, including the standard textbook on artificial intelligence. Stuart Russell is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC-Berkeley and Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at UC-San Francisco.

Artificial intelligence. AI is a machine’s ability to perceive its environment and use that information to maximise its chance at succeeding at some goal. All of the technologies behind artificial intelligence are evolving at exponential rates and are just now beginning to rocket up the curve. Soon artificially intelligent machines will be doing things we can barely conceive, in virtually every area of human business, life, and culture. Few people understand this future better than Stuart Russell, who wrote the standard textbook on AI (with coauthor Peter Norvig), now in its third edition.

Robotics. Stuart Russell is also a leading researcher in the practical applications of machine intelligence. If AI is the brain of the machine of the future, the robot is its body. Robots are taking over more and more functions that once required a human actor, with far-reaching consequences — and opportunities — for people, businesses, and society as a whole. He has focused recently on the threat of autonomous weaponry.

Biological information. As an Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery, Stuart has been researching computational physiology, with a current focus on Intensive Care Unit monitoring systems. He is a leader in the development of technologies that make sense of biological data and that apply this information in ways that advance human health.

Credentials. In addition to the positions already mentioned, Stuart Russell holds the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering at UC-Berkeley and is Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on AI and Robotics. He is the recipient of many awards and held the Chaire Blaise Pascal in Paris from 2012 to 2014. He is a researcher at a number of research centers, including the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM), and the Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI). He is the founder and Vice-President of Bayesian Logic, Inc., a data analysis start-up under contract with the UN to build a new Nuclear Test Ban Treaty global monitoring system.