Shane Legg
Shane Legg CBE is a machine learning research director and digital technology entrepreneur who did an AI-related postdoctoral fellowship at University College London's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, after doctoral work at the Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale (IDSIA, Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research) working on theoretical models of super-intelligent machines under Marcus Hutter. He left academia to join Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman in cofounding the human and artificial intelligence-focused startup, DeepMind Technologies,[when?] which was acquired by Google in 2014.[1][2] As of August 2022, Legg remained at Google's DeepMind subsidiary, in the role of Chief Scientist.[3]
Shane Legg | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | DeepMind Technologies |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Machine Super Intelligence (2008) |
| Doctoral advisor | Marcus Hutter |
Early life and education[edit]
Legg attended Rotorua Lakes High School in Rotorua, on New Zealand's North Island.[4] He completed his undergraduate studies at Waikato University.[5] He obtained his MSc degree with a thesis entitled "Solomonoff Induction", with Cristian S. Calude at the University of Auckland.[6][non-primary source needed]
He did his PhD work at the Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale (IDSIA), an joint affiliate of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI, University of Lugano) and Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (SUPSI, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland),[7][8] working on theoretical models of super intelligent machines (AIXI) with Marcus Hutter; his doctoral thesis entitled "Machine Super Intelligence" was completed in 2008.[9][non-primary source needed] He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in finance at USI,[7] and began a further fellowship at University College London's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.[7]
Research interests[edit]
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (August 2022) |
Legg's main research interests are in artificial intelligence, in both theory and practice.[according to whom?] In particular, he is interested in measures of intelligence for machines, neural networks, artificial evolution, reinforcement learning and the theory of learning.[citation needed] He has worked on these topics in both commercial and academic environments.[citation needed]
Career[edit]
After Legg's academic years—where the fellowship positions, while still having elements of training, can be viewed as his first career positions[10][better source needed]—he at first went onto "a number of software development positions at private companies", including the "big data firm Adaptive Intelligence".[7]
DeepMind Technologies[edit]
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Founding[edit]
In 2010, Legg cofounded the start-up DeepMind Technologies along with Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman.[1][2] Hassabis and Legg first met at UCL's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit,[11] where Legg was a research associate.[citation needed]
Achievements[edit]
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Legg's achievements at DeepMind have included many productive, ongoing projects, and regarding these, company reports and publications arising from the project developmentand staff oversight doing the applied industrial AI research that is the companies focus.[citation needed]
Roles[edit]
![[icon]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion with: a thorough description of the roles that Legg has filled at Deepmind, to the extent that such information can be found in published records. You can help by adding to it. (August 2022) |
As of August 2022[update], Legg remained at Google's DeepMind subsidiary, in the role of Chief Scientist.[3]
Awards and honors[edit]
Legg was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to the science and technology sector and to investment.[12][full citation needed]
It has been reported in an introduction to an email interview at a self-published blog site that Legg was awarded the $10,000 prize of the Canadian Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence for his PhD dissertation.[when?][13][better source needed]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Google Buys U.K. Artificial Intelligence Company DeepMind". Bloomberg. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ a b "Google makes £400m move in quest for artificial intelligence". Financial Times. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ a b DeepMind Technologies Staff (4 August 2022). "About: Leadership — Shane Legg". Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ 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".
- ^ Legg, Shane (March 1997). Solomonoff Induction (Thesis). Auckland, New Zealand: Dept. of Mathematics, University of Auckland.[full citation needed]
- ^ 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 instiute 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.
- ^ Legg, Shane (2008). Machine Super Intelligence (PDF) (Thesis). Lugano, Switzerland: Università della Svizzera italiana.[full citation needed]
- ^ Cornell Staff (14 June 2018). "Structure of Postdoctoral Study". Postdocs.Cornell.edu. Ithaca, N.Y.: Office of Postdoctoral Studies, Cornell University. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2022.[better source needed]
- ^ Gibbs, Samuel (28 January 2014). "Demis Hassabis: 15 facts about the DeepMind Technologies founder". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
- ^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B9.[full citation needed]
- ^ Legg, Shane & "XiXiDu" [Kruel, Alexander] (17 June 2011). "Interview Series on Risks from AI: Q&A with Shane Legg on risks from AI" (answered questionnaire). LessWrong.com. self-published. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
In 2011, Alexander Kruel (XiXiDu) started a Q&A style interview series asking various people about their perception of artificial intelligence and possible risks associated with it.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) For the source of the quote — and the website user page identifying LessWrong.com blogger "XiXiDu" as Alexander Kruel — see this link.[third-party source needed]