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Yoshua Bengio
Yoshua Bengio's file: deep-learning research, Mila, the Turing Award, frontier-risk warnings, and the scientist building a new lab around safer AI.
Bengio spent decades pushing neural networks before they were fashionable, built Montreal into a deep-learning capital, shared the Turing Award for the revolution, then increasingly turned his attention toward the possibility that frontier systems could outrun human control.
HOW THE HELL DID YOSHUA BENGIO GET HERE?
1993
HE BUILDS A NEURAL-NETWORK BEACHHEAD IN MONTREAL
Bengio established the research group at Université de Montréal that became the foundation of Mila and a major center for deep learning.
RECEIPTS: Milafirst-party
2017
THE LAB BECOMES A BIGGER INSTITUTE
Mila expanded through a partnership linking Université de Montréal and McGill, consolidating Montreal's role as a major AI research center.
RECEIPTS: Milafirst-party
Mar 27, 2019
DEEP LEARNING GETS THE TURING AWARD
ACM named Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun recipients of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award for conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that made deep neural networks a critical component of computing.
RECEIPTS: ACMreported
2023
THE PIONEER STARTS WORRYING ABOUT THE MACHINE
Bengio says that in 2023 he decided to devote the remainder of his career to reducing catastrophic risks from advanced AI.
RECEIPTS: LawZerofirst-party
Nov 2, 2023
GOVERNMENTS ASK HIM TO CHAIR THE FRONTIER-RISK REPORT
The United Kingdom commissioned Bengio to chair an international scientific report on the capabilities and risks of advanced AI systems.
RECEIPTS: Milafirst-party
Jun 3, 2025
HE STARTS A NEW NONPROFIT AROUND SAFE AI DESIGN
Bengio launched LawZero, a nonprofit research organization focused on developing safer approaches to advanced artificial intelligence.
RECEIPTS: LawZerofirst-party