Shane Legg (2023)
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Shane Legg (born 1973 or 1974 in New Zealand, CBE) is a machine learning researcher and entrepreneur.[23] Together with Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, he cofounded DeepMind Technologies (later acquired by Google and now known as Google DeepMind), where he works as the chief AGI scientist.[2,3] He is also known for his academic work in artificial general intelligence, machine learning, and AI safety, including his 2008 doctoral thesis titled "Machine Super Intelligence", which was supervised by Marcus Hutter.[4] Legg earned a BCMS from the University of Waikato, an MSc from the University of Auckland, and a PhD from the University of Lugano, and is affiliated with Google DeepMind and University College London.
Early life and education
Legg attended Rotorua Lakes High School in Rotorua, on New Zealand's North Island.[5] He completed his undergraduate studies at Waikato University in 1996.[6] Also in 1996, he obtained his MSc degree with a thesis entitled "Solomonoff Induction", with Cristian S. Calude at the University of Auckland.[7]
Career
Before completing his PhD and cofounding DeepMind, Shane Legg worked in several software development roles at private companies, including the big data firm Adaptive Intelligence and the startup WebMind, which was founded by Ben Goertzel.[4]
DeepMind
Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg first met in 2009 at University College London, where Legg was a postdoctoral researcher.[1] In 2010, Legg cofounded the start-up DeepMind Technologies along with Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman. DeepMind Technologies was bought in 2014 by Google.[15] After the merge with Google Brain in 2023, the company is now known as Google DeepMind.[16]
According to a 2017 article, a significant part of his job as the chief scientist was to supervise recruitment, to decide where DeepMind should focus its efforts, and to lead DeepMind's AI safety work.[18] As of July 2023, Legg works at Google DeepMind as the Chief AGI Scientist.[2,3]
Research
Legg later obtained a PhD at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (IDSIA), a joint research institute of USI Università della Svizzera italiana and SUPSI.[12,13] He worked on theoretical models of super intelligent machines (AIXI) with Marcus Hutter, and in 2008 completed his doctoral thesis entitled "Machine Super Intelligence".[4] He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in finance at USI, and began a further fellowship at University College London's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.[12]
Research interests
In the early 2000s, Legg re-introduced and popularized with Ben Goertzel the term "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) to describe an AI that can do practically any cognitive task a human can do.[9] At that time, talking about AGI "would put you on the lunatic fringe".[4,8] Legg is known for his concern of existential risk from AI, highlighted in 2011 in an interview on LessWrong and in 2023 he signed the statement on AI risk of extinction.[11]
Awards and honors
Legg was awarded the $10,000 prize of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence for his PhD done in 2008.[14] He 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.[17]