Stuart Jonathan Russell (born 1962) is a British

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

known for his contributions to

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

(AI). He is a professor of computer science at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

and was from 2008 to 2011 an adjunct professor of neurological surgery at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It ...

.Stuart Russell's He holds the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering at

. He founded and leads the

Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence The Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI) is a research center at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) focusing on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) safety methods. CHAI was founded in 2016 by a group of aca ...

(CHAI) at UC Berkeley. Russell is the co-author with

Peter Norvig Peter Norvig (born December 14, 1956) is an American computer scientist and Distinguished Education Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. He previously served as a director of research and search quality at Google. Norvig is t ...

of the most popular textbook in the field of AI: '' Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'' used in more than 1,500 universities in 135 countries.

Education and early life

Russell was born in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

, England. He attended

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , h ...

, where he was 1st scholar. He studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy ...

, and was awarded his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree with first-class honours in 1982. He moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

to complete his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in 1986 for research on

inductive reasoning Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which a general principle is derived from a body of observations. It consists of making broad generalizations based on specific observations. Inductive reasoning is distinct from ''deductive'' re ...

and

analogical reasoning Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject (t ...

supervised by

Michael Genesereth Michael Genesereth (born 1948) is an American logician and computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computatio ...

. His PhD was supported by a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

studentship from the UK

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

Career and research

After his 1986 PhD, he joined the faculty of the

as a professor of computer science. From 2008 to 2011 he also held an appointment as adjunct professor of Neurological Surgery at the

, where he pursued research in computational physiology and

intensive-care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

monitoring. He is also an Honorary Fellow at

. His research in the area of

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

(AI) includes contributions to

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

probabilistic reasoning Probabilistic logic (also probability logic and probabilistic reasoning) involves the use of probability and logic to deal with uncertain situations. Probabilistic logic extends traditional logic truth tables with probabilistic expressions. A diffic ...

, knowledge representation, planning, real-time decision making, multitarget tracking,

computer vision Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the human ...

, and inverse

reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment in order to maximize the notion of cumulative reward. Reinforcement learning is one of three basic machine ...

. He has also been an active participant in the movement to ban the manufacture and use of autonomous weapons. In 2016, he founded the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at UC Berkeley, with co-

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often u ...

Pieter Abbeel Pieter Abbeel is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, Director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab, and co-director of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the co-founder ...

, Anca Dragan, Tom Griffiths,

Bart Selman Bart Selman is a Dutch-American professor of computer science at Cornell University. He has previously worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He is also co-founder and principal investigator of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence ...

, Joseph Halpern,

Michael Wellman Michael Paul Wellman (born March 27, 1961) is the Richard H. Orenstein Division Chair of Computer Science and Engineering and Lynn A. Conway Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. ...

and Satinder Singh Baveja. Russell has published several hundred conference and journal articles as well as several books, including ''The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction'' and ''Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality'' (with Eric Wefald). Along with

, he is the author of '' Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'', a textbook used by over 1,500 universities in 135 countries. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the

Future of Life Institute The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit organization that works to reduce global catastrophic and existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). The Institute's work is ma ...

and the advisory board of the

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge, intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology. The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price (Be ...

. In 2017 he collaborated with the

to produce a video, ''

Slaughterbots ''Slaughterbots'' is a 2017 arms-control advocacy video presenting a dramatized near-future scenario where swarms of inexpensive microdrones use artificial intelligence and facial recognition to assassinate political opponents based on preprogram ...

'', about swarms of drones assassinating political opponents, and presented this to a United Nations meeting about the

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), concluded at Geneva on October 10, 1980, and entered into force in December 1983, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are cons ...

. In 2018 he contributed an interview to the documentary ''

Do You Trust This Computer? ''Do You Trust This Computer?'' is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that outlines the benefits and especially the dangers of artificial intelligence. It features interviews with a range of prominent individuals relevant to ...

'' His book, '' Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control'', was published by Viking on 8 October 2019. His work is aligned with

Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Human-centered computing (HCC) studies the design, development, and deployment of mixed-initiative human-computer systems. It is emerged from the convergence of multiple disciplines that are concerned both with understanding human beings and w ...

themes. His former doctoral students include

Marie desJardins Marie desJardins is an American computer scientist, known for her research on artificial intelligence and computer science education. She is also active in broadening participation in computing. Biography DesJardins grew up in Columbia, Marylan ...

Eric Xing Eric Poe Xing is an American computer scientist, academic administrator, and entrepreneur. Prior to his appointment as President of MBZUAI, Xing was a professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and researcher in mac ...

and Shlomo Zilberstein. Russell gave the 2021

Reith Lectures The Reith Lectures is a series of annual BBC radio lectures given by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to mark the historic cont ...

, broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

, on ''Living with Artificial Intelligence'' with lectures on "The Biggest Event in Human History", "AI in warfare", "AI in the economy" and "AI: A Future for Humans".

Awards and honors

Russell was co-winner, in 1995, of the

IJCAI Computers and Thought Award The IJCAI Computers and Thought Award is presented every two years by the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), recognizing outstanding young scientists in artificial intelligence. It was originally funded with royal ...

at the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence, the premier international award in artificial intelligence for researchers under 35. In 2022, he received the

IJCAI Award for Research Excellence The IJCAI Award for Research Excellence is a biannual award before given at the IJCAI conference to researcher in artificial intelligence as a recognition of excellence of their career. Beginning in 2016, the conference is held annually and so is ...

, only the second person (after

Hector Levesque Hector Joseph Levesque (born 1951) is a Canadian academic and researcher in artificial intelligence. His research concerns incorporating commonsense reasoning in intelligent systems and he initiated the Winograd Schemas Challenge. Education He r ...

) to win both of IJCAI's main research awards. He is a fellow of the

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artif ...

(AAAI), elected in 1997, the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

(ACM) (2003) and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(2011). In 2005, he was awarded the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award. In 2012, he was appointed to the

Blaise Pascal Chair The Blaise Pascal Chairs (Chaires Internationales de Recherché Blaise Pascal), established in 1996 by the Government of the Île-de-France Region for internationally acclaimed foreign scientists in all disciplines. A scientific committee annually ...

in Paris, awarded to "internationally acclaimed foreign scientists in all disciplines," as well as the senior Chaire d'excellence of France's Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Russell served as vice chair of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

's Council on AI and Robotics and is currently a member of its Global AI Council. Other awards he has received include the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

Presidential Young Investigator Award The Presidential Young Investigator Award (PYI) was awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States Federal Government. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator (NYI) Awards and Presid ...

, the World Technology Award, the Mitchell Prize, and the

Outstanding Educator Award. He was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2021 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2021 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to artificial intelligence research.

Bibliography

* with Peter Norvig. '' Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'' (4th ed.). Prentice Hall, 2020. * '' Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control''. Viking, 2019.

References

External links

Website

Russell's Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI)
* Interviews on Sam Harris' Making Sense Podcast
Episode #53 (2016)
an
Episode #153 (2019)

Interview on the 80,000 Hours Podcast (2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Stuart J. Artificial intelligence researchers Artificial intelligence ethicists 1962 births Living people Scientists from Portsmouth University of California, Berkeley faculty Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery English computer scientists Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence University of California, San Francisco faculty Date of birth missing (living people) Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Officers of the Order of the British Empire English emigrants to the United States Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford