Shane Legg (born ) is a

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

researcher and entrepreneur. With

Demis Hassabis Sir Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs, and a UK Government AI Adviser. In 2024, Ha ...

and

Mustafa Suleyman Mustafa Suleyman (born 1984) is a British artificial intelligence (AI) entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Microsoft AI, and the co-founder and former head of applied AI at DeepMind, an AI company acquired by Google. After leaving DeepMind, he co-fou ...

, he cofounded DeepMind Technologies (later bought by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and now called

Google DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Goo ...

), and works there as the chief AGI scientist. He is also known for his academic work on

artificial general intelligence Artificial general intelligence (AGI)—sometimes called human‑level intelligence AI—is a type of artificial intelligence that would match or surpass human capabilities across virtually all cognitive tasks. Some researchers argue that sta ...

, including his thesis supervised by

Marcus Hutter Marcus Hutter (born 14 April 1967 in Munich) is a computer scientist, professor and artificial intelligence researcher. As a senior researcher at DeepMind, he studies the mathematical foundations of artificial general intelligence. Hutter stu ...

Early life and education

Legg attended Rotorua Lakes High School in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It is sited on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authorities of New Zea ...

, on

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. He completed his undergraduate studies at

Waikato University The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in numerous disciplines such as education, socia ...

in 1996. Also in 1996, he obtained his MSc degree with a thesis entitled " Solomonoff Induction", with Cristian S. Calude at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

Research interests

In the early 2000s, Legg re-introduced and popularized with

Ben Goertzel Ben Goertzel is a computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, and businessman. He helped popularize the term artificial general intelligence. Early life and education Three of Goertzel's Jewish great-grandparents immigrated to New Yo ...

the term "

" (AGI), to describe an AI that can do practically any cognitive task a human can do. At that time, talking about AGI "would put you on the lunatic fringe". 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.

Career

Before his PhD and before cofounding DeepMind, Shane Legg worked at "a number of software development positions at private companies", including the "big data firm Adaptive Intelligence" and the startup WebMind founded by Ben Goertzel.

Research

Legg later obtained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (IDSIA), a joint research institute of USI Università della Svizzera italiana and

SUPSI The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI, ) is a public vocational university located in Ticino, Switzerland. It offers over 30 bachelor's and master's programs, blending theoretical scientific knowledge with pra ...

. He worked on theoretical models of super intelligent machines (

AIXI AIXI is a theoretical mathematical formalism for artificial general intelligence. It combines Solomonoff induction with sequential decision theory. AIXI was first proposed by Marcus Hutter in 2000 and several results regarding AIXI are proved ...

) with

, and completed in 2008 his doctoral thesis entitled "Machine Super Intelligence". He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in finance at USI, and began a further fellowship at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.

DeepMind

and Shane Legg first met in 2009 at University College London, where Legg was a postdoctoral researcher. In 2010, Legg cofounded the

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

DeepMind Technologies along with Demis Hassabis and

. DeepMind Technologies was bought in 2014 by Google. After the merge with

Google Brain Google Brain was a deep learning artificial intelligence research team that served as the sole AI branch of Google before being incorporated under the newer umbrella of Google AI, a research division at Google dedicated to artificial intelligence ...

in 2023, the company is now known as Google DeepMind. According to a 2017 article, a significant part of his job as the chief scientist was to supervise

recruitment Recruitment is #Process, the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for Job (role), jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the process involved in ...

, decide where DeepMind should focus its efforts, and to lead DeepMind's

AI safety AI safety is an interdisciplinary field focused on preventing accidents, misuse, or other harmful consequences arising from artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It encompasses machine ethics and AI alignment, which aim to ensure AI systems are mor ...

work. , Legg works at Google DeepMind as the Chief AGI Scientist.

Awards and honors

Legg was awarded the $10,000 prize of the Canadian Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence for his PhD done in 2008. Legg was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours 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 as ...

for services to the science and technology sector and to investment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legg, Shane Living people Machine learning researchers Artificial intelligence researchers New Zealand expatriates in England University of Waikato alumni University of Auckland alumni 1970s births Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Rotorua Lakes High School DeepMind people AI safety scientists Year of birth missing (living people)