Eric Horvitz

Eric Horvitz is Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft, where he leads initiatives at the intersection of science, technology, and society, with a focus on artificial intelligence, biosciences, and healthcare. His research has made foundational contributions to AI, particularly in perception, reasoning, decision-making under uncertainty, and human-AI collaboration. He is recognised for advancing both the theory and practical applications of AI, with research spanning machine learning, bounded rationality, multisensory perception, and decision-making in complex, open-world environments. His work has contributed to AI systems deployed across healthcare, transportation, e-commerce, operating systems, and aerospace.

Horvitz has also played a leading role in shaping responsible AI research and governance. He founded and chairs Microsoft’s Aether Committee on AI, effects, and ethics, established Stanford University’s One Hundred Year Study on AI, and co-founded and served as Board Chair of the Partnership on AI. He also served as a commissioner on the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, where he chaired the effort on ethical and trustworthy AI.

Horvitz is a recipient of the Feigenbaum Prize and Allen Newell Prize and has been elected a Fellow of several leading scientific and professional organisations, including the National Academy of Engineering, Association for Computing Machinery, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the advisory boards of the Allen Institute for AI and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. He has also served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, President of the AAAI, and member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board and Computing Community Consortium, as well as on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Before becoming Chief Scientific Officer, Horvitz served as Director of Microsoft Research, overseeing research laboratories across North America, Europe, and Asia. He holds MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University.