Renowned for his foundational contributions to artificial neural networks and deep learning, Yoshua Bengio’s conceptual and engineering breakthroughs have shaped modern AI and enabled many of today’s most significant advances in machine learning.
He is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal and the Founder and Scientific Advisor of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. Bengio is also Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, a nonprofit research organisation dedicated to developing AI systems that are fundamentally safe and aligned with human values. Bengio serves as Special Advisor and Founding Scientific Director of IVADO and is Co-Director of CIFAR’s Learning in Machines & Brains program, which supported the early breakthroughs in deep learning. Since 2019, he has held a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and is Co-Chair of Canada’s Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence.
Bengio is widely regarded as the most influential computer scientist by citation metrics, including h-index. Deeply concerned with the societal implications of AI, he played a central role in developing the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence and currently chairs the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI.
He has received numerous honors, including Officer of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2017), Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2020), and Knight of the Legion of Honour (France, 2022). He is the 2018 co-recipient of the A.M. Turing Award, often called the “Nobel Prize of Computing”alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. In 2023, he was appointed a member of the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology.
Bengio received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and his MSc and PhD in Computer Science from McGill University. In 2025, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by McGill University.
