Portrait of Yoshua Bengio

Yoshua Bengio

Core Academic Member
Canada CIFAR AI Chair
Full Professor, Université de Montréal, Department of Computer Science and Operations Research Department
Scientific Director, Leadership Team
Research Topics
Causality
Computational Neuroscience
Deep Learning
Generative Models
Graph Neural Networks
Machine Learning Theory
Medical Machine Learning
Molecular Modeling
Natural Language Processing
Probabilistic Models
Reasoning
Recurrent Neural Networks
Reinforcement Learning
Representation Learning

Biography

*For media requests, please write to medias@mila.quebec.

For more information please contact Marie-Josée Beauchamp, Administrative Assistant at marie-josee.beauchamp@mila.quebec.

Yoshua Bengio is recognized worldwide as a leading expert in AI. He is most known for his pioneering work in deep learning, which earned him the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, “the Nobel Prize of computing,” with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun.

Bengio is a full professor at Université de Montréal, and the founder and scientific director of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. He is also a senior fellow at CIFAR and co-directs its Learning in Machines & Brains program, serves as scientific director of IVADO, and holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair.

In 2019, Bengio was awarded the prestigious Killam Prize and in 2022, he was the most cited computer scientist in the world by h-index. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Knight of the Legion of Honor of France and Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2023, he was appointed to the UN’s Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology.

Concerned about the social impact of AI, Bengio helped draft the Montréal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence and continues to raise awareness about the importance of mitigating the potentially catastrophic risks associated with future AI systems.

Current Students

Research Intern - McGill University
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Research Intern - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université du Québec à Rimouski
Independent visiting researcher
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - UQAR
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating researcher - N/A
Principal supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating researcher - KAIST
PhD - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Research Intern - Barcelona University
Research Intern - Université de Montréal
Research Intern - Université de Montréal
Research Intern
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Master's Research - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Collaborating researcher - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
Collaborating Alumni
Collaborating Alumni - Imperial College London
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
Collaborating researcher - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
Independent visiting researcher - Université de Montréal
Collaborating researcher - Ying Wu Coll of Computing
PhD - University of Waterloo
Principal supervisor :
Collaborating Alumni - Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems
PhD - Université de Montréal
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Independent visiting researcher - Université de Montréal
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
PhD - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Master's Research - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Research Intern - Université de Montréal
Master's Research - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni
Independent visiting researcher - Technical University of Munich
Postdoctorate - Polytechnique Montréal
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
Collaborating researcher - RWTH Aachen University (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen)
Principal supervisor :
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Postdoctorate - Université de Montréal
Co-supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Collaborating Alumni - Université de Montréal
Collaborating researcher
Collaborating researcher - KAIST
PhD - Université de Montréal
PhD - McGill University
Principal supervisor :
PhD - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
PhD - McGill University
Principal supervisor :

Publications

Discrete Probabilistic Inference as Control in Multi-path Environments
Tristan Deleu
Padideh Nouri
Nikolay Malkin
We consider the problem of sampling from a discrete and structured distribution as a sequential decision problem, where the objective is to … (see more)find a stochastic policy such that objects are sampled at the end of this sequential process proportionally to some predefined reward. While we could use maximum entropy Reinforcement Learning (MaxEnt RL) to solve this problem for some distributions, it has been shown that in general, the distribution over states induced by the optimal policy may be biased in cases where there are multiple ways to generate the same object. To address this issue, Generative Flow Networks (GFlowNets) learn a stochastic policy that samples objects proportionally to their reward by approximately enforcing a conservation of flows across the whole Markov Decision Process (MDP). In this paper, we extend recent methods correcting the reward in order to guarantee that the marginal distribution induced by the optimal MaxEnt RL policy is proportional to the original reward, regardless of the structure of the underlying MDP. We also prove that some flow-matching objectives found in the GFlowNet literature are in fact equivalent to well-established MaxEnt RL algorithms with a corrected reward. Finally, we study empirically the performance of multiple MaxEnt RL and GFlowNet algorithms on multiple problems involving sampling from discrete distributions.
Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models
Usman Anwar
Abulhair Saparov
Javier Rando
Daniel Paleka
Miles Turpin
Peter Hase
Ekdeep Singh Lubana
Erik Jenner
Stephen Casper
Oliver Sourbut
Benjamin L. Edelman
Zhaowei Zhang
Mario Günther
Anton Korinek
Jose Hernandez-Orallo
Lewis Hammond
Eric J Bigelow
Alexander Pan
Lauro Langosco
Tomasz Korbak … (see 18 more)
Heidi Zhang
Ruiqi Zhong
Sean 'o H'eigeartaigh
Gabriel Recchia
Giulio Corsi
Alan Chan
Markus Anderljung
Lilian Edwards
Danqi Chen
Samuel Albanie
Jakob Nicolaus Foerster
Florian Tramèr
He He
Atoosa Kasirzadeh
Yejin Choi
This work identifies 18 foundational challenges in assuring the alignment and safety of large language models (LLMs). These challenges are o… (see more)rganized into three different categories: scientific understanding of LLMs, development and deployment methods, and sociotechnical challenges. Based on the identified challenges, we pose
Government Interventions to Avert Future Catastrophic AI Risks
Regulating advanced artificial agents
Michael K. Cohen
Noam Kolt
Gillian K. Hadfield
Stuart Russell
Language Models Can Reduce Asymmetry in Information Markets
Nasim Rahaman
Martin Weiss
Manuel Wüthrich
Erran L. Li
Bernhard Schölkopf
Ant Colony Sampling with GFlowNets for Combinatorial Optimization
Minsu Kim
Sanghyeok Choi
Jiwoo Son
Hyeon-Seob Kim
Jinkyoo Park
Improving and Generalizing Flow-Based Generative Models with Minibatch Optimal Transport
Alexander Tong
Nikolay Malkin
Guillaume Huguet
Yanlei Zhang
Jarrid Rector-Brooks
Kilian FATRAS
Continuous normalizing flows (CNFs) are an attractive generative modeling technique, but they have been held back by limitations in their si… (see more)mulation-based maximum likelihood training. We introduce the generalized \textit{conditional flow matching} (CFM) technique, a family of simulation-free training objectives for CNFs. CFM features a stable regression objective like that used to train the stochastic flow in diffusion models but enjoys the efficient inference of deterministic flow models. In contrast to both diffusion models and prior CNF training algorithms, CFM does not require the source distribution to be Gaussian or require evaluation of its density. A variant of our objective is optimal transport CFM (OT-CFM), which creates simpler flows that are more stable to train and lead to faster inference, as evaluated in our experiments. Furthermore, OT-CFM is the first method to compute dynamic OT in a simulation-free way. Training CNFs with CFM improves results on a variety of conditional and unconditional generation tasks, such as inferring single cell dynamics, unsupervised image translation, and Schrödinger bridge inference.
Integrating Generative and Experimental Platforms or Biomolecular Design
Cheng-Hao Liu
Jarrid Rector-Brooks
Jason Yim
Soojung Yang
Sidney Lisanza
Francesca-Zhoufan Li
Pranam Chatterjee
Tommi Jaakkola
Regina Barzilay
David Baker
Frances H. Arnold
Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning: Fostering the Maturity of ML Applications for Climate Change
Shiva Madadkhani
Olivia Mendivil Ramos
Millie Chapman
Jesse Dunietz
Arthur Ouaknine
Machine learning and information theory concepts towards an AI Mathematician
Nikolay Malkin
The current state-of-the-art in artificial intelligence is impressive, especially in terms of mastery of language, but not so much in terms … (see more)of mathematical reasoning. What could be missing? Can we learn something useful about that gap from how the brains of mathematicians go about their craft? This essay builds on the idea that current deep learning mostly succeeds at system 1 abilities -- which correspond to our intuition and habitual behaviors -- but still lacks something important regarding system 2 abilities -- which include reasoning and robust uncertainty estimation. It takes an information-theoretical posture to ask questions about what constitutes an interesting mathematical statement, which could guide future work in crafting an AI mathematician. The focus is not on proving a given theorem but on discovering new and interesting conjectures. The central hypothesis is that a desirable body of theorems better summarizes the set of all provable statements, for example by having a small description length while at the same time being close (in terms of number of derivation steps) to many provable statements.
Efficient Causal Graph Discovery Using Large Language Models
Thomas Jiralerspong
Xiaoyin Chen
Yash More
Vedant Shah
Towards DNA-Encoded Library Generation with GFlowNets
Michał Koziarski
Mohammed Abukalam
Vedant Shah
Louis Vaillancourt
Doris Alexandra Schuetz
Moksh J. Jain
Almer M. van der Sloot
Mathieu Bourgey
Anne Marinier