Joelle Pineau elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Joelle Pineau, Core Academic Member of Mila, has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada, which honours Canada’s most eminent intellectuals, scholars, researchers and creators.

Also an Associate Professor at McGill University, she is recognized for her contribution to basic research in artificial intelligence (AI), in particular her work on exploration and exploitation in reinforcement learning to improve the performance and quality of algorithms.

Her work also seeks to better integrate the notion of responsibility into decision-making strategies to ensure their safety, fairness and inclusiveness, particularly when using AI-based tools in the medical context.

Joelle Pineau is exploring the intersections between AI and healthcare to improve decision-making and personalised treatments in projects on osteoporosis, heart disease and intensive care patients.

This appointment will enable her to share her commitment to open science and responsible AI to diverse audiences, including decision-makers.

“The Royal Society of Canada allows me to have conversations with people with a different background of knowledge and experience, and to address questions fundamental to the way we do things as a society that are not just AI issues,” she explained.

“Many of these questions are at the intersection of disciplines, and the Royal Society of Canada gives us a community with whom we can have much richer conversations than if we limit ourselves to our specific research niches,” she concluded.