Stuart Russell wrote the standard text on AI; now he thinks deeply on AI's future — and the future of us humans, too.

Why you should listen

Stuart Russell is a professor (and formerly chair) of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California at Berkeley. His book Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (with Peter Norvig) is the standard text in AI; it has been translated into 13 languages and is used in more than 1,300 universities in 118 countries. His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence including machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, real-time decision making, multitarget tracking, computer vision, computational physiology, global seismic monitoring and philosophical foundations.

He also works for the United Nations, developing a new global seismic monitoring system for the nuclear-test-ban treaty. His current concerns include the threat of autonomous weapons and the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity.

Stuart Russell’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Stuart Russell

In Brief

Ben Saunders’ solo crossing of Antarctica, and more news from TED speakers

December 15, 2017

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. A solo crossing of Antarctica. With chilling detail, Ben Saunders documents his journey across Antarctica as he attempts to complete the first successful solo, unsupported and unassisted crossing. The journey is a way of honoring his friend Henry Worsley, […]

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Live from TED2017

Our robotic overlords: The talks of Session 2 of TED2017

April 25, 2017

Are machines going to save or destroy us? It’s a question we’ve been grappling with since we first put 1s and 0s together to create computer code. And it feels like we’re no closer to answering it; machines are growing smarter by the day, and while they’re taking us to places we’ve never imagined, we […]

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