Max Tegmark is a professor doing AI and physics research at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) as part of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Fundamental Interactions and the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines.
He is the author of over 300 publications as well as the New York Times bestsellers “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” and “Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality”.
His most recent AI safety research focuses on mechanistic interpretability and guaranteed safe AI and news bias detection with machine-learning.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and holds a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science.
Max is also a serial founder of non-profits and the president of the Future of Life Institute (whose focus is on the potential risk to humanity from the development of human-level or superintelligent artificial general intelligence (AGI), but also works to mitigate risk from biotechnology, nuclear weapons and global warming).
Known as Mad Max for his ahead-of-their time ideas and passion for adventure, his scientific interests range from artificial intelligence to quantum physics and the nature of reality.
Max is one of the most outspoken and influential academics raising the alarm on the cliff we are racing towards. Frequently present in experts forums, advising government officials and constantly working to educate the general public and update the global consciousness.
Time Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023.
An optimist by nature, he never misses an opportunity to highlight how unimaginably wonderful and beautiful the future can be, if we don’t completely delete it by recklessly rushing to get to AGI a few years earlier. Conquering sickness, death, expanding to the stars and filling our galaxy with intelligence and meaningful experiences, it’s all within our grasp, if only we could coordinate, catch our breath, stop chasing blindly some extra dollar and break ourselves free from hubris.
His message is simple: Slow down a bit on the capabilities, so that we can catchup on alignment and reap the benefits for eternity to come.
