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Blake Richards

Appointment

Fellow

Canada CIFAR AI Chair

Learning in Machines & Brains

Pan-Canadian AI Strategy

Connect

McGill University

Google Scholar

About

Blake Richards is a Fellow in CIFAR’s Learning in Machines & Brains program and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila. Richards is an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.

Richards’ research explores the general principles of intelligence that underpin both natural and artificial cognition. His research program focuses on neural computation, learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). Using a combination of computational modelling and advanced neuroscience and brain imaging approaches, his lab is exploring the neural basis of deep learning. The goal of this work is to better understand the neurobiological basis of animal and human intelligence and provide new insights to help guide AI development. 

His laboratory has made several important contributions to mathematical models of learning and memory in the brain. These have provided new insights on the process of memory consolidation, and how cellular-level brain structures may permit deep learning in real brains. This theoretical work has been well-recognized in both the neuroscience and AI communities, and Richards is considered a leading researcher at this disciplinary intersection.

Awards

  • NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement, 2020
  • Canadian Association for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, 2019
  • Ontario Early Researcher Award, 2018
  • Google Faculty Research, 2016
  • Human Frontiers Young Investigator Grant, 2015

Relevant Publications

  • Richards, B.A., and T.P. Lillicrap (2019) “Dendritic solutions to credit assignment.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 54: 28-36.

  • Bartunov, S., A. Santoro, B.A. Richards, G.E. Hinton and T.P. Lillicrap (2018) “Assessing the scalability of biologically-motivated deep learning algorithms and architectures.” Neural Information Processing Systems.

  • Insel, N., J. Guerguiev and B.A. Richards (2018) “Irrelevance via inhibition: learning, computation and implications for schizophrenia.” PLoS Comp. Biology, 14 (8): e1006315.

  • Guerguiev, J., T.P. Lillicrap and B.A. Richards (2017) “Towards deep learning with segregated dendrites.” eLife, 6: e22901.

  • Xia, F. et al. (2017) “Parvalbumin positive interneurons mediate neocortical-hippocampal interactions that are necessary for memory consolidation.” eLife, 6: e27868.

Institution

McGill University

Mila

Department

Montreal Neurological, Institute School of Computer Science

Education

  • DPhil (Neuroscience), University of Oxford
  • MSc (Neuroscience), University of Oxford
  • Hon BSc (Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence), University of Toronto

Country

Canada

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