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Canada CIFAR AI Chair - AI Science

Jeff Clune, Vector Institute: AI that learns to improve itself

By: Erin Vollick
9 Oct, 2023
October 9, 2023
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Jeff Clune, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Vector Institute

Can AI replicate the inventiveness and creativity of natural evolutionary processes? As he works towards AI that might endlessly learn and improvise on its own, Canada CIFAR AI Chair Jeff Clune brings that eventuality ever closer.

“CIFAR has been visionary in how it provides scientific funding — it finds talented scientists, gives them resources and then steps back to let them do the work.”

Jeff Clune, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Vector Institute

Clune’s efforts to expand the frontiers of AI have been hugely influential. His work has been cited nearly 30,000 times, and a 2014 NeurIPS proceedings paper on deep neural networks by Clune and collaborators has garnered more than 9,000 citations.

His collaboration on POET (paired open-ended trailblazer) — an AI agent that solves ever-increasing environmental challenges that it builds for itself — inspired a wave of research into AI self-generating environments. Clune and trainee Jenny Zhang’s recent work on OMNI (open-endedness via models of human notions of interestingness) is likewise generating great interest in the AI community. With OMNI, the team demonstrates how large language models can help AI agents select which skills are interesting to learn and, by extension, can lead to self-improving AI.

For Clune, whose move to Canada in 2021 was supported by the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, “CIFAR has been visionary in how it provides scientific funding — it finds talented scientists, gives them resources and then steps back to let them do the work.” He also notes CIFAR’s support in helping him recruit and be competitive for “some of the best students in the world.”

More profiles of the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs

AI Science

  • Adam Oberman, Mila: Leveraging math to address AI reliability
    October 09, 2023
  • Martha White, Amii: Tuning AI for real-world use
    October 06, 2023

AI for Energy & the Environment

  • Graham Taylor, Vector Institute: Using AI to track insect biodiversity loss in real time
    November 29, 2024
  • Marlos C. Machado, Amii: Using AI to make technology smarter and cleaner
    October 10, 2023
  • David Rolnick, Mila: Protecting the world’s biodiversity with AI
    October 09, 2023
  • Gennady Pekhimenko, Vector Institute: AI that teaches itself to be faster and cleaner
    October 09, 2023

AI for Health

  • Ross Mitchell, Amii: AI note-taking for doctors
    November 16, 2024
  • Russell Greiner, Amii: AI that makes precision medicine more precise
    October 09, 2023
  • Parvin Mousavi, Vector Institute: Unlocking AI-powered approaches to cancer treatment and detection
    October 09, 2023
  • Jian Tang, Mila: Finding new drugs with AI
    October 09, 2023

Responsible AI

  • Reihaneh Rabbany, Mila: Detecting misinformation online
    January 31, 2025
  • Foutse Khomh, Mila: Making the world’s AI safer
    October 09, 2023
  • Sheila McIlraith, Vector Institute: Building safe AI for the generations to come
    October 09, 2023
  • Alona Fyshe, Amii: AI that learns the way babies do
    October 09, 2023
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