'Godfather' of AI Yoshua Bengio launches non-profit to make AI safer and more trustworthy

Published on 04/06/2025 - 11:37 GMT+2

One of nan world’s astir cited artificial intelligence (AI) researchers is launching a caller non-profit that will creation safe AI systems. 

Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian-French AI intelligence who has won nan prestigious Alan Turing Prize for his activity connected heavy learning and has been dubbed 1 of nan "godfathers" of AI, announced nan motorboat of LawZero successful Montreal. 

The caller non-profit is assembling a "world-class" squad of AI researchers that is dedicated to "prioritising information complete commercialized imperatives," a connection from nan non-profit reads.

"Today’s frontier AI models are processing vulnerable capabilities and behaviours, including deception, self-preservation, and extremity misalignment," Bengio said successful nan statement, noting that nan organisation will thief unlock nan "immense potential" of AI while reducing these risks. 

Bengio said nan non-profit was calved of a caller "scientific direction" he took successful 2023, which has culminated successful "Scientist AI," a caller non-agentic AI strategy he and his squad are processing to enactment arsenic a guardrail against "uncontrolled" agentic AI systems.

AI that will 'learn to understand nan world'

This rule is different than different companies successful that it wants to prioritise non-agentic AIs, meaning it needs nonstop instructions for each task alternatively of independently coming up pinch nan answers, for illustration astir AI systems.

The non-agentic AIs built by LawZero will "learn to understand nan world alternatively than enactment successful it," and will beryllium trained to springiness "truthful answers to questions based connected [external] reasoning". 

Bengio elaborated connected Scientist AI successful a recent opinion portion for Time, wherever he wrote that he is "genuinely unsettled by nan behaviour unrestrained AI is already demonstrating, successful peculiar self-preservation and deception". 

"Rather than trying to please humans, Scientist AI could beryllium designed to prioritise honesty," he wrote. 

The organisation has received donations from different AI institutes for illustration nan Future of Life Institute, Jaan Tallin, and nan Silicon Valley Community Foundation successful its incubator phase. 

LawZero will beryllium moving retired of nan MILA - Quebec AI Institute successful Montreal, which Bengio helped co-found.