Textbook of AI

1962–, Computer scientist

Stuart Jonathan Russell is a British computer scientist at UC Berkeley whose 1995 textbook Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (with Peter Norvig, now in its 4th edition) is the standard undergraduate AI textbook. The "rational agent" framing it introduced organised the field for a generation, and the book has been translated into over fifteen languages.

Since the early 2010s Russell has been one of the most prominent voices on the long-term risks of advanced AI. His 2019 book Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control argues that the standard model of AI, building agents that pursue fixed objectives, must be replaced by inverse reward design: agents that maintain uncertainty over what humans want and learn the objective from observation. He founded the Center for Human-Compatible AI at Berkeley in 2016.

Russell has been a central figure in AI policy discussions, frequently testifying to governments and international bodies on the regulation of advanced AI.