Ian J. Goodfellow (born 1987) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

, engineer, and executive, most noted for his work on

artificial neural networks Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected unit ...

and

deep learning Deep learning (also known as deep structured learning) is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks with representation learning. Learning can be supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised. De ...

. He was previously employed as a research scientist at Google Brain and director of machine learning at Apple and has made several important contributions to the field of

including the invention of the generative adversarial network (GAN). Goodfellow co-wrote, as the first author, the textbook ''Deep Learning'' (2016) and wrote the chapter on deep learning in the authoritative textbook of the field of artificial intelligence, '' Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach'' (used in more than 1,500 universities in 135 countries).

Education

Goodfellow obtained his B.S. and

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in computer science from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

under the supervision of

Andrew Ng Andrew Yan-Tak Ng (; born 1976) is a British-born American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur focusing on machine learning and AI. Ng was a co-founder and head of Google Brain and was the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, building ...

(co-founder and head of Google Brain), and his Ph.D. in machine learning from the Université de Montréal in April 2014, under the supervision of

Yoshua Bengio Yoshua Bengio (born March 5, 1964) is a Canadian computer scientist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks and deep learning. He is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the Université de ...

and Aaron Courville. Goodfellow's thesis is titled ''Deep learning of representations and its application to computer vision''.

Career

After graduation, Goodfellow joined Google as part of the Google Brain research team. In March 2016 he left Google to join the newly founded OpenAI research laboratory. Barely 11 months later, in March 2017, Goodfellow returned to Google Research but left again in 2019. In 2019 Goodfellow joined Apple as director of machine learning in the Special Projects Group. He resigned from Apple in April 2022 to protest Apple's plan to require in-person work for its employees. Goodfellow then joined

DeepMind DeepMind Technologies is a British artificial intelligence subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. and research laboratory founded in 2010. DeepMind was List of mergers and acquisitions by Google, acquired by Google in 2014 and became a wholly owned subsid ...

as a research scientist.

Research

Goodfellow is best known for inventing

generative adversarial networks A generative adversarial network (GAN) is a class of machine learning frameworks designed by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in June 2014. Two neural networks contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is a ...

(GAN), using deep learning to generate images. This approach uses two neural networks to competitively improve an image's quality. A “generator” network creates a synthetic image based on an initial set of images such as a collection of faces. A “discriminator” network tries to detect whether or not the generator's output is real or fake. Then the generate-detect cycle is repeated. For each iteration, the generator and the discriminator use the other's feedback to improve or detect the generated images, until the discriminator can no longer distinguish between the fakes generated by its opponent and the real thing. The ability to create high quality generated imagery has increased rapidly. Unfortunately, so has its malicious use, to create

deepfakes Deepfakes (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerful ...

and generate video-based disinformation. At Google, Goodfellow developed a system enabling Google Maps to automatically transcribe addresses from photos taken by Street View cars and demonstrated security vulnerabilities of machine learning systems.

Recognition

In 2017, Goodfellow was cited in MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35. In 2019, he was included in

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

's list of 100 Global Thinkers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodfellow, Ian American computer scientists American artificial intelligence researchers Google employees Living people Machine learning researchers Scientists from San Francisco Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Université de Montréal alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Apple Inc. employees 1987 births