Toby Walsh is a Laureate fellow, and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

in the

UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering The UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is part of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering and was founded in 1991 out of the former Department of Computer Science within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.Hamp ...

at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

and

Data61 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

(formerly

NICTA NICTA (formerly named National ICT Australia Ltd) was Australia's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence and is now known as CSIRO's Data61. The term "Centre of Excellence" is common marketing terminology u ...

). He has served as Scientific Director of

, Australia's centre of excellence for ICT research. He is noted for his work in artificial intelligence, especially in the areas of

social choice Social choice theory or social choice is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a ''collective decision'' or ''social welfare'' in some sense.Amartya Sen (2008). "Soci ...

constraint programming Constraint programming (CP) is a paradigm for solving combinatorial problems that draws on a wide range of techniques from artificial intelligence, computer science, and operations research. In constraint programming, users declaratively state th ...

and

propositional satisfiability In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfie ...

. He has served on the Executive Council on the

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artif ...

. He received an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in theoretical physics and mathematics from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and a

M.Sc. 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 ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degree in artificial intelligence from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He has held research positions in Australia, England, Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Scotland, and Sweden. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research The ''Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research'' (''JAIR'') is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in all areas of artificial intelligence. History It was established in 1993 as one of the first scientific journa ...

, and of AI Communications. He was chaired several conferences in the area of

including the

International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) is the leading conference in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The conference series has been organized by the nonprofit IJCAI Organization since 1969, making it the oldest p ...

. He is Editor of the Handbook of Constraint Programming, and of the Handbook of Satisfiability. He proposed the idea of Turing red flag laws which require any AI system to identify itself as a computer program to prevent human confusion. In 2015, he helped release an open letter calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons that attracted over 20,000 signatures. He later gave a talk at TEDxBerlin on this topic. In 2017, he organized an open letter calling for a ban signed by over 100 founders of AI and Robotics companies including

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

, Mustafa Suleyman and Jüergen Schmidhuber. Also in 2017, he organized a letter to the Prime Minister of Australia calling for Australia to negotiate towards a ban signed by over one hundred researchers from Australia working on artificial intelligence. In 2022, he was one of 121 prominent Australians banned from travelling to Russia indefinitely for his outspoken criticism of the use of AI by the Russian military. In 2018, he chaired the Expert Working Group of the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) preparing a Horizon Scanning Report on the "''Deployment of Artificial Intelligence and what it presents for Australia"'' at the request of Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, and on behalf of the Commonwealth Science Council. Additionally, he was interviewed on

ABC Comedy ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment progra ...

Tom Ballard Thomas Colin Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. Early life Ballard was born to parents Judy and Neil Ballard and grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. He attended Brauer Secondary College ...

, discussing the "robot revolution". He is the author of three books on artificial intelligence for a general audience: ''"It's Alive!: Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots"'' which looks at the history and present of AI, ''"2062: The World that AI Made"'' which looks at the potential impact AI will have on our society, and ''"Machines Behaving Badly: the Morality of AI"'' which looks at the ethical challenges of AI. All three books are published by Black Inc. The books are available in ten different languages: Chinese, English, German, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Taiwanese, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Honors and awards

In 2020, he was elected a

Fellow of the ACM A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

and a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

. In 2018, he was runner up in the Arms Control Association's annual Person/s of the Year Award. In 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

, won the NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT, and was made Scientia Professor at UNSW. In 2015, the Association for Constraint Programming presented him with their Research Excellence Award which identifies and honours the most influential people in the field. In 2014, he won a

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the

for "significant and sustained contributions to automated deduction and constraint programming, and for extraordinary service to the AI community". In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the

European Association for Artificial Intelligence The European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) (formerly European Co-ordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI)) is the representative body for the European artificial intelligence community. EurAI was established in 19 ...

in recognition of "significant, sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence".

References

External links

Toby Walsh's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Toby Artificial intelligence researchers British computer scientists Australian computer scientists Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Cambridge Living people 1964 births Fellows of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence