Joshua Tenenbaum


Joshua Brett Tenenbaum is Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for contributions to mathematical psychology and Bayesian cognitive science. Tenenbaum previously taught at Stanford University, where he was the Wasow Visiting Fellow from October 2010 to January 2011.

Biography

Tenenbaum grew up in California. His mother is a teacher, and his father is Internet commerce pioneer Jay Martin Tenenbaum.
His research direction was strongly influenced by his parents' interest in teaching and learning, and later by interactions with cognitive psychologist Roger Shepard, during his years at Yale.
Tenenbaum received his undergraduate degree in physics from Yale University in 1993, and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1999. His work focuses on analyzing probabilistic inference as the engine of human cognition and as a means to develop machine learning.
At MIT, where he leads the Computational Cognitive Science lab, he is also head of an AI project called the MIT Quest for Intelligence.
In 2018, R & D Magazine named Tenenbaum their "Innovator of the Year."
In 2019, Tenenbaum was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Books

Tenenbaum contributed one chapter to the 2018 book Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building it by the American futurist Martin Ford.