Acquisition and mobilization of knowledge with neural networks: perspective and application to biodiversity
Hugo Larochelle - Mila
Nov. 7, 2025, 2:30 p.m. - Nov. 7, 2025, 3:30 p.m.
ENGMD 279
Hosted by: Doina Precup
In this talk, I’ll share my thoughts on the state of progress in designing AI systems with neural networks. I’ll frame a perspective that views our success as relying on two separate and equally critical steps, that I refer to as neural knowledge acquisition and neural knowledge mobilization. I’ll describe my own research journey from that point of view and highlight how I'm currently leveraging this approach to tackle biodiversity applications.
Hugo Larochelle is Scientific Director at Mila - Quebec AI Institute. His academic research on the foundations of deep learning has contributed several conceptual breakthroughs found in modern AI systems. Previously, he was Principal Scientist in the Google DeepMind team in Montreal, and has also been Associate Professor at the University of Sherbrooke. Through the years, he has played an active role in shaping the AI scientific community, including serving on the boards for the NeurIPS and ICML conferences, two top academic conferences for the field of AI, and co-founding the Transactions on Machine Learning Research journal.
