François Chollet is a leading French software engineer and artificial intelligence researcher currently at Google, where he has made significant contributions to the field of deep learning. He is best known as the creator of Keras, a widely adopted deep-learning library released in 2015 that has streamlined the development of neural networks. Chollet’s research interests include computer vision, machine learning applications for formal reasoning and abstraction, and advancing generality in artificial intelligence.
In 2019, Chollet published the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus for Artificial General Intelligence (ARC-AGI) benchmark, a groundbreaking framework designed to evaluate AI systems’ ability to tackle novel reasoning problems. This work has been pivotal in advancing discussions around the capabilities and limitations of current AI models, emphasizing the need for greater reasoning abilities in artificial intelligence.
In 2024, Chollet launched the ARC Prize, a $1 million competition aimed at incentivizing the development of solutions to the ARC-AGI benchmark, further encouraging innovation in the quest for artificial general intelligence. His influential work has not gone unnoticed; on December 1, 2021, he received the Global Swiss AI Award for his breakthroughs in the field.
In recognition of his impact, François Chollet was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in AI in September 2024. His ongoing commitment to advancing AI technologies continues to inspire researchers and practitioners around the world, shaping the future of artificial intelligence.