Blaise Agüera y Arcas

Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a software engineer, artificial intelligence (AI) researcher, software architect, author, and Vice President and Fellow at Google Research. A recognized authority on computer vision, machine intelligence, and computational photography, at Google he leads a pioneering team dedicated to advancing AI for mobile devices. He is also the founder of Google's Artists and Machine Intelligence Program, which teams up machine learning engineers and artists to create art.

Previously, Agüera y Arcas was a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, a role in which he served as the architect of Bing Maps and Bing Mobile. He joined Microsoft after his own start-up company, Seadragon, was acquired for its groundbreaking technology, which enabled seamless browsing of graphics and photos with large file sizes on the web. Agüera y Arcas has a broad background in computer science and applied math and has worked in a variety of fields, including computational neuroscience, computational drug design, and data compression.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Agüera y Arcas is a prolific writer and speaker, recognized for his thought-provoking insights on the intersection of art, technology, and society. His essays and publications have garnered widespread acclaim, with his book "Who Are We Now?" and his novella, "Ubi Sunt." "Ubi Sunt" won the AIGA 50 Books 50 Covers Award in 2022.

Agüera y Arcas' accolades include the MIT Technology Review’s TR35 Prize and Fast Company’s Most Creative People Award.