Joëlle Pineau

Joëlle Pineau is a Canadian computer scientist known for her contributions to artificial intelligence and machine learning. A professor and William Dawson Scholar at the School of Computer Science at McGill University, Pineau co-directs the Reasoning and Learning Lab. She holds a Bachelor of Science in systems design engineering from University of Waterloo, as well as a Master of Science and a doctorate in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. Her career spans academic research, industry leadership, and advocacy for responsible science in AI.

Pineau's research centers on developing models and algorithms for planning and learning in complex, partially observable domains. She applies these methods to robotics, health care, games, and conversational agents. Pineau developed point-based value iteration for solving partially observable Markov decision processes by approximating values over a discrete set of belief points, a foundational advancement in the field. Her work also includes frameworks for reporting the energy and carbon footprints of machine learning models, promoting transparency in AI research. Pineau has led efforts to improve evaluation rigor and reproducibility in artificial intelligence, including the creation of the machine learning reproducibility checklist and oversight of annual reproducibility challenges.

Pineau served as head of the Facebook AI Research Lab in Montreal, where she led research in deep learning, reinforcement learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics. At Meta, she advocated for open and collaborative research practices that influenced the broader AI industry. Pineau later joined Cohere as chief AI officer, leading research initiatives, advising on product development, and overseeing Cohere Labs.

In addition to serving on the editorial board of Journal of Machine Learning Research and as past president of the International Machine Learning Society, Pineau has received several honors, including the NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, the Governor General Innovation Award, and election as a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for her contributions to research in machine learning, particularly Bayesian learning and planning under uncertainty. Pineau serves on the board of Partnership on AI.

Pineau's career includes leading research teams, contributing to global AI policy discussions, and advocating for reproducible science. She is a core academic member of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute and holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, contributing to the development of future AI researchers and ongoing innovation in artificial intelligence.