Toby Walsh

Toby Walsh is a British computer scientist recognized for his expertise in artificial intelligence. He serves as chief scientist at UNSW.ai, the AI Institute of UNSW Sydney, and as a laureate fellow and professor of artificial intelligence in the UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering and Data61. Walsh is noted for his work in social choice, constraint programming, and propositional satisfiability.

Walsh has held leadership roles in academic publishing, including editor-in-chief of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and AI Communications, and has chaired major conferences such as the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. He holds an M.A. in theoretical physics and mathematics from the University of Cambridge and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. Google Scholar ranks Walsh at number one globally for computational social choice, constraints, and satisfiability. He has received awards including the Humboldt Prize and the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. Walsh is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the European Association for Artificial Intelligence.

As an author, Walsh has written five books on artificial intelligence for general audiences. His titles include "It's Alive!: Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots," "2062: The World that AI Made," "Machines Behaving Badly: the Morality of AI," "Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World," and "The Shortest History of AI." These books, which address the history, societal impact, and ethical challenges of AI, are available in 10 languages, including Chinese, German, Korean, Polish, and Vietnamese.

Walsh is active in AI policy and advocacy, particularly regarding the responsible use of artificial intelligence. He initiated two open letters urging the United Nations to address lethal autonomous weapons, with one letter signed by thousands of AI researchers and another by more than 100 founders of AI and robotics companies. Walsh has spoken on this issue at the United Nations in New York and Geneva and delivered a talk at TEDxBerlin. His advocacy has resulted in being banned indefinitely from Russia. In the policy arena, Walsh chaired the learned academies expert group advising the Australian government on AI and has worked with government departments such as Education, Industry, and the Attorney General's office, as well as the Human Rights Commission, to promote beneficial outcomes from AI technologies.

Walsh frequently appears in the media discussing the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on society. He has been featured on ABC, BBC, CNN, and NPR, and his writing has appeared in New Scientist, American Scientist, Technology Review, the New York Times, the Guardian, and "The Best Writing in Mathematics." The Australian named him as one of the "rock stars" of Australia's digital revolution. Walsh's career encompasses AI research, authorship, and policy advocacy, contributing to the global conversation on artificial intelligence and its societal implications.