PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ali Borji

Also known as A Borji, A. Borji

Ali Borji is a computer-vision researcher whose work links visual attention, image saliency and machine learning. He earned degrees in computer engineering at the Petroleum University of Technology and Shiraz University, completed a PhD in computational neuroscience at IPM in Tehran, and worked at Bonn and USC before joining faculty at UWM and UCF. His work includes CAT2000, a visual-saliency dataset built from 4,000 images, a review of deep saliency models, research on human and machine tracking, and an analysis of ChatGPT failures. From 2019 to 2021, he held roles at Markable and HCL; as of October 2026, he is an ML engineer at PrimerAI and founder and CEO of Quintic AI.

Now at
PrimerAI and Quintic AI
Works
225
Citations
20,339
h-index
53
Badges
Links
Website and LinkedIn

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001–2009

    Engineering degrees and a PhD

    He earns a B.S. in computer engineering from the Petroleum University of Technology in 2001 and an M.S. from Shiraz University in 2004. He completes a PhD in computational neurosciences at the Institute for Studies in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) in Tehran in 2009.

  2. 2009–2014

    Postdoctoral work in Bonn and USC

    He works with Dr. Simone Frintrop at the University of Bonn from May 2009 to March 2010, then serves as a postdoctoral scholar at USC's iLab from March 2010 to August 2014.

  3. 2014–2016

    Assistant professor at UWM and UCF

    He joins the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee as an assistant professor in fall 2014 and moves to UCF's Center for Research in Computer Vision in January 2016.

  4. 2015

    The CAT2000 fixation dataset

    With Laurent Itti, he introduces CAT2000 in 2015, a saliency dataset built from eye movements of 120 observers viewing 4,000 naturalistic and artificial images.

  5. 2018–2019

    Reviewing deep-learning saliency models

    He submits his review in October 2018 and revises it in May 2019. It compares image and video saliency models across two image benchmarks and two large video datasets, examining factors behind the gap between models and human performance.

  6. 2019–2021

    Roles at Markable and HCL

    In 2019, he becomes a senior research scientist at Markable, then a solution director at HCL Technologies from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, he coauthors a review of multiple-target tracking that connects neuroscience research with biologically inspired computer-vision methods while employed by HCL America.

  7. 2023–2026

    ChatGPT failures and 2026 vision work

    In 2023, he analyzes ChatGPT's failures across eleven categories, including reasoning, factual errors, math, coding and bias. In 2026, he serves on AAAI's program committee as a PrimerAI affiliate and coauthors a Quintic AI paper on skin-lesion segmentation with SAMv2.

  8. Since 2021

    Founder and CEO of Quintic AI

    He is an ML engineer at PrimerAI and the founder and CEO of Quintic AI.

Career

  1. Since 2021Quintic AIFounder and CEO
  2. NowPrimerAIML Engineer
  3. 2020–2021HCL TechnologiesSolution Director
  4. 2020HCL America
  5. 2019MarkableSenior Research Scientist
  6. 2016University of Central FloridaAssistant Professor
  7. 2014–2016University of Wisconsin–MilwaukeeAssistant Professor
  8. 2010–2014University of Southern CaliforniaPostdoctoral Scholar
  9. 2009–2010University of BonnPostdoctoral researcher
  10. 2007–2009Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences

Education

  1. 2009Institute for Studies in Fundamental SciencesPhD in computational neurosciences
  2. 2004Shiraz UniversityM.S.
  3. 2001Petroleum University of TechnologyB.S. in computer engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Ali Borji. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Southern California. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Universities had a net outflow of 2,068 moves in AI careersIncludes University of Southern California. Our estimates of career flows and median h-index across universities and companies in AI, including the role of joint appointments and earlier academic jobs.
  4. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of Southern California. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Ali Borji yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Tutorials & Workshops, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing 2015.ieeeicip.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Ali Borji aliborji.brandyourself.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. [1505.03581] CAT2000: A Large Scale Fixation Dataset for Boosting Saliency Research arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. [1810.03716] Saliency Prediction in the Deep Learning Era: Successes, Limitations, and Future Challenges arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Multiple-target tracking in human and machine vision | PLOS Computational Biology journals.plos.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. ali borji (PrimerAI): visual saliency — Lacuna lacuna.tiptreesystems.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. [2302.03494] A Categorical Archive of ChatGPT Failures arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. 2026 Program Committee - AAAI aaai.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. IEEE ICASSP 2026 || Barcelona, Spain || 4-8 May 2026 cmsworkshops.com. Checked 20 October 2026.