Ben Goertzel
Also known as Benjamin Goertzel
Ben Goertzel is an AI researcher whose work centers on artificial general intelligence (AGI). He earned a mathematics PhD at Temple University, and in 2014 he co-wrote Engineering General Intelligence with Cassio Pennachin and Nil Geisweiller. OpenCog, a framework built on source code released in 2008, rests on a Prime architecture that is mainly his work. He now leads the SingularityNET Foundation, the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society. In 2026 he said that accepting funding from Jeffrey Epstein had been a mistake.
- Now at
- SingularityNET Foundation, OpenCog Foundation and Humanity+
- Works
- 457
- Citations
- 4,639
- h-index
- 32
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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By 1990
A mathematics PhD at Temple
He completes a mathematics PhD under Avi Lin at Temple University by 1990.
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2008
The OpenCog AGI framework
OpenCog starts from source code released in 2008, and its OpenCog Prime architecture is mainly his work.
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2014
Engineering general intelligence
With Cassio Pennachin and Nil Geisweiller he publishes Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1, on advanced AGI, in 2014.
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2017
Chief scientist at Hanson Robotics
As chief scientist of Hanson Robotics, he leads the software team behind Sophia, and in 2017 he appears with her at a press conference during Web Summit in Lisbon.
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2026
Regret over Epstein funding
In 2026 he says that accepting funding from Jeffrey Epstein had been a mistake.
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As of October 2026
Heading the SingularityNET Foundation
He leads the SingularityNET Foundation, the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society, and he chairs the futurist nonprofit Humanity+.
Sources and credits
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