PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Blake Richards

Also known as Blake A. Richards

Blake Richards is a neuroscientist and AI researcher whose papers connect biological learning with machine intelligence. He earned a degree in cognitive science and artificial intelligence at the University of Toronto in 2004, completed a neuroscience doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2010 and held a Banting postdoctoral fellowship at SickKids from 2011 to 2013. He coauthored work on segregated dendrites in 2016, received a CIFAR Canada AI Chair in 2018, won the Canadian Association for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in 2019 and received the Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship in 2022. His later work included a 2025 study of language-model representations and a 2026 paper on brain-inspired AI efficiency, and as of October 2026 he is a research scientist with Google's Paradigms of Intelligence team, a part-time associate professor at McGill and a core faculty member at Mila.

Timeline

  1. 2004–2013

    Degrees and postdoctoral work

    He earns a BSc in cognitive science and AI at the University of Toronto in 2004, completes a neuroscience PhD at the University of Oxford in 2010, and is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at SickKids Hospital from 2011 to 2013.

  2. 2016–2017

    Towards deep learning with segregated dendrites

    He coauthors “Towards deep learning with segregated dendrites” in 2016. The paper shows that deep learning can be achieved with segregated dendritic compartments.

  3. 2018

    A CIFAR Canada AI Chair

    He receives a CIFAR Canada AI Chair in 2018.

  4. 2019

    A neuroscience and AI award

    He wins the Canadian Association for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in 2019 for work at the intersection of neuroscience and AI.

  5. 2022

    An Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship

    He receives the NSERC Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship in 2022.

  6. 2025

    Language-model representations

    In 2025, he coauthors “Tracing the Representation Geometry of Language Models from Pretraining to Post-training,” using spectral methods to examine how language-model representations change during pretraining.

  7. 2026

    Brain-inspired energy efficiency

    He coauthors “Looking to the brain to improve energy efficiency of AI” in 2026. The article describes the energy cost of training and running large-scale models as an environmental, economic and social challenge.

  8. As of October 2026

    Google and McGill roles

    He is a research scientist with Google's Paradigms of Intelligence team, a part-time associate professor at McGill University and a core faculty member at Mila. His research connects neuroscience with AI through questions about learning in natural and artificial agents.

Career

  1. NowGoogleResearch Scientist
  2. NowMcGill UniversityPart-Time Associate Professor
  3. NowMilaCore Faculty Member
  4. 2011–2013Hospital for Sick ChildrenBanting Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 2010University of OxfordPhD in Neuroscience
  2. 2004University of TorontoBSc in Cognitive Science and AI

From the biography.

Videos

YouTube videos in which Blake Richards speaks or appears, newest first. A model chose them from YouTube search results. List updated 21 October 2026.

  1. Sensory Prediction Error Signals in the Neocortex with Blake Richards - #331The TWIML AI Podcast with Sam Charrington · 24 December 2019 · 41 min

Video data from YouTube API Services. By watching you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. How we use YouTube data.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  3. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Google. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  4. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Google. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.

Sources and credits

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  1. Blake Richards, PhD | The Neuro - McGill University mcgill.ca. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Towards deep learning with segregated dendrites | arXiv arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Blake Richards is the 2019 CAN Young Investigator awardee | Canadian Association for Neuroscience can-acn.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Tracing the Representation Geometry of Language Models from Pretraining to Post-training | Google Research research.google. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Looking to the brain to improve energy efficiency of AI | Google Research research.google. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Blake Richards wins Schmidt Sciences Polymaths Award | Research and Innovation - McGill University mcgill.ca. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Blake Richards | Google Research research.google. Checked 20 October 2026.