PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Bo Dai

Bo Dai is a machine learning researcher whose work connects Bayesian inference and reinforcement learning with agents that model the world to make decisions. He earned degrees at Nanjing University, the Chinese Academy of Science, Purdue University, and Georgia Tech, where Professor Le Song advised his Ph.D. He coauthored Particle Mirror Descent in 2016, SBEED in 2018, and Combiner in 2021. He joined Google Brain in September 2018 and Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in March 2023; as of October 2026, he is also a senior staff research scientist affiliated with Google DeepMind.

Works
81
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2018

    Degrees at four universities

    At Nanjing University, he earns a B.S. in computer science in 2008. At the Chinese Academy of Science, he earns an M.S. in computer science in 2011, and at Purdue University, he earns an M.S. in computer science and statistics in 2013. At Georgia Tech, he completes a Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering in 2018, working with Professor Le Song.

  2. 2016

    Particle Mirror Descent

    In 2016, he coauthors “Provable Bayesian Inference via Particle Mirror Descent,” a method that iteratively approximates a Bayesian posterior. The paper appears among AISTATS’s Notable Student Paper Awards.

  3. 2018

    SBEED for reinforcement learning

    In 2018, he coauthors “SBEED: Convergent Reinforcement Learning with Nonlinear Function Approximation,” which develops a Smoothed Bellman Error Embedding algorithm to solve a primal-dual optimization problem with differentiable function classes.

  4. September 2018

    Google Brain research

    In September 2018, he joins Google Brain as a senior staff research scientist.

  5. 2021

    Combiner for full attention

    In 2021, he coauthors Combiner, which provides full attention in each head while maintaining low computation and memory complexity.

  6. March 2023

    Assistant professor at Georgia Tech

    In March 2023, he joins Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering.

  7. 2025–2026

    Reinforcement learning talks

    In November 2025, he presents a Harvard seminar titled “Representation-based Reinforcement Learning: Bridging World Model and Policy via Spectral Representations.” In March 2026, he gives an invited talk on exploration from a primal-dual optimization lens in reinforcement learning.

  8. As of October 2026

    Georgia Tech and DeepMind roles

    As of October 2026, he is an assistant professor at Georgia Tech and a senior staff research scientist affiliated with Google DeepMind. He focuses on agent AI built on generative models, representation, and reinforcement learning, aiming to create agents with decision-making and planning abilities through world modeling.

Career

  1. Since 2023Georgia Institute of TechnologyAssistant Professor
  2. NowGoogle DeepMindSenior Staff Research Scientist
  3. From 2018Google BrainSenior Staff Research Scientist

Education

  1. 2018Georgia Institute of TechnologyPh.D. in Computational Science and Engineering
  2. 2013Purdue UniversityM.S. in computer science and statistics
  3. 2011Chinese Academy of SciencesM.S. in computer science
  4. 2008Nanjing UniversityB.S. in computer science

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Bo Dai. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. bdai6 | College of Computing cc.gatech.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Bo Dai | School of Computational Science and Engineering cse.gatech.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Notable Student Posters | Artificial Intelligence and Statistics Conference (AISTATS 2016) aistats.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Provable Bayesian Inference via Particle Mirror Descent proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. SBEED: Convergent Reinforcement Learning with Nonlinear Function Approximation proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Bo Dai's Homepage bo-dai.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Combiner: Full Attention Transformer with Sparse Computation Cost proceedings.neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Representation-based Reinforcement Learning: Bridging World Model and Policy via Spectral Representations - Harvard SEAS events.seas.harvard.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. CSE Biweekly Roundup: January - June 2026 | School of Computational Science and Engineering cse.gatech.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.