PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Hugo de Garis

Hugo de Garis is a retired Australian AI researcher who tried to grow artificial brains from evolved neural circuits and who warned of a coming war over superintelligent machines. After a start in theoretical physics, he earned a PhD in artificial intelligence and artificial life from Brussels University in 1991 and led the Brain Builder Group at ATR in Japan, where the CAM-Brain Machine evolved neural network modules in about a second. His 2005 book The Artilect War pictured humanity splitting into Cosmists, who back godlike "artilects", and Terrans, who oppose them. He taught at Utah State University from 2001 to 2006, then directed the Artificial Brain Lab at Xiamen University in China before retiring in 2010. Since 2012, he has posted free graduate-level lectures in mathematics, physics and computer theory, and he spoke at Future Day 2025 about humanity's choice over artilects.

Timeline

  1. By 1991

    From physics to an AI doctorate

    Born in Sydney in 1947, he starts out as a theoretical physicist working with David Bohm, then turns to artificial intelligence. He earns a PhD in artificial intelligence and artificial life from Brussels University in 1991.

  2. 1993–2000

    The Brain Builder Group at ATR

    From 1993 to 2000, he works at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) in Japan, where he heads the Brain Builder Group. At ATR's Human Information Processing Research Laboratories, he aims to build a billion-neuron "CAM-Brain" by 2001, drawing on evolvable hardware, a field he helps start in 1992.

  3. 1999–2000

    The CAM-Brain Machine

    Visiting Berkeley Lab in January 1999, he describes Robokoneko, a robot kitten to be run by a 40-million-neuron brain made of up to 32,000 evolved modules. A 2000 ATR report with Michael Korkin and Katsunori Shimohara presents the FPGA-based CAM-Brain Machine, which uses a genetic algorithm to evolve a module of about 1,000 neurons in about a second.

  4. 2000–2006

    Starlab and Utah State University

    He moves to Starlab in Brussels in 2000; Starlab goes bankrupt in 2001, and his last CAM-Brain paper appears in 2002. From 2001 to 2006, he is an associate professor of computer science at Utah State University, and in June 2006 he joins the advisory board of Novamente, a company aiming at artificial general intelligence.

  5. 2005

    The Artilect War

    In 2005, he publishes The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans, which predicts that superintelligent "artilects" will divide humanity into Cosmists who support them and Terrans who oppose them, ending in a war with billions of deaths. The book closes with his own choice: he is a Cosmist.

  6. 2006–2010

    The China Brain Project

    After 2006, he teaches theoretical physics and computer science at Xiamen University and Wuhan University. As director of the Artificial Brain Lab at Xiamen, he leads the China Brain Project, a 10.5 million RMB effort planned for 2008 to 2011 to build China's first artificial brain from evolved neural net modules. He retires in late 2010.

  7. Since 2012

    Free graduate lectures online

    After retiring in 2010, he takes up intensive study of PhD-level pure mathematics and mathematical physics. In 2012, he begins videoing graduate-level home lectures in pure mathematics, mathematical physics and computer theory and posting them online for students to use for free.

  8. 2025

    A Future Day 2025 talk

    At Future Day 2025, he argues that machines will soon become vastly more intelligent than humans. Humanity, he says, must choose between accepting second place in intelligence and a global ban on building artilects.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Hugo de Garis yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Hugo de Garis - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. The Krasnow Institute: Abstracts – Dr. Hugo de Garis krasnow1.gmu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Hugo de Garis: Mad Scientist, Brain Builder, Visionary Pessimist goertzel.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Robot To Demonstrate Evolvable Neural Network Hardware www2.lbl.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. TR-H-0295: ATR's "CAM-Brain Machine" (CBM) and Artificial Brains results.atr.jp. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Hugo de Garis on AI: Are We Building Gods or Terminators? singularityweblog.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. The China Brain project and the future of industry | dw2 dw2blog.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. profhugodegaris | Species Dominance, Artilects, Artilect War, Cosmists, Terrans, Gigadeath, Essays, Media, etc profhugodegaris.wordpress.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. Hugo de Garis – AI, Humanity, and the Longer Term – Science, Technology & the Future scifuture.org. Checked 19 October 2026.