PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Mario Fritz

Mario Fritz leads a research group on trustworthy AI at CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security and holds an honorary professorship at Saarland University. After postdoctoral work at the International Computer Science Institute and UC Berkeley, he was a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics from 2011 to 2018. His 2015 paper, Ask Your Neurons, written with Mateusz Malinowski and Marcus Rohrbach, proposed an end-to-end system for answering questions about images. He coordinates ELSA, the European Lighthouse on Secure and Safe AI network, and in June 2026 he joined the AI Act Scientific Panel of the European AI Office.

Timeline

  1. 2008–2010

    Postdoctoral work at ICSI and Berkeley

    He works as a postdoctoral researcher at the International Computer Science Institute and UC Berkeley from 2008 to 2010.

  2. 2011–2018

    Senior researcher at Max Planck

    He is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics from 2011 to 2018.

  3. 2015

    Answering questions about images

    With Mateusz Malinowski and Marcus Rohrbach, he posts Ask Your Neurons to arXiv in 2015, proposing Neural-Image-QA, an end-to-end system for answering questions about images.

  4. 2018

    Faculty at CISPA

    He joins CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security as faculty in 2018.

  5. 2019

    Professor at Saarland University

    He takes a professorship at Saarland University in 2019.

  6. October 2022

    Coordinating the ELSA network

    In October 2022, the ELSA network meets for the first time in Barcelona, and he is its coordinator.

  7. June 2026

    Seat on the AI Act panel

    In June 2026, he joins the AI Act Scientific Panel of the European AI Office, one of its 60 members.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and CISPA faculty

    He is an honorary professor at Saarland University and a faculty member at CISPA, where his group works on trustworthy AI and AI security.

Sources and credits

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  1. Mario Fritz | CISPA cispa.de. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. [1505.01121] Ask Your Neurons: A Neural-based Approach to Answering Questions about Images arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. ELSA network celebrates official launch in Barcelona cispa.de. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. ELSA – European Lighthouse on Secure and Safe AI elsa-ai.eu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. ELSA Coordinator Mario Fritz becomes member of AI Act Scientific Panel elsa-ai.eu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. AI Act Scientific Panel | Shaping Europe's digital future digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Mario Fritz – CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security cispa.saarland. Checked 15 October 2026.