Paul Jorion

Paul Jorion is an anthropologist whose work in artificial intelligence runs from the Anella associative network he built at British Telecom's Connex unit to the Self-Aware Machines of his start-up Pribor. After a doctorate in the social sciences at the Free University of Brussels, he taught social anthropology at Brussels and Cambridge until 1984, and from 1987 to 1990 he worked in AI in Paris and at Connex, publishing Principes des systèmes intelligents in 1989. Between 1998 and 2007 he was a pricing specialist in American finance, and he held the Stewardship of Finance chair at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel from 2012 to 2015. In June 2022 he co-founded Pribor with Manuel Guérin, and in 2024 he published L'Avènement de la Singularité, which places the Singularity in March 2023, with the release of GPT-4. He is an associate professor at the Université catholique de Lille.

Now at: Catholic University of Lille
Born: 1946
Works: 163
Citations: 1,074
h-index: 11
Badges: Founder
Bridge
Wayfarer

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

1977–1984

Houat doctorate and kinship algebra

Jorion earns a doctorate in the social sciences at the Free University of Brussels in 1977, with a thesis on coastal fishing in Brittany based on fieldwork among the fishers of Houat. He teaches social anthropology at Brussels from 1977 to 1979 and at Cambridge from 1979 to 1984. A student of Claude Lévi-Strauss and the mathematician Georges-Théodule Guilbaud, he works on algebraic models of kinship, solving the marriage pattern of the Pende of the Congo with Gisèle De Meur and Trudeke Vuyk.
1987–1990

Anella at British Telecom

From 1987 to 1990 he works as an artificial-intelligence researcher, a member of the Laboratoire d'informatique pour les sciences humaines at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris and of Connex, British Telecom's AI unit. For Connex he develops Anella, the Associative Network with Emergent Logical and Learning Abilities. His first book on artificial intelligence, Principes des systèmes intelligents, is published by Masson in 1989.
1998–2007

Pricing specialist in American finance

From 1998 to 2007 he works in the American financial world as a pricing specialist. By 2005 he foresees the coming global financial crisis, and his book Vers la crise du capitalisme américain? appears in full in January 2007.
2012–2015

Stewardship of Finance chair

In 2012 the Vrije Universiteit Brussel makes him holder of its newly created Stewardship of Finance chair, which he holds until 2015.
Since 2016

Associate professor in Lille

Since March 2016 he is associate professor at the Université catholique de Lille, in the ETHICS research field (Ethics on experiment, Transhumanism, Human Interactions, Care & Society).
Since 2020

AI4People ethics committees

Since early 2020 he belongs to two committees of AI4People, a project of the Atomium–European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy, where he works on the ethics of artificial intelligence in banking, finance and insurance.
Since 2022

Co-founding Pribor

In 2021 renewed interest in AI for the Freudian model brings him back to his earlier AI work, and in June 2022 he co-founds Pribor with Manuel Guérin, a start-up that builds on Anella to develop Self-Aware Machines (SAM). In 2023 he describes the Anella approach as a bottom-up, more transparent alternative to top-down large language models.
2024

A book on the Singularity

Éditions Textuel publishes his book L'Avènement de la Singularité in 2024. It places the Singularity in March 2023, with the release of GPT-4.

Career

Since 2016Catholic University of LilleAssociate professor
From 2022PriborCo-founder
2012–2015Vrije Universiteit BrusselStewardship of Finance chair
1987–1990Foundation Maison des sciences de l'hommeArtificial-intelligence researcher
1987–1990British TelecomArtificial-intelligence researcher
1979–1984University of CambridgeSocial anthropology teacher
1977–1979Free University of BrusselsSocial anthropology teacher