PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Tom Griffiths

Tom Griffiths is a cognitive scientist whose work links human reasoning with artificial intelligence. He began writing code at age eight, studied psychology in Australia, earned three degrees at Stanford, and joined Brown in 2004. After academic appointments at Berkeley, he joined Princeton in 2018, where his models of human cognition inform machine intelligence. He coauthored Algorithms to Live By in 2016, received a Troland Research Award in 2019, and coauthored the NeurIPS 2022 Outstanding Paper on natural language and program abstractions. As of October 2026, he is a professor of psychology and computer science at Princeton; in July 2026, he was one of two co-directors of Data and Intelligent Systems.

Timeline

  1. 2004

    A Brown appointment

    In 2004, he joins Brown as an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, after earning a bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Western Australia and master's degrees in statistics and psychology and a doctorate in psychology at Stanford. He begins writing code on an Epson computer at age eight.

  2. 2006–2015

    Berkeley professorships and lab leadership

    In 2006, he moves to UC Berkeley as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program. He becomes an associate professor and director of Berkeley's Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2010, then a full professor in 2015.

  3. 2016

    Algorithms to Live By

    In 2016, he coauthors Algorithms to Live By with Brian Christian, a book that explores heuristics behind human and computer decision-making.

  4. 2018

    A joint Princeton appointment

    In 2018, he joins Princeton with a joint appointment in Computer Science and Psychology. His models of human cognition help create machines that come closer to human intelligence.

  5. 2019

    A Troland Research Award

    In 2019, he receives a Troland Research Award for his research into how people and machines make decisions.

  6. 2022

    A NeurIPS Outstanding Paper

    In 2022, he coauthors “Using natural language and program abstractions to instill human inductive biases in machines,” which wins NeurIPS's Outstanding Paper award. The paper shows that co-training agents on natural-language task descriptions and program abstractions can guide them toward human-like inductive biases.

  7. 2024

    Directing Princeton's AI Lab

    In 2024, he is the inaugural director of Princeton's Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence. The lab is an incubator that gives researchers technical expertise and GPU clusters to explore AI across disciplines.

  8. As of October 2026

    A Princeton professorship

    He is a professor of psychology and computer science at Princeton as of October 2026. In July 2026, he is one of two co-directors of Data and Intelligent Systems, Princeton's initiative for AI and data science.

Career

  1. NowPrinceton UniversityInaugural director of the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence, Professor of Psychology and Computer Science
  2. 2006–2015University of California, BerkeleyAssistant professor, Associate professor
  3. From 2004Brown UniversityAssistant professor

Education

  1. University of Western AustraliaBachelor's degree in psychology
  2. Stanford UniversityMaster's degree in statistics
  3. Stanford UniversityMaster's degree in psychology
  4. Stanford UniversityDoctorate in psychology

From the biography.

Checked career sources: alumni.princeton.edu, en.wikipedia.org, cocosci.princeton.edu, dailyprincetonian.com, shows.acast.com.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. New Social Sciences Faculty 2004 archive2.news.brown.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Tom Griffiths is decoding intelligence — both human and artificial — to think differently about how we think alumni.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Tom Griffiths (cognitive scientist) en.wikipedia.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Algorithms to Live By en.wikipedia.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Computational Cognitive Science Lab - Tom Griffiths cocosci.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. National Academy of Sciences Announces 2019 Award Winners genengnews.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. NeurIPS 2022 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. New data and AI unit quietly absorbs five research units, costing survey research director his job dailyprincetonian.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Mapping the Jagged Edges of AI | Tom Griffiths - Foresight Institute Radio | Acast shows.acast.com. Checked 27 October 2026.