Max Bennett

How is it possible that AI can now beat a grandmaster in chess but still can’t load a dishwasher? Max Bennett explains how we can gain a fuller picture of AI’s current and future capacity by looking at the five major breakthroughs that shaped human intelligence (like the one that gave us an internal model of the external world, which AI is still missing). In brilliant and accessible talks, he reveals what the brains of yesterday can tell us about the AI of tomorrow.

In 2013, Max founded Bluecore, one of the very first AI unicorns. He cashed out a few years ago and used his time to explore, in tantalizing detail, the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, HI (Human Intelligence), and AI, which resulted in the visionary and widely acclaimed book A Brief History of Intelligence, one of the great books of the decade. Max is now embarking on a new entrepreneurial venture which utilizes next-generation AI thinking and architecture. He combines academic curiosity with an entrepreneur’s pragmatism to provide audiences with a roadmap for our future with AI.

Max was the cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Bluecore, one of the fastest growing companies in the United States, which uses AI to help some of the largest brands in the world personalize their marketing. It was recently valued at over $1 billion, has been ranked numerous times on Inc.‘s list of the 500 fastest growing companies in the US, and won the 2018 Glassdoor Best Places to Work award. Bluecore is used by 25% of the top 100 retailers in the US.

He is the cofounder & CEO of Alby, an AI company based in New York City. Prior to Alby and Bluecore, he was a trader at Goldman Sachs. He holds several patents for AI-related technologies, and has published numerous research papers in peer reviewed journals on the topics of evolutionary neuroscience and intelligence.

He is also the author of A Brief History of Intelligence, a paradigm shift in how we understand neuroscience and AI. He synthesizes decades of research on evolutionary neuroscience, comparative psychology, and artificial intelligence into a new understanding of human intelligence—and what it means for the technological innovation of the future. The book has been hailed by the world’s top voices in neuroscience, psychology, and AI: from Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman to grit pioneer Angela Duckworth. Google DeepMind’s Dileep George, cofounder of Vicarious AI, writes, “If you are interested in understanding brains or in building human-like general AI, you should read this book.”

Max graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, summa cum laude, with a BA in economics and mathematics, where he won the John M. Olin prize for the best economics honors thesis. He has been featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list.