Hugo Larochelle has been appointed as the new Scientific Director of Mila, Quebec's leading AI research institute, starting September 2, 2025, succeeding Laurent Charlin.

Larochelle aims to lead Mila towards major scientific breakthroughs while contributing positively to society, emphasizing open and socially beneficial AI research.

He is recognized for his significant contributions to AI, including popularizing autoregressive neural network modeling and advancing modern AI systems.

Larochelle's background includes roles in academia and industry, such as co-founding Whetlab, which was acquired by Twitter, and leading Google's Montreal AI research lab, Google Brain.

He trained under prominent AI figures Yoshua Bengio at Université de Montréal and Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto, both highly influential in the field.

Larochelle's appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Canada's AI landscape, with Mila being the world's largest academic deep learning research center, based in Montreal with over 1,500 researchers.

He will chair Mila’s Scientific Council and steer its research strategy, following a rigorous selection process by Mila's leadership.

Larochelle is known for his previous role as head of Google's AI research lab in Montreal and as an adjunct professor at Université de Montréal.

His leadership is expected to foster major scientific breakthroughs and reinforce Mila's position as a global leader in AI research.