ニール・D・ローレンスは、機械学習研究者。ケンブリッジ大学初代DeepMind機械学習教授を務め、同大学のAI研究構想「ai@cam」を率いる。サウサンプトン大学で機械工学を学び、北海油田のフィールドエンジニアを経て、ケンブリッジ大学で博士号を取得。確率モデルや機械学習を現実社会に導入する際の課題を研究し、シェフィールド大学教授、Amazonの機械学習部門ディレクターなどを歴任した。『The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI』（未邦訳）では、AIの処理能力だけでなく、人間が経験や文脈を踏まえ、責任を引き受けながら判断する存在であることに注目し、機械に意思決定を委ねる範囲をどのように定めるべきかを論じている。
Neil D. Lawrence is a machine-learning researcher and the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge, where he leads ai@cam, the university’s flagship AI mission. After studying mechanical engineering at the University of Southampton and working as a field engineer on North Sea oil rigs, he earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge. His research focuses on probabilistic models and the challenges of deploying machine learning in the real world. He has held academic posts at Sheffield and Manchester and served as Director of Machine Learning at Amazon. In “The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI,” Lawrence shifts attention from machines’ computational power to the human capacity to make judgments through experience, context, and responsibility, examining where automated decision-making should—and should not—replace human agency.
