In his closing remarks at a Munk Debate in Toronto on Thursday, the AI luminary and director of Quebec’s Mila AI institute said he would “reorient my research so that either I am working on applications that are not dangerous or very safe,” particularly in areas like health care or the environment. (The Canadian Press, The Logic)

Talking point: Bengio, who won the 2018 Turing Award for his work in the area of deep learning, has been one of the most outspoken voices warning against artificial intelligence’s potential risks as it continues to advance rapidly. He has called the technology potentially “as destructive as nuclear bombs” and was one of the main signatories of a recent statement seeking to establish AI as a technology with the potential power to wipe out the human race. In his remarks, Bengio said his new research focus would help “to prepare and prevent what could happen.”