Elija Perrier & Michael Timothy Bennett

Elija Perrier is a Fellow at the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology at Stanford University and a researcher at the Centre for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology, Sydney. Elija’s doctoral research focused on the field of quantum machine learning, including quantum algorithm design, geometric and statistical learning theory and quantum control. Elija has a multi-disciplinary background, holding an LLB and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) (English/Cultural & Communication Studies) from Murdoch University along with a Bachelor of Arts (Physics/Mathematics) (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts (Economics/Philosophy) from the University of Sydney. Elija is a practising lawyer, having worked for major international law firms in London, Frankfurt and Sydney on leveraged finance and hedge fund transactional finance matters. Elija has held a number of academic positions, including in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney, in constitutional law and jurisprudence at Macquarie University and at the Australian National University (and Gradient Institute) as a research fellow in AI-related governance. Elija has several years’ experience as a data scientist managing data analytics for national electoral campaigns in Australia. He is an experienced full-stack software engineer, focusing primarily on cloud-based app development and large-scale distributed machine learning/LLM-based simulations. He also has diverse experience in investment banking across a number of sectors, including media, technology and sustainable finance. Elija has published research on quantum governance, quantum computing, computer science, political science, public policy and a range of other topics. He has presented research at a number of conferences nationally and internationally. I am Michael Timothy Bennett, a computer scientist with the Australian National University. My research explores intelligence from first principles, blending philosophical arguments, math proofs and experimental results. I won best paper awards at both the 2023 and 2024 conferences on artificial general intelligence, and my exploits have been covered in Newsweek, The Conversation, and by Sabine Hossenfelder. I began my career as a musician. I co founded and was COO of Eigen Technologies in London. I worked in game development across four continents on well known franchises including The Sims, Sniper Elite and Total War. My path to research has been circuitous. Were it not for the fact that admission to a conservatory depends upon musical ability, I might never have attended university at all. Now I hold degrees in music from Queensland Conservatorium, management science from London Business School, and computer science from The Australian National University. This unconventional path has cultivated breadth of expertise that has proven rather helpful for transdisciplinary artificial general intelligence research.