YEJIN CHOI
THE REASONING HUMANIST
AI Reasoning, Common sense Intelligence & Pluralistic Alignment
“The goal is not to build AI that simply sounds intelligent, but AI that can actually reason about the world, understand context, and behave in ways that are helpful to people”
THE GOAL
Build AI that can reason, reflect, and adapt
Push beyond scale toward intelligence with depth
Center human values, diversity, and responsibility in AI design
THE WORK
Yejin Choi’s work asks the deep question: what does it mean for machines to reason responsibly? Choi is helping define the next chapter of AI, where systems are not only powerful, but grounded with human values. A leading researcher in natural language processing and common sense reasoning, she has spent her career pushing AI beyond fluent imitation toward real understanding.
As a scholar and builder, Choi represents a new model of AI leadership that values rigour, over hype and pluralism over one-size-fits-all intelligence. Her research into reasoning, safety, and human-centered AI is shaping how the field thinks about the limits of scale. In a world racing toward bigger models, Choi is asking how to make AI wiser.
WHY SHE’S A GODMOTHER
She refuses to confuse fluency with understanding. She brings scientific seriousness to a field often driven by spectacle, and shows that the future of AI should be measured not just by what machines can do, but by how well they can serve people.
Role:
Professor, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI
Focus:
Common sense reasoning, AI safety, pluralistic alignment, NLP
Known for:
Groundbreaking research on reasoning and human-centered AI
Impact:
Shaping how AI systems understand the world and align with human values
Notable:
Featured in TIME100 AI (2023, 2025)
Recipient of two Test of Time awards, and 10 best/outstanding paper awards at top AI conferences.
Main stage speaker at TED 2023 and has delivered keynotes at several AI conferences including NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR, ACL AND AAAI.