Ben Goertzel (born December 8, 1966 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), is an American author and researcher in the field of artificial intelligence. He is currently Chief Science Officer of Hong Kong financial prediction firm Aidyia Holdings, and also leads Novamente LLC, a privately held software company that attempts to develop a form of strong AI, which he calls "Artificial General Intelligence". He is also the CEO of Biomind LLC, a company that provides AI-based bioinformatics services. He is Vice Chair of futurist organization Humanity+ and he is an advisor to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and formerly its Director of Research.. He divides his time between residences in Hong Kong, and Rockville Maryland (USA).
Goertzel is the son of Ted Goertzel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University. He left high school after the tenth grade to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Goertzel went on to obtain a Ph.D. in mathematics from Temple University in 1989, then taught mathematics, computer science and psychology at various universities, including the University of Nevada, City University of New York, the University of Waikato, and the University of Western Australia.