Marcus Hutter

---

title: "Marcus Hutter" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["living-people", "machine-learning-researchers", "artificial-intelligence-researchers", "german-computer-scientists", "technical-university-of-munich-alumni", "academic-staff-of-the-australian-national-university", "1967-births", "deepmind-people", "ai-safety-scientists"] description: "German computer scientist (born 1967)" topic_path: "technology/computing" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Hutter" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary German computer scientist (born 1967) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

Field	Value
name	Marcus Hutter
image	Marcus Hutter.jpg
alt	Portrait of Marcus Hutter
caption	Hutter in 2010
birth_date
nationality	German
fields
workplaces	DeepMind, Google, IDSIA, ANU, BrainLAB
alma_mater	Technical University Munich and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
thesis_title	Instantons in QCD
thesis_url	https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0107098
thesis_year	1996
doctoral_advisor	Harald Fritzsch
academic_advisors	Wilfried Brauer
doctoral_students	Shane Legg, Jan Leike and Tor Lattimore
known_for	Universal artificial intelligence
Artificial general intelligence
awards	IJCAI 2023
Alignment 2018
AGI 2016
UAI 2016
IJCAI-JAIR 2014
Kurzweil AGI 2009
Lindley 2006
Best Paper Prizes
website
::

| name = Marcus Hutter | image = Marcus Hutter.jpg | image_size = | alt = Portrait of Marcus Hutter | caption = Hutter in 2010 | birth_date = | birth_place = | citizenship = | nationality = German | fields = | workplaces = DeepMind, Google, IDSIA, ANU, BrainLAB | alma_mater = Technical University Munich and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich | thesis_title = Instantons in QCD | thesis_url = https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0107098 | thesis_year = 1996 | doctoral_advisor = Harald Fritzsch | academic_advisors = Wilfried Brauer | doctoral_students = Shane Legg, Jan Leike and Tor Lattimore | notable_students = | known_for = Universal artificial intelligence Artificial general intelligence | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | awards = IJCAI 2023 Alignment 2018 AGI 2016 UAI 2016 IJCAI-JAIR 2014 Kurzweil AGI 2009 Lindley 2006 Best Paper Prizes | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | spouse =

Marcus Hutter (born 14 April 1967 in Munich) is a German computer scientist, professor and artificial intelligence researcher. As a senior researcher at DeepMind, he studies the mathematical foundations of artificial general intelligence.

Hutter studied physics and computer science at the Technical University of Munich. In 2000 he joined Jürgen Schmidhuber's group at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research in Manno, Switzerland. He developed a mathematical formalism of artificial general intelligence named AIXI. He has served as a professor at the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics of the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.

Research

Starting in 2000, Hutter developed and published a mathematical theory of artificial general intelligence, AIXI, based on idealised intelligent agents and reward-motivated reinforcement learning. His first book Universal Artificial Intelligence: Sequential Decisions Based on Algorithmic Probability was published in 2005 by Springer. Also in 2005, Hutter published with his doctoral student Shane Legg an intelligence test for artificial intelligence devices. In 2009, Hutter developed and published the theory of feature reinforcement learning. In 2014, Lattimore and Hutter published an asymptotically optimal extension of the AIXI agent.

An accessible podcast with Lex Fridman about his theory of Universal AI appeared in 2021 and a more technical follow-up with Tim Nguyen in 2024 in the Cartesian Cafe. His new (2024) book also gives a more accessible introduction to Universal AI and progress in the 20 years since his first book, including a chapter on ASI safety, which featured as a keynote at the inaugural workshop on AI safety in Sydney.

Hutter Prize

Main article: Hutter Prize

In 2006, Hutter announced the Hutter Prize for Lossless Compression of Human Knowledge, with a total of €50,000 in prize money. In 2020, Hutter raised the prize money for the Hutter Prize to €500,000.

Published works

References

References

1. "HomePage of Marcus Hutter".
2. (2023-09-07). "TIME100 AI 2023: Shane Legg".
3. (2017-05-15). "Marcus Hutter".
4. "Professor Marcus Hutter".
5. Marcus Hutter. (2000). "A Theory of Universal Artificial Intelligence based on Algorithmic Complexity".
6. Hutter, Marcus. (2013-11-28). "To create a super-intelligent machine, start with an equation".
7. Marcus Hutter (2005). ''Universal Artificial Intelligence: Sequential Decisions Based on Algorithmic Probability''. Berlin; Heidelberg; New York: Springer. {{ISBN. 9783540221395.
8. Graham-Rowe, Duncan. (12 August 2005). "IQ test for AI devices gets experts thinking".
9. Marcus Hutter. (2009). "Feature Reinforcement Learning: Part I. Unstructured MDPs". Journal of Artificial General Intelligence.
10. Tor Lattimore and Marcus Hutter. (2014). "Algorithmic Learning Theory".
11. Fridman, Lex. (26 February 2020). "Marcus Hutter: Universal Artificial Intelligence, AIXI, and AGI".
12. Nguyen, Tim. (10 May 2024). "Universal Artificial Intelligence and Solomonoff Induction".
13. Marcus Hutter. (2024). "An Introduction to Universal Artificial Intelligence". Taylor & Francis.
14. Hutter, Marcus. (9 December 2024). "ASI Safety via AIXI".
15. Chiang, Ted. (2023-02-09). "ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web".
16. Marcus Hutter. "50'000€ Prize for Compressing Human Knowledge". hutter1.net.
17. Sagar, Ram. (2020-04-07). "Compress Data And Win Hutter Prize Worth Half A Million Euros".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::