Biography:Guillaume Verdon

From HandWiki
Guillaume Verdon
Born
Guillaume Verdon-Akzam[1]

Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other namesBasedBeffJezos
EducationMcGill University (BS)[2]
University of Waterloo (MMath)[2][3]
Known for

Guillaume Verdon-Akzam, also known as Guillaume Verdon or Gill Verdon,[4] is a Canadian mathematical physicist, quantum computing researcher, entrepreneur, and writer who is a key contributor of Google's quantum machine learning software, Tensorflow Quantum.[5] He is also a co-founder of the effective accelerationism movement and the start-up company Extropic AI which operates at the intersection between physics-based computing and artificial intelligence.[6]

Education and career

Verdon attended McGill University as an undergraduate and graduated with honors with a double major in Mathematics & Physics.[2][7] He attended University of Waterloo for graduate studies where he completed Master's work in 2017[3][8] at the Institute for Quantum Computing and continued with Achim Kempf as his PhD supervisor.[1] He presented papers as a Guest Speaker at NASA's 2018 Adiabatic Quantum Computing conference.[2][9]

In 2017, Verdon co-founded Everettian Technologies and became its chief scientific officer. The company was named after Hugh Everett III, and was an early Canadian start-up focused on quantum machine learning solutions. He also had a side venture into NFTs related to quantum information, which provided capital for his later startup Extropic AI.[10][11] Verdon has worked at Google and had primary responsibility for theoretical work on the team that introduced the TensorFlow Quantum library for quantum machine learning.[5][12][13] During his time at Google X, Verdon introduced and worked on quantum graph neural networks,[14] and quantum Hamiltonian-based models.[15] He has several patents[16] with Google X covering quantum computing, quantum machine learning, and signal processing.

In 2022, Verdon and Trevor Mccourt co-founded Extropic AI, which focuses on building a thermodynamic hardware platform for accelerating AI research.[17][18][19] The company recently announced the completion of a $14.1 million seed round.[20][10] Extropic AI was initially operating in stealth-mode and said that it was focused on building chips specifically intended for running LLMs.[10][21] In 2025, Wired reported that Verdon was continuing to work through Extropic on a new kind of chip that handles probabilistic bits instead of deterministic bits.[22][23]

Effective accelerationism

Main article: Effective accelerationism

Verdon wrote under the pseudonym BasedBeffJezos and was a co-founder of the effective accelerationism (e/acc) movement. The origin of the movement can be traced back to a May 2022 newsletter published by him and 3 other authors.[24][25][26] In its coverage of the movement, Forbes outed Verdon as the author behind his pseudonymous account.[10][19] Since his naming, he has publicly spoken on podcasts and debated with those who have conflicting views on AI safety (such as Connor Leahy)[27] and other issues of technological progress.[28]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Verdon-Akzam, Guillaume (2017-01-10). "Probing Quantum Fields: Measurements and Quantum Energy Teleportation" (in en). https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/items/061b2f8d-1c80-4edc-b71a-af4226b28c23. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "2018 Adiabatic Quantum Computing Conference - Speakers". Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science - Universities Space Research Association. August 21, 2018. https://riacs.usra.edu/quantum/aqc2018/quantum-computing-conference--speakers.html. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Physics of Information Lab: Former group members". 15 October 2014. https://uwaterloo.ca/physics-of-information-lab/about/former-group-members. 
  4. ↑ "Guillaume Verdon". https://tedai-sanfrancisco.ted.com/speakers/guillaume-verdon/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wiggers, Kyle (2021-03-10). "Alphabet is repurposing Google TPUs for quantum computing simulations" (in en-US). https://venturebeat.com/business/alphabet-is-repurposing-google-tpus-for-quantum-computing-simulations/. 
  6. ↑ "The AI insiders who want the controversial technology to be developed faster" (in en-AU). ABC News. 2024-02-17. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-18/ai-insiders-eacc-movement-speeding-up-tech/103464258. 
  7. ↑ Scott, Josh (2023-12-08). "Founded by Alphabet alums, Canadian-led AI hardware startup Extropic secures over $14 million" (in en-CA). https://betakit.com/founded-by-alphabet-alums-canadian-led-ai-hardware-startup-extropic-secures-over-14-million/. 
  8. ↑ Verdon-Akzam, Guillaume (January 10, 2017). "Probing Quantum Fields: Measurements and Quantum Energy Teleportation". University of Waterloo. https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/11161. 
  9. ↑ "Quantum Approximate Boltzmann Machines - Guillaume Verdon". Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science - Universities Space Research Association. August 21, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbrgoMeO5zI. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Who Is @BasedBeffJezos, The Leader Of The Tech Elite's 'E/Acc' Movement?". Forbes. December 1, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/12/01/who-is-basedbeffjezos-the-leader-of-effective-accelerationism-eacc/?sh=764557747a13. 
  11. ↑ "OpenSea, gverdon". https://opensea.io/gverdon. 
  12. ↑ Broughton, Michael; Verdon, Guillaume; McCourt, Trevor; Martinez, Antonio J.; Jae Hyeon Yoo; Isakov, Sergei V.; Massey, Philip; Halavati, Ramin; Murphy Yuezhen Niu; Zlokapa, Alexander; Peters, Evan; Lockwood, Owen; Skolik, Andrea; Jerbi, Sofiene; Dunjko, Vedran; Leib, Martin; Streif, Michael; David Von Dollen; Chen, Hongxiang; Cao, Shuxiang; Wiersema, Roeland; Huang, Hsin-Yuan; McClean, Jarrod R.; Babbush, Ryan; Boixo, Sergio; Bacon, Dave; Ho, Alan K.; Neven, Hartmut; Mohseni, Masoud (August 26, 2021). "TensorFlow Quantum: A Software Framework for Quantum Machine Learning". arXiv:2003.02989 [quant-ph].
  13. ↑ Black, Doug (March 9, 2020). "TensorFlow Quantum software combines quantum and classical machine learning". insideHPC. https://insidehpc.com/2020/03/tensorflow-quantum-software-combines-quantum-and-classical-machine-learning/. 
  14. ↑ Verdon, Guillaume; McCourt, Trevor; Luzhnica, Enxhell; Singh, Vikash; Leichenauer, Stefan; Hidary, Jack (2019-09-26). "Quantum Graph Neural Networks". arXiv:1909.12264 [quant-ph].
  15. ↑ Verdon, Guillaume; Marks, Jacob; Nanda, Sasha; Leichenauer, Stefan; Hidary, Jack (2019-10-04). "Quantum Hamiltonian-Based Models and the Variational Quantum Thermalizer Algorithm". arXiv:1910.02071 [quant-ph].
  16. ↑ "Google Patents". https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Guillaume+Verdon-Akzam. 
  17. ↑ "AI startup Extropic emerges from stealth with superconducting processors it boldly claims will beat GPUs, CPUs, and TPUs" (in en). 2024-03-19. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/ai-startup-extropic-emerges-from-stealth-with-superconducting-processors-it-boldly-claims-will-beat-gpus-cpus-and-tpus. 
  18. ↑ "The crypto bros are coming for AI". Business Insider. December 23, 2023. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-crypto-bros-are-coming-for-ai-2023-12. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "The techno-optimists and doomsdayers inside Silicon Valley's most dangerous AI debate". CNBC. December 17, 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/17/techno-optimists-doomsdayers-and-silicon-valleys-riskiest-ai-debate-.html. 
  20. ↑ "Extropic Secures $14.1 Million in Seed Funding to Propel Novel Physics-Based Computing Paradigm". Yahoo Finance. December 12, 2023. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/extropic-secures-14-1-million-224700258.html. 
  21. ↑ "Eight startups challenging Nvidia in AI chips". The Information. August 24, 2023. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/eight-startups-challenging-nvidia-in-ai-chips. 
  22. ↑ Knight, Will (March 24, 2025). "Hot New Thermodynamic Chips Could Trump Classical Computers". Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/thermodynamic-computing-ai-guillaume-verdon-based-beff-jezos/. Retrieved March 28, 2025. 
  23. ↑ Knight, Will. "Extropic Aims to Disrupt the Data Center Bonanza" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/extropic-aims-to-disrupt-the-data-center-bonanza/. 
  24. ↑ "Get the lowdown on 'e/acc' — Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about progress at all costs, which has been embraced by Marc Andreessen". Business Insider. July 28, 2023. https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-tech-leaders-accelerationism-eacc-twitter-profiles-2023-7. 
  25. ↑ "Effective Accelerationism — e/acc". 31 October 2022. https://effectiveaccelerationism.substack.com/p/repost-effective-accelerationism. 
  26. ↑ Walker, Stephen (July 4, 2023). "Effective Accelerationism (e/acc)" (in en-US). https://klu.ai/glossary/effective-accelerationism. 
  27. ↑ DeepCast. "Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST): Showdown Between e/acc Leader And Doomer - Connor Leahy + Beff Jezos on DeepCast" (in en). https://deepcast.fm/episode/showdown-between-eacc-leader-and-doomer-connor-leahy-beff-jezos. 
  28. ↑ Lavoipierre, Ange (February 17, 2024). "The AI insiders who want the controversial technology to be developed faster". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-18/ai-insiders-eacc-movement-speeding-up-tech/103464258. 



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