Nayat Sanchez-Pi

Nayat Sánchez-Pi is a leading expert in Artificial Intelligence with a distinguished international career spanning Europe and Latin America. She has developed her scientific career mainly between Spain, Brazil, France, and Chile. Before joining Inria, she was a professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, founding and co-leading the Research Group on Artificial Intelligence and Optimization (RIO Group). Before that, she was a professor at the University Carlos III of Madrid at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Group.

She holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from the University Carlos III of Madrid, for which she received the Extraordinary PhD Award. Throughout her career, she has focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and human-computer interaction with an emphasis on responsible and ethical AI to tackle critical real-world problems with high social, economic, ecological, and technological impact. She has extensive experience leading several interdisciplinary R&D teams comprising academic and industrial partners.

For several years, she has been collaborating with several governments on their national AI strategies. She collaborates with UNESCO and she is a member of expert groups at influential organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), contributing her expertise on ethical and responsible AI and AI governance. She also collaborates with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and is a member of the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (GC REAIM). She sits on several boards and committees and has been elected for two terms to the board of directors of the Chilean Association of Information Technology Companies (ACTI) since 2021.

Since 2018, she has been leading and coordinating the Inria Research Center in Chile. In the same year, she was also appointed CEO of the Inria Chile Foundation by its Board of Directors and in 2024 Director of the Binational Franco-Chilean Center on Artificial Intelligence.