Melanie Mitchell

Melanie Mitchell is a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, focusing on artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. She is an inaugural Fractal Faculty member and originated the Complexity Explorer platform.

• PhD in Computer Science from University of Michigan (1990)
• Faculty/research roles at Santa Fe Institute, Portland State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and others

Her research explores abstraction, analogy-making, and reasoning in AI and human intelligence. She has authored six books, including the award-winning Complexity: A Guided Tour and Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. Recent work examines large language models, conceptual understanding, and cognitive parallels between humans and AI.

Her 15 most recent publications address topics like AI reasoning, language model robustness, cognitive metaphors, and the Turing test's evolving relevance. Awards include the Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award and the Herbert A. Simon Award. She advises numerous PhD and postdoctoral students and leads public outreach through online courses and media appearances.