Research Bio

Gašper Beguš is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he bridges the fields of linguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. His research centers on interpretable AI and the study of language in humans, animals, and machines.

Dr. Beguš leads efforts to develop techniques that help us better understand the inner workings of AI. In his Berkeley Speech and Computation lab, he also builds the most realistic models of human language learning—creating an artificial baby language learner.

Serving as the Linguistics Lead at Project CETI, a non-profit dedicated to listening to sperm whales, he researches one of the most intriguing communication systems in the animal kingdom. His recent research discovered that sperm whales have equivalents to human vowels.

Dr. Beguš is also the College Principal of Bowles Hall, the oldest residential college in the United States and the only one at UC Berkeley. In this leadership role, he fosters a multi-faceted and multi-generational community where every student can grow personally, professionally, and academically.

His research has been featured in numerous press outlets, including the Financial Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Quanta Magazine, Harvard Magazine, Noema Magazine, and others.

Dr. Beguš regularly appears as an invited speaker in diverse venues such as NYU Stern School of Business, Centre Pompidou, the National Science Foundation, and the Santa Fe Institute. His models inspired parts of the La Biennale di Venezia exhibition and a science fiction book for young audiences.

Research Expertise and Interest

computational linguistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Generative AI, Deep Learning, speech processing, NLP, phonology, articulatory and acoustic phonetics, historical linguistics, Indo-European linguistics