Roman V. Yampolskiy is a computer scientist and a founding researcher in the field of artificial intelligence safety. He is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering, where he founded and directs the Cyber Security Lab.

Yampolskiy is widely credited with coining the term “AI safety” in 2011, and his work on AI containment, safety engineering, and the theoretical limits of AI controllability has become foundational in the field. He has argued that superintelligent AI may be inherently unexplainable, unpredictable, and uncontrollable — a thesis explored in his 2024 book AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.

Born in Riga, Latvia, Yampolskiy holds a PhD from the University at Buffalo. He has authored over 200 publications and his research has been featured in more than 1,000 media reports across 30 languages.