--- title: "Shane Legg · Google DeepMind — author profile and papers" description: "Shane Legg, Google DeepMind: 3 papers on Elamur Research (2015–2022), h-index 26 — affiliations, topics, co-authors and who cites them…" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [authors](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/) / Shane Legg # Shane Legg Shane Legg has 3 papers in our library, in 2015–2022; often with [Anian Ruoss](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/anian-ruoss/), [Charles Beattie](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/charles-beattie/), [Elliot Catt](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/elliot-catt/). 3 papers in our library · 2015–2022 [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/A5008987732) · [**h-index 26**](https://openalex.org/authors/A5008987732) · [96 works](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5008987732) · [34,781 citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5008987732&sort=cited_by_count:desc) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 [📄 3 works in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/#papers) · [🔗 Cited 571 times in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/cited-by/) · [5 more in our library without a page yet](#also) · [⭐ Paper Stars ranking: #3234](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/paper-stars/page/33/#star-3234) The profile is the library's match of the name; two people with one name are not always told apart. Elsewhere: [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=Shane+Legg) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=Shane+Legg) · [dblp](https://dblp.org/search?q=Shane+Legg) · [ACL Anthology](https://aclanthology.org/search/?q=Shane+Legg) ## Affiliations [🏢**Google DeepMind** London · United Kingdom 2011–2026 · 17 papers*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/google-deepmind/) · [🔬**Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research** Lugano · Switzerland 2004–2023 · 18 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/labs/dalle-molle-institute-for-artificial-intelligence-research/) · [🏢**Google** Mountain View · United States 2018–2021 · 7 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/google/) · [🎓**University of Auckland** Auckland · New Zealand 1995–2000 · 3 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-auckland/) · [🎓**University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland** Manno · Switzerland 2023 · 2 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-applied-sciences-and-arts-of-southern-switzerland/) · [🎓**Università della Svizzera italiana** Lugano · Switzerland 2011–2023 · 2 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/universita-della-svizzera-italiana/) From the bylines of their papers (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14), ORCID and Wikidata; institutions on papers are matched by machine. 6 more institutions on single bylines are not listed. ## Fields, topics and concepts Of its works in our library, with the number of works on each. 📚 Shelves 4 The field of science this work belongs to (OpenAlex fields).[Computer Science · 3 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/) · [Artificial Intelligence · 3 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/artificial-intelligence/) · [Hardware and Architecture · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/hardware-and-architecture/) · [Computational Theory and Mathematics · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/computational-theory-and-mathematics/) 💡 Concepts 1 Key ideas and methods explained on our concept pages.[Context-free grammar · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/concepts/context-free-grammar/) ## Works by year ### 2020s [**2022** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/year/2022/) ### 2010s [**2018** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/year/2018/) · [**2015** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/year/2015/) ## Papers The most cited first (OpenAlex and our library). 1. **[Massively Parallel Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/nair-2015-massively-parallel-methods-deep-reinforcement/)** *(2015 · 427 citations)* DQN, the deep Q-learning agent that learns Atari 2600 games from raw pixels, had only been run on a single machine. 2. **[Scalable agent alignment via reward modeling: a research direction](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/leike-2018-scalable-agent-alignment-reward-modeling/)** *(2018 · 227 citations)* Reinforcement learning thrives when a task has an explicit score, as in Atari or Go. Most practical jobs, such as handling email, writing software or managing a business, offer no built-in reward, and the user's goal exists only implicitly. The authors call this the agent alignment problem: making an agent act as its… 3. **[Neural Networks and the Chomsky Hierarchy](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/deletang-2022-neural-networks-chomsky-hierarchy/)** *(2022 · 112 citations)* The authors investigate whether the theory of computation, specifically the Chomsky hierarchy, can predict where the ability of neural networks to generalize out of distribution ends. ## All works 8 works of theirs in our library, the most cited first; 3 with a page here, the others link their original until we summarise them. 1. **[IMPALA: Scalable Distributed Deep-RL with Importance Weighted Actor-Learner Architectures ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01561) arXiv:1802.01561 · no summary yet**Lasse Espeholt et al.*2018 · 710 citations* 2. **[Noisy Networks for Exploration ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.10295) arXiv (Cornell University) · no summary yet**Meire Fortunato et al.*2017 · 570 citations* 3. [**Massively Parallel Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learning arXiv:1507.04296**Arun Nair, Praveen Srinivasan, Sam Blackwell, et al.*2015 · 427 citations*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/nair-2015-massively-parallel-methods-deep-reinforcement/) 4. [**Scalable agent alignment via reward modeling: a research direction arXiv:1811.07871**Jan Leike, David Krueger, Tom Everitt, et al.*2018 · 227 citations*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/leike-2018-scalable-agent-alignment-reward-modeling/) 5. [**Neural Networks and the Chomsky Hierarchy arXiv:2207.02098**Grégoire Delétang, Anian Ruoss, Jordi Grau-Moya, et al.*2022 · 112 citations*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/deletang-2022-neural-networks-chomsky-hierarchy/) 6. **[The Hydra Effect: Emergent Self-repair in Language Model Computations ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.15771) arXiv:2307.15771 · no summary yet**Thomas McGrath et al.*2023 · 49 citations* 7. **[Chain of Thought Monitorability: A New and Fragile Opportunity for AI Safety ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11473) arXiv (Cornell University) · no summary yet**Tomek Korbak et al.*2025 · 35 citations* 8. **[Universal Intelligence: A Definition of Machine Intelligence ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/0712.3329) arXiv:0712.3329 · Minds & Machines, 17:4 (2007) pages 391-444 · no summary yet**Shane Legg, Marcus Hutter*2007 · 23 citations* ## Co-authors here 12 of 14 co-authors with a page, the most papers together first. - [Anian Ruoss](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/anian-ruoss/) - [Charles Beattie](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/charles-beattie/) - [Elliot Catt](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/elliot-catt/) - [Grégoire Delétang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/gregoire-deletang/) - [Jan Leike](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/jan-leike/) - [Joel Veness](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/joel-veness/) - [Jordi Grau-Moya](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/jordi-grau-moya/) - [Li Kevin Wenliang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/li-kevin-wenliang/) - [Marcus Hutter](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/marcus-hutter/) - [Mustafa Suleyman](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/mustafa-suleyman/) - [Tim Genewein](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/tim-genewein/) - [Tom Everitt](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/tom-everitt/) ## Cited by Papers of our library cite their works 571 times (of the 149,439 papers whose bibliographies we read); [102 citing papers with a page here →](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shane-legg/cited-by/). Updated 2 November 2026