Botler.ai announced today that Dr. Yoshua Bengio, the “Godfather of Deep Learning”, is joining its team as strategy advisor.

Botler launched their artificial intelligence chatbot back in February, several months before their planned April release date, a move that was in large part due to Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Today’s news is a significant step forward for Botler. With decades of research experience over a distinguished career, Dr. Bengio and his famous MILA research lab will help Botler.ai deliver free or less expensive legal services to the public. He’s one of three researchers in the world credited with establishing the field of Deep Learning.

“I’ve led teams solving real problems through cutting edge Deep Learning research for 25 years. When I learned what Amir was doing, I knew this was an idea we needed to take to the next level,” said Dr. Bengio. “I want AI to be developed towards positive social impact and this is one place where beneficial AI must happen. Deep Learning could help provide affordable or even free legal services to people who might otherwise not be able to have access to such services.”

Great Demo by @botler_ai on how they're using #AI to disrupt the Canadian #immigration process! #mtlnewtech pic.twitter.com/Ga6zGN749E

— MTL NewTech (@mtlnewtech) March 16, 2017

“Among the three pioneers of deep learning, Dr. Bengio stayed in academia to do open research so that the entire community can benefit from his research. And that’s actually the philosophy behind Botler AI, our goal is to build AI so that the entire society can benefit from it. We discussed our vision, and our plans with Dr. Bengio, and he agreed to join us in this initiative, and help us take Botler AI to the next level using cutting edge deep learning technology,” Amir told MTLinTECH.

Amir Moravej, the founder of Botler, is himself an immigrant from Iran, one of the seven countries implicated in the travel ban. The idea for Botler grew out of his own experience applying for permanent residency in Canada. Botler’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot is designed to help people navigate through the complicated legal side of immigration.

“This is akin to an industry Goliath joining a David startup,” said Amir. “We share the same vision about the future of our society, and the role AI plays in it. Together, we’re going to build things that will truly help people.”

Photo by Eva Blue