Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is a quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco.

Artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics. Co-founder and research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). Known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence.

Psychology professor; wrote The Mating Mind, Spent, Mate, & Virtue Signaling. Themes: Evolution, sentience, civilization, EA, X risk, crypto. Wife: @sentientist