About me

Welcome!

I am Fares Fourati, a Ph.D. candidate in Machine Learning at KAUST. I work at the intersection of reinforcement learning, deep learning, large language models, and optimization, with the broader aim of advancing the foundations required for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

My research has been published in leading AI/ML/NLP venues, including ICML, AAAI, AISTATS, EMNLP, and ECAI, and I regularly serve as a reviewer for these conferences. I received several distinctions, including two consecutive selections to the CEMSE Dean’s List at KAUST (2023/2024 and 2024/2025). I also earned first place in the ACM-SIAM Student Competition (2024), was recognized as a KAUST AI Rising Star (2023), and won first place at the Marconi Society’s Connectivity Summit (2021). I also became a Kaggle Competitions Expert (2020).

After ranking in the top 1% nationally in the Tunisian Mathematics and Physics entrance examination for engineering schools (2017), I pursued a Diplôme d’Ingénieur in Multidisciplinary Engineering at the École Polytechnique de Tunisie, graduating in 2020. I then completed an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at KAUST in 2022.

Beyond research, I am passionate about mentoring, writing, and teaching. I have taught courses in AI and machine learning and supervised graduate and undergraduate students. At a deeper level, my work is guided by a longstanding curiosity about intelligence, whether in biological or in artificial systems, and by the conviction that AI can reshape how we understand ourselves and the world. This perspective also inspired my book, To What End? Meditations on AI and Humanity, which explores some philosophical dimensions of AI and its potential implications.