Llion Jones

Llion Jones
Born
Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales
EducationUniversity of Birmingham (BSc, MSc)
OccupationMachine learning researcher
EmployerSakana AI

Llion Jones is a Welsh machine learning researcher, co-founder and CTO of Sakana AI.

Biography

Jones was born 1984 in Bangor, raised in Bangor and Abergynolwyn in Gwynedd, Wales. He attended Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor, then received a bachelors in artificial intelligence and computer science and masters in advanced computer science from the University of Birmingham. Jones graduated in 2009, joining Google's YouTube as a software engineer in 2011 or 2012, then moving to research in machine intelligence and natural language processing at Google Research in 2015. Jones was a coauthor of "Attention is All You Need", a 2017 paper which introduced the transformer.

In 2023, Llion left Google Japan to found the startup Sakana AI along with former Google employee and Stability AI officer David Ha, becoming its chief technology officer, also joined by Ren Ito.

Jones has criticized the narrow scope of AI research, such as Google's limited focus on large language models.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Evans, Arron (2018-11-16). "Bangor-born Llion opens up about journey to America as Google employee". North Wales Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  2. ↑ Thomas, Huw (2025-11-24). "AI pioneer Llion Jones calls for UK to 'be brave' in tech race". BBC. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  3. ↑ "Llion Jones, Alumni". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  4. 1 2 3 Novet, Jordan (2023-08-17). "Google A.I. researcher says he left to build a startup after encountering 'big company-itis'". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  5. ↑ "Llion Jones". DLD News. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  6. ↑ Tong, Anna (2023-08-17). "Top ex-Google Brain researchers start AI research company in Tokyo". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  7. ↑ Love, Julia (2023-07-10). "AI Researcher Who Helped Write Landmark Paper Is Leaving Google". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2025-09-01. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  8. ↑ Forster, Katie (2025-09-10). "Top Japan startup Sakana AI touts nature-inspired tech". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  9. ↑ Ryuichi, Maruyama (2025-03-07). "[Special Feature: The Future of AI in Japan]: Can Tokyo be a global hub for AI development? Interview with Ren Ito, co-founder of fast-rising Sakana AI". ScienceJapan. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  10. ↑ "Sakana AI's CTO says he's 'absolutely sick' of transformers, the tech that powers every major AI model". Venturebeat. 2025-10-23. Archived from the original on 2026-05-25. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
  11. ↑ Jones, Llion (2026-01-28). How competition is stifling AI breakthroughs. Retrieved 2026-05-26 – via www.ted.com.