After graduation, Goodfellow joined Google as part of the Google Brain research team.[10] In March 2016, he left Google to join the newly founded OpenAI research laboratory.[11] Barely 11 months later, in March 2017, Goodfellow returned to Google Research[12] but left again in 2019.[13]
In 2019, Goodfellow joined Apple as director of machine learning in the Special Projects Group.[13] He resigned from Apple in April 2022 to protest Apple's plan to require in-person work for its employees.[14] Shortly after, Goodfellow then joined Google DeepMind as a research scientist.[2][15][16]
Research
Goodfellow is best known for inventing generative adversarial networks (GAN), using deep learning to generate images. This approach uses two neural networks to competitively improve an image's quality. A “generator” network creates a synthetic image based on an initial set of images such as a collection of faces. A “discriminator” network tries to detect whether or not the generator's output is real or fake. Then the generate-detect cycle is repeated. For each iteration, the generator and the discriminator use the other's feedback to improve or detect the generated images, until the discriminator can no longer distinguish between the fakes generated by its opponent and the real thing. The ability to create high quality generated imagery has increased rapidly. Unfortunately, so has its malicious use, to create deepfakes and generate video-based disinformation.[17][18]
At Google, Goodfellow developed a system enabling Google Maps to automatically transcribe addresses from photos taken by Street View cars[19][20] and demonstrated security vulnerabilities of machine learning systems.[21][22]
