Jacques Pitrat worked at the end of the 1950s in a computer laboratory and he was fascinated by the first AI papers. This led him to begin a thesis on Artificial Intelligence in 1960. From 1967 to 2000 he was a researcher at the French CNRS, and for 8 years he was director of the AI laboratory at the University of Paris 6.
He has experimented with several AI systems, mainly for studying how to use metaknowledge efficiently. He has taught AI for more than 30 years, and he has directed 70 AI theses. He has written five books on AI, and he is still a researcher at the LIP6 at the University of Paris 6. He is a fellow of the AAAI and ECCAI.