Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, has announced the second cohort of AI2050 senior fellows who will pursue bold and interdisciplinary research in artificial intelligence (AI) to help chart the development of AI for societal benefit. Among the newly appointed senior fellows is Faculty of Law Professor Gillian Hadfield, director and chair of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
AI2050 is a program that advances Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s USD $125 million, five-year commitment to support talented individuals working to ensure AI’s benefit to society. AI2050 fellows grapple with the program’s motivating question: “It’s 2050. AI has turned out to be hugely beneficial to society. What happened? What are the most important problems we solved and the opportunities and possibilities we realized to ensure this outcome?” The 2023 senior fellows will join the existing community of AI2050 fellows including the inaugural 2022 cohort of 5 senior fellows and 15 early career fellows.
The seven 2023 senior fellows are leading ambitious work that will accelerate progress in AI to solve the hardest problems in their respective fields. Their work spans a broad spectrum, from revolutionizing drug discovery in Africa, to increasing the capacity of AI systems for cooperative and aligned behaviour, to pioneering human-centric robots capable of performing everyday household activities. Cohort members will seek sustainable AI solutions that transcend boundaries, whether by creating art installations for community engagement with AI or via integrating large language models with symbolic AI to mimic human cognition. They will use AI to speed up scientific simulations and investigate what it means to be human in the age of AI. Their collective efforts underscore the necessary work that remains in ensuring that AI serves as a catalyst for positive change.
AI2050 has allocated up to USD $7 million to support the new senior fellows’ research to address the Hard Problems in AI in their respective fields including computer science, chemistry, cognitive science, the arts, and philosophy. Fellows may also be eligible for additional support and opportunities as their research agenda further develops.
Schmidt Futures announced the following scholars as 2023 AI2050 senior fellows:
Republished from the SRI website
