Stanford University launched the ‘Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence’ in March 2019. This mission of this institute is “to advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition.” It believes that AI should be collaborative, argumentative, and enhancing to human productivity and quality of life.
Its goal is to become an interdisciplinary, global hub for AI experts, thinkers, researchers, and learners across the world by leveraging Stanford’s strength across all disciplines including medicine, neuroscience, business, education, law, and literature among many others.
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Fei-Fei Li and John Etchemendy are co-directors of this institute that will work on AI so that it has a “positive impact on our planet, our nations, our communities, our families and our lives.”
Fei-Fei Li is also a professor at Stanford University in the Computer Science department. She formerly also worked with Google as the Chief Scientist of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. John Etchemendy too has been associated with Stanford for over 35 years. He has worked as a professor at the prestigious university since 1983 and has been Provost Emeritus since February 2017.
Though artificial intelligence certainly has the potential to make the world a much better place, it comes with its own set of challenges and problems. For instance, AI can be used for social manipulation, whereby it can target socially vulnerable people and spread propaganda in a convincing manner to sway them. In extreme cases, it can also be used to program autonomous weapons that can cause widespread damage and casualties.
In this era, where AI is increasingly being misused, this institute is a refreshing change.
