AI Gets Boost From Uncle Sam

Like most people in high tech these days, Uncle Sam is upping his investment in AI. The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) announced a new program on Friday that will add an estimated $100 million a year to its current sending on machine learning. The AI Exploration program will initially spend about $10 to 20 million to fund a set of feasibility studies to generate ideas worth pursuing. They are expected to spawn larger projects that will eventually bump DARPA's total estimated spending on AI in its various forms to as much as $400 million annually. "We hope we will have a conference next summer focusing on what we will do in AI," said Steven Walker, DARPA's director, speaking at an event here on the agency's Electronics Resurgence Initiative.