The AI2050 initiative will be co-chaired by Schmidt, and James Manyika, Google's new head of technology and society. Payouts are set to be made to individual academics over the next five years. Berkeley academic Stuart Russell and Rediet Abebe are among the first to have been named fellows. Abebe is studying how AI can help measure and mitigate socioeconomic inequality, while Russell is studying probabilistic programming with the aim of improving AI's interpretability, provable safety, and performance. Abebe told CNBC on Wednesday that she did not wish to be considered for any sort of award or fellowship but declined to say why.

Rediet Abebe uses algorithms and AI to improve access to opportunity for historically marginalized communities. When Abebe moved from her native Ethiopia to the United States to attend Harvard College, she was struck by how vital resources often fail to reach the most vulnerable people, even in the world's wealthiest nation. She now uses computational techniques to mitigate socioeconomic inequalities. While she was an intern at Microsoft, Abebe formulated an AI project that analyzes search queries to shed light on the unmet health information needs of people in Africa. Her study revealed such information as which demographic groups are likely to show interest in natural cures for HIV and which countries' residents are especially concerned about HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination.

On Thursday in Montreal, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau boasted about his country's leading position in artificial intelligence and openness to international collaboration. A few miles away, the world's largest AI conference proceeded without scores of researchers denied visas by Trudeau's government. All week, Montreal has played host to 8,000 people attending the NeurIPS conference, which ends Saturday. But well over 100 researchers with tickets to attend the event or its associated workshops, including many who planned to present work, are absent due to visa denials or delays. AI researchers say the visa problems undermine efforts to make their field more inclusive, and less likely to produce technology that discriminates or disadvantages people who aren't white or Western.

It's becoming ubiquitous and invisible,