Artificial intelligence is suddenly everywhere. Fueled by huge technological advances in recent years and gobs of venture capitalist money, AI has become one of the hottest corporate buzzwords. Roughly 1 in 7 public companies mentioned "artificial intelligence" in their annual filings last year, according to a Washington Post analysis. But the term is fuzzy. "AI is purposefully ill-defined from a marketing perspective," said Alex Hanna, director of research at Distributed AI Research Institute.

Hosted by Eleanor Drage and Kerry Mackereth, The Good Robot is a podcast which explores the many complex intersections between gender, feminism and technology. In this episode, Eleanor and Kerry talk to Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, AI ethics legends and co-hosts of the Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000 podcast, in which they dispel the hype storm around AI. Emily is a professor of linguistics at The University of Washington and the co-author of that stochastic parrots paper. Alex Hanna is the director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), which is run by Timnit Gebru. In this episode, they argue that we should stop using the term AI altogether, and that the world might be better without text-to-image systems like DALL·E and Midjourney. They tell us how the AI hype agents are getting high on their own supply, and give some advice for young people going into tech careers.

A high level of AI innovation is making Switzerland a global leader in tech, talent, and funding. The alpine country of Switzerland -- famous for its luxury watches, delicious chocolate, and fondue -- is also home to a closely knit network of leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) research institutes. Their pragmatic collaboration with industrial players results in the highly efficient transfer of technology to bring innovative products to market quickly. The Digital Switzerland Strategy provides guidelines for government action and indicates where and how authorities, academia, the private sector, civil society, and politics must work together to shape the transformation process for the benefit of everyone. Moreover, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne (ETH Zurich and EPFL) rank among the world's best technological universities, while the Lugano IDSIA Lab attracts some of the brightest minds in AI development.

A little over a year has passed since Timnit Gebru was fired from Google. The 38-year old Ethiopian-American researcher and former co-lead of the company's Ethical AI unit, believes she was pushed out for working on an academic paper that raised red flags about using large language models in Google's quest to develop "superintelligent" AI systems. The research highlighted the ways AI can misinterpret language on the internet, which can lead to "stereotyping, denigration, increases in extremist ideology, and wrongful arrest," as Gebru and her co-authors put it. Tired of tussling with the internal politics of mega corporations, Gebru has struck out on her own. She recently launched an independent practice called Distributed AI Research Institute or DAIR--a homonym for "dare"--with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Kapor Center, the Open Society Foundations and the Rockefeller Foundation.

A year ago I found out, from one of my direct reports, that I had apparently resigned. I had just been fired from Google in one of the most disrespectful ways I could imagine. Thanks to organizing done by former and current Google employees and many others, Google did not succeed in smearing my work or reputation, although they tried. My firing made headlines because of the worker organizing that has been building up in the tech world, often due to the labor of people who are already marginalized, many of whose names we do not know. Since I was fired last December, there have been many developments in tech worker organizing and whistleblowing.

One year after her controversial exit from Alphabet's Google, AI scientist Timnit Gebru launches small lab to continue her research The former Google computer scientist whose controversial exit from the search engine giant this time last year, has resurfaced in a new role. Reuters has reported that Timnit Gebru on Thursday revealed she has launched a small lab to continue her research work freely. Indeed, the Distributed AI Research Institute has reportedly raised $3.7 million so far, and aims to critically study services from big tech companies, as well as propose AI-based solutions to issues such as food insecurity and climate change, Gebru reportedly said. The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) joins a number of other projects such as the Algorithmic Justice League that are advancing ethical use of AI. For many years now critics have worried about the ethical use and safeguards for AI and facial recognition systems, along with credit scoring, which could lead to mass surveillance and racial discrimination.

USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. National Science Foundation have announced a $220 million investment in 11 new Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes that will be led by NSF. The new investment will build on the $140 million already invested in seven AI Research Institutes last year. The programs are intended to result in a range of advances, including adapting AI into a more accessible "plug and play" technology, innovating solutions to strengthen agriculture and food supply chains, and improving online learning via AI. "These innovation centers will speed our ability to meet critical needs in the future agricultural workforce, providing equitable and fair market access, increasing nutrition security and providing tools for climate-smart agriculture," said NIFA Director Carrie Castille. You'll receive our content -- absolutely free -- during the trial period. To meet their investment goals, NSF also partnered with the Department of Homeland Security, Google, Amazon, Intel, and Accenture.

The National Science Foundation officially extended the reach of its National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes across more of the United States. On the heels of funding seven institutes in 2020, the agency last week unveiled its establishment of 11 new ones--where officials will strategically pursue AI research in complex realms like augmented learning, cybersecurity, precision agriculture and more. "The expertise of the researchers engaged in the AI Research Institutes spans a wide range of disciplines, providing an integrated effort to tackle the challenges society faces, drawing upon both foundational and use-inspired research," Director of NSF's Robust Intelligence Program Rebecca Hwa told Nextgov Tuesday. "NSF has long been able to bring together numerous fields of scientific inquiry, and in this program that includes such disciplines as computer and information science and engineering, cognitive science and psychology, economics and game theory, engineering and control theory, ethics, linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy--and that has positioned us to lead in efforts to expand the frontiers of AI." In all, the 18 institutes NSF is investing in so far underpin research spanning 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, Hwa confirmed.

The National Science Foundation this week announced the formation of seven national AI institutes aimed at advancing technological innovation and bolstering the economy. AI research by the National Science Foundation will expand to a broader range of businesses across the U.S. economy through five new NSF AI institutes being created at a cost of $100 million. The new initiatives, which were unveiled Aug. 26 by the agency, will deepen the NSF's artificial intelligence research to expand the nation's workforce and drive new possibilities for a wide range of businesses, educational institutions, medicine, banking and other organizations. In a related announcement, two complementary AI research institutes are also being created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the next five years using $40 million in funding to expand AI research in farming and food processing. The new AI institutes will emphasize use-inspired research to help businesses and organizations, said James Donlon, program director for information and intelligent systems in the NSF's directorate for computer and information science and engineering (CISE) division.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $1 billion in awards for the establishment of 12 new artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS) research institutes nationwide. The $1 billion will go towards NSF-led AI Research Institutes and DOE QIS Research Centers over five years, establishing 12 multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional national hubs for research and workforce development in these critical emerging technologies. Together, the institutes will spur cutting edge innovation, support regional economic growth, and advance American leadership in these critical industries of the future. The National Science Foundation and additional Federal partners, including the US Department of Agriculture, are awarding $140 million for seven NSF-led AI Research Institutes over five years to accelerate a number of AI R&D areas, such as machine-learning, synthetic manufacturing, precision agriculture, and forecasting prediction. The NSF-led AI Research Institutes will be hosted by universities across the country, including at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, University of Texas at Austin, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California at Davis, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.