A new research hub at Northwestern University will explore the impact of artificial intelligence systems and seek ways to better incorporate …

Research firm Gartner has identified four trends that are driving artificial intelligence innovation in the near term. Stakeholders are demanding increased trust, transparency, fairness and auditability of AI technologies, according to Svetlana Sicular, research vice president at Gartner. Responsible AI provides a governance framework for meeting those requirements: "Responsible AI helps achieve fairness, even though biases are baked into the data; gain trust, although transparency and explainability methods are evolving; and ensure regulatory compliance, while grappling with AI's probabilistic nature," Sicular said. Gartner contends that AI models based on large amounts of historical data have become less relevant as organizations have undergone sweeping changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, small data -- which Gartner defines as "the application of analytical techniques that require less data but still offer useful insights" -- and wide data -- "data that enables the analysis and synergy of a variety of small and large, unstructured and structured data sources" -- enable more robust analytics for decision-making.

Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is working with 2U to launch the Columbia Artificial Intelligence Program, an online executive education offering aimed at advancing the next generation of technology leaders. The program will "explore the practical aspects of AI and machine learning through the study of cutting-edge research and hands-on application," through live, seminar-style online classes as well as interactive course content, according to a news announcement. Curriculum will be created and taught by Columbia Engineering faculty and delivered through the 2U platform. Participants will learn to build, lead and manage AI teams and projects, drive AI strategy and adoption, and contribute to policy and regulations of AI technologies, the announcement said. The program can be completed in 9 months (full-time) or 18 months (part-time).

A program at Georgia State University is widening the scope of digital literacy to include problem-solving and leadership strategies. Most every college or university recognizes the importance of digital literacy to future graduates, and increasingly, you'll find technology competencies and digital skill development experiences included widely in general education programs. But at Georgia State University, leaders within the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning are making certain that GSU's digital literacy offerings will spawn not only technically competent individuals, but also a diverse range of professional leaders who know how to use their technology skills in context for better problem solving. Digital Learners to Leaders is an experiential learning program aimed at developing the next generation of digital problem solvers through industry/higher-education partnerships and exposure to digital technologies and the Internet of Things. DLL began as a co-curricular program, seeing its first cohort of 45 students in Spring 2018.

Coursera has introduced a new tool that helps universities identify courses on the company's online learning platform that most closely match their on-campus offerings. The CourseMatch solution uses machine learning and natural language processing to "automate the matching and minimize the need for human curation," according to a company blog post. CourseMatch can "ingest" on-campus course catalogs in more than 100 languages and map them to the most relevant Coursera courses in any of the languages available on the platform. It then returns up to five "matches" along with a relevance score, with higher scores given for stronger matches. Some 1,800 schools globally have already used the tool to match more than 2.6 million on-campus courses with Coursera equivalents, according to the blog post.

The need for ethics, standards and policies for the ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence and other emerging tech is the impetus behind a new research center at the University of Michigan. The Center for Ethics, Society and Computing (or ESC -- "Escape" -- for short) is "dedicated to intervening when digital media and computing technologies reproduce inequality, exclusion, corruption, deception, racism, or sexism," according to its mission statement. "[AI] is a topic that used to be on the fringes but more recently has gotten broader attention as we have experienced many unintended consequences of technology," said center Associate Director Silvia Lindtner, assistant professor of information and art and design, in a statement. For instance, the increasing use of AI and data-based algorithms can lead to gender and racial stereotyping. Beyond AI and data usage, the interdisciplinary center will also focus on issues of privacy, augmented and virtual reality, open data and identity.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that will change the way organizations interact and will add intelligence to many products and services through new insights currently hidden in vast pools of data. In 2017 alone, venture capitalists invested more than $11.7 billion in the top 100 Artificial Intelligence startups, according to CB Insights, and the breadth of Artificial Intelligence applications continues to grow. While human-like intelligence will remain the stuff of fantasy novels and movies for the near future, most organizations can and should explore practical Artificial Intelligence projects. Your e-mail address is used to communicate with you about your registration, related products and services, and offers from select vendors.

The new funding opportunity will distribute approximately $120 million in 2020 to fund planning grants and up to six research institutes focused on advanced research powered by artificial intelligence. The National Science Foundation has announced a new joint federal program to fund research focused on artificial intelligence at colleges, universities and nonprofit or nonacademic organizations focused on educational or research activities. The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program expects to award approximately $120 million in 2020 to fund planning grants and up to six research institutes. The planning track will provide project planning support for up to two years and $500,000 for teams to develop communities and capacity for full institute operations. The institute track will support cooperative agreements between $16 million and $20 million for four to five years.

Artificial intelligence is making its way into a variety of education technologies. Here, vendors talk about their current and future work with AI in the higher education space. In 2015, when Georgia Institute of Technology professor Ashok Goel experimented with using an artificial intelligence-based teaching assistant called "Jill Watson" to answer students' questions in online forums, it opened a lot of eyes to the potential of AI on campus. But there remained a lot of well-founded skepticism about how algorithms would be deployed. For instance, in 2016 AdmitHub CEO Andrew Magliozzi contacted universities to ask if they would like to incorporate an AI chatbot into their recruitment and retention strategy.

If the United States wants to maintain its leadership stance in the world for development and use of artificial intelligence, it's time to adopt a national strategy. That's the conclusion of a report developed by the Center for Data Innovation, a self-described thinktank that studies the "intersection of data, technology and public policy." According to Senior Policy Analyst Joshua New, finding success with AI requires more than a bunch of companies investing in it. It also needs the federal government to support the development and adoption of AI in areas such as research, skills development and data usage. According to New, many other countries, including China, France and the United Kingdom, are setting up "significant initiatives" to grab global market share in AI.