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.