When the ride-hailing company Uber sought to establish a new facility in Pittsburgh in 2015 focused on self-driving cars, it looked to the researchers and scientists at the nearby Carnegie Mellon University robotics center. Soon after, the company lured away 40 of the center's employees, including the director, with doubled salaries and bonuses in the hundreds of thousands. High-profile stories like these have contributed to a prevailing narrative that artificial intelligence experts leave academe for industry in droves. But the dearth of AI professors at U.S. universities is not the result of a distorted job market, according to a report issued this month from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Rather, AI experts remain interested in academic careers, but university hiring of AI faculty has not kept pace with student demand.

Increasing interest among students in artificial intelligence has prompted administrators in the Computer Science department and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences more broadly to grow its AI program. Over the past 10 years, enrollment in introductory artificial intelligence course COMPSCI 181: "Machine Learning" has more than quadrupled from 35 students in 2009 to more than 150 in recent years. Computer Science Area Co-Chair Edward W. Kohler said the growing student demand has led administrators to focus not only on supporting existing faculty members who teach courses in artificial intelligence, but also on recruiting additional faculty members. "I would say that we come close, but we are not able to meet the demand," Kohler said. Roughly 20 faculty members across SEAS and related departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences currently specialize in artificial intelligence -- a number that continues to grow with recent and upcoming faculty appointments.This fall, SEAS welcomed Computer Science Professor Milind Tambe, whose work aims to tackle societal problems -- such as wildlife conservation -- using artificial intelligence.