Many Top AI Researchers Get Financial Backing From Big Tech (wired.com) 10
A study finds that 58 percent of faculty at four prominent universities have received grants, fellowships, or other financial support from 14 tech firms. From a report: A paper published in July by researchers from the University of Rochester and China's Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business found that Google, DeepMind, Amazon, and Microsoft hired 52 tenure-track professors between 2004 and 2018. It concluded that this "brain drain" has coincided with a drop in the number of students starting AI companies. The growing reach and power of Big Tech prompted Abdalla to question how it influences his field in more subtle ways. Together with his brother, also a graduate student, Abdalla looked at how many AI researchers at Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, and the University of Toronto have received funding from Big Tech over their careers.
The Abdallas examined the CVs of 135 computer science faculty who work on AI at the four schools, looking for indications that the researcher had received funding from one or more tech companies. For 52 of those, they couldn't make a determination. Of the remaining 83 faculty, they found that 48, or 58 percent, had received funding such as a grant or a fellowship from one of 14 large technology companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Intel, IBM, Huawei, Samsung, Uber, Alibaba, Element AI, or OpenAI. Among a smaller group of faculty that works on AI ethics, they also found that 58 percent of those had been funded by Big Tech. When any source of funding was included, including dual appointments, internships, and sabbaticals, 32 out of 33, or 97 percent, had financial ties to tech companies. "There are very few people that don't have some sort of connection to Big Tech," Abdalla says.
The Abdallas examined the CVs of 135 computer science faculty who work on AI at the four schools, looking for indications that the researcher had received funding from one or more tech companies. For 52 of those, they couldn't make a determination. Of the remaining 83 faculty, they found that 48, or 58 percent, had received funding such as a grant or a fellowship from one of 14 large technology companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Intel, IBM, Huawei, Samsung, Uber, Alibaba, Element AI, or OpenAI. Among a smaller group of faculty that works on AI ethics, they also found that 58 percent of those had been funded by Big Tech. When any source of funding was included, including dual appointments, internships, and sabbaticals, 32 out of 33, or 97 percent, had financial ties to tech companies. "There are very few people that don't have some sort of connection to Big Tech," Abdalla says.
In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
TFA is a great display of the difference in mentality between industry and academia.
In industry, if demand for your product goes up, you are happy and make more.
In academia, if demand for your product (educated graduates) goes up, you complain that they are being "drained".
Re: (Score:2)
The latter can be a strategy in business as well, to artificially limit production and cultivate a sense of exclusivity in the product. I'm sure you can think of many examples.
Re: (Score:2)
Empty AI research is empty research. What AI they are researching is what it all should be about. The most important AI at this time, bug brains, how to replicate the brain of an insect that preys upon other insects, put that in a robot that can only be a threat to insects and send it out in the field to snatch up those tiny buggers one by one, all day long. It also takes no more than an insect brain to pick fruit, so put that in a robot only capable of carefully picking fruit one by one. Bugs brains, what
Re: (Score:2)
Who are they supposed to get it from? (Score:3)
Government (aka taxpayers who don't understand it)? Or are they supposed to work on it for free because it will look good on a resumé?
Comment removed (Score:3)
Or, could it be... (Score:2)
... that THESE researchers are jealous that THEY didn't get funding like that?
Really, though, someone has to pay for the cost of researching whatever - smart people don't work for free, when they can get paid to have graduate students do their work.
Try again... (Score:2)
FAANG money simply dwarfs what is in government and academia.
Let me get this straight ...... (Score:3)