AI R&D is booming, but general intelligence is still out of reach
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/12/21010671/ai-index-report-2019-machine-learning-artificial-intelligence-data-progress
Reported today in The Verge.
AI R&D is booming, but general intelligence is still out of reach
Trying to get a handle on the progress of artificial intelligence is a daunting task, even for those enmeshed in the AI community. But the latest edition of the AI Index report - an annual rundown of machine learning data points now in its third year - does a good job confirming what you probably already suspected: the AI world is booming in a range of metrics covering research, education, and technical achievements.
The AI Index covers a lot of ground - so much so that its creators, which include institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and OpenAI, have also released two new tools just to sift through the information they sourced from. One tool is for searching AI research papers and the other is for investigating country-level data on research and investment.
Most of the 2019 report basically confirms the continuation of trends we've highlighted in previous years. But to save you from having to trudge through its 290 pages, here are some of the more interesting and pertinent points:
AI research is rocketing. Between 1998 and 2018, there's been a 300 percent increase in the publication of peer-reviewed papers on AI. Attendance at conferences has also surged; the biggest, NeurIPS, is expecting 13,500 attendees this year, up 800 percent from 2012.
AI education is equally popular. Enrollment in machine learning courses in universities and online continues to rise. Numbers are hard to summarize, but one good indicator is that AI is now the most popular specialization for computer science graduates in North America. Over 21 percent of CS PhDs choose to specialize in AI, which is more than double the second-most popular discipline: security / information assurance.
The US is s