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What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term coined in 1955 by John McCarthy, Stanford's first faculty member in AI, who described it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines." Today it is a broad term for computer systems that can perform tasks with human-like intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing images, learning from data, reasoning, and making decisions. Modern AI often works by finding patterns in large amounts of data and using those patterns to generate predictions or responses. It can be narrow (good at a specific task) or more general-purpose, like today’s large language models that can handle many tasks.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) mentioned at Stanford HAI

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Machine Learning (ML) | AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) | Deep Learning

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In a new study, scholars measured how accurately popular AI chatbots answered questions about the emerging news and found substantial regional disparity, dependence on distinct information ecosystems, and acute fragility under imperfect prompts.

Reading Today’s Headlines Through AI: A Real-Time Audit of Six Commercial Chatbots

Mirac Suzgun and James Zou
Jun 03

In a new study, scholars measured how accurately popular AI chatbots answered questions about the emerging news and found substantial regional disparity, dependence on distinct information ecosystems, and acute fragility under imperfect prompts.

Communications, Media
Generative AI
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This brief demonstrates how real-time monitoring can address critical gaps in the oversight of radiological AI tools.

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Zhongnan Fang, Lina Cheuy, Hye Sun Na, Akshay Chaudhari, David B. Larson
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This brief demonstrates how real-time monitoring can address critical gaps in the oversight of radiological AI tools.

Healthcare
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Andrew Myers
Jun 01
News
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Two models working together perform worse than one alone, exposing a critical gap in artificial intelligence capabilities.

AI Coding Agents Fail at Teamwork

Andrew Myers
Jun 01

Two models working together perform worse than one alone, exposing a critical gap in artificial intelligence capabilities.

Generative AI
Machine Learning
illustration of two people paddling in opposite directions
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Quick ReadApr 08
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Data Privacy and Foundation Models: Can We Have Both?

Jennifer King, Tiffany Saade
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This brief examines the privacy risks foundation models pose to individuals and society, and governance mechanisms needed to address them.

Privacy, Safety, Security
Foundation Models
Regulation, Policy, Governance
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State Policymakers Divided Over How To Address AI Job-Loss Fears
San Francisco Examiner
May 30
Media Mention

HAI Director James Landay discusses historical technological impacts on productivity growth.

State Policymakers Divided Over How To Address AI Job-Loss Fears

San Francisco Examiner
May 30

HAI Director James Landay discusses historical technological impacts on productivity growth.

Workforce, Labor
Economy, Markets
Media Mention
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Deep DiveFeb 26
White Paper

This white paper analyzes the varying ways AI tools can advance language digitization work, and provides recommendations for responsibly realizing the potential of AI in supporting the digital inclusion of digitally disadvantaged languages.

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Juan N. Pava, Thomas S. Mullaney, Caroline Meinhardt, Audrey Gao, Diyi Yang
Deep DiveFeb 26

This white paper analyzes the varying ways AI tools can advance language digitization work, and provides recommendations for responsibly realizing the potential of AI in supporting the digital inclusion of digitally disadvantaged languages.

Ethics, Equity, Inclusion
International Affairs, International Security, International Development
Natural Language Processing
White Paper

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