Stanford
University
  • Stanford Home
  • Maps & Directions
  • Search Stanford
  • Emergency Info
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Trademarks
  • Non-Discrimination
  • Accessibility
© Stanford University.  Stanford, California 94305.
Kunle Olukotun: How to Make AI More Democratic | Stanford HAI
Skip to content
  • About

    • About
    • People
    • Get Involved with HAI
    • Support HAI
    • Subscribe to Email
  • Research

    • Research
    • Research Programs
    • Grants
    • Marlowe (opens in new tab)
    • Student Affinity Groups
    • Centers & Labs
    • Research Publications
    • Research Partners
  • Education

    • Education
    • Executive and Professional Education
    • Government and Policymakers
    • K-12
    • Stanford Students
  • Policy

    • Policy
    • Policy Publications
    • Policymaker Education
    • Student Opportunities
  • AI Index

    • AI Index
    • AI Index Report
    • Global Vibrancy Tool
    • People
  • News
  • Events
  • Industry
  • Centers & Labs

Stay Up To Date

Get the latest news, advances in research, policy work, and education program updates from HAI in your inbox weekly.

Sign Up For Latest News

Navigate
  • About
  • Events
  • AI Glossary
  • Careers
  • Search
Participate
  • Get Involved
  • Support HAI
  • Contact Us
news

Kunle Olukotun: How to Make AI More Democratic

Date
April 20, 2021

A chip designer talks about how advances in hardware will be needed to make the much-hyped artificially intelligent future a reality.

Electrical engineer Kunle Olukotun has built a career out of building computer chips for the world.

These days his attention is focused on new-age chips that will broaden the reach of artificial intelligence to new uses and new audiences — making AI more democratic.

The future will be dominated by AI, he says, and one key to that change rests in the hardware that makes it all possible — faster, smaller, more powerful computer chips. He imagines a world filled with highly efficient, specialized chips built for specific purposes, versus the relatively inefficient but broadly applicable chips of today.

Making that vision a reality will require hardware that focuses less on computation and more on streamlining the movement of data back and forth, a function that now claims 90% of computing power, as Olukotun tells host Russ Altman, associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast. Watch below and subscribe here.

 

Stanford HAI's mission is to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition. Learn more.

Share
Link copied to clipboard!
Contributor(s)
Stanford Engineering
Related
  • HAI Fellow Colin Garvey: A Zen Buddhist Monk’s Approach to Democratizing AI
    Katharine Miller
    May 28
    news

    The social scientist discusses AI’s problematic narrative and what we stand to lose in a China/U.S. AI arms race.

Related News

Stanford HAI Welcomes 15 New Data Science Scholars
Oct 01, 2026
Announcement

The two-year fellowship supports PhD researchers across law, medicine, physics, statistics, education, and engineering.

Announcement

Stanford HAI Welcomes 15 New Data Science Scholars

Data ScienceOct 01

The two-year fellowship supports PhD researchers across law, medicine, physics, statistics, education, and engineering.

The Tests That Grade AI May Be Getting It Wrong
Andrew Myers
Sep 25, 2026
News

Benchmarks — the standardized tests that rank AI models on safety, bias, and reasoning — drive markets and shape regulation. New Stanford research finds they often don't measure what they claim to.

News

The Tests That Grade AI May Be Getting It Wrong

Andrew Myers
Generative AIPrivacy, Safety, SecurityFoundation ModelsSep 25

Benchmarks — the standardized tests that rank AI models on safety, bias, and reasoning — drive markets and shape regulation. New Stanford research finds they often don't measure what they claim to.

Can AI Be Slowed Down? Stanford HAI Experts Weigh the Risks, Rules and Race Ahead
Shana Lynch
Sep 22, 2026
News

In a new series called Prompt Response, Stanford’s Surya Ganguli, Diyi Yang and Rob Reich examined emergent agent behavior, recursive self-improvement, independent evaluation and whether a kill switch can make advanced AI safer.

News

Can AI Be Slowed Down? Stanford HAI Experts Weigh the Risks, Rules and Race Ahead

Shana Lynch
Privacy, Safety, SecurityRegulation, Policy, GovernanceGenerative AISep 22

In a new series called Prompt Response, Stanford’s Surya Ganguli, Diyi Yang and Rob Reich examined emergent agent behavior, recursive self-improvement, independent evaluation and whether a kill switch can make advanced AI safer.