The U.S. National Science Foundation is making a major new effort to improve academic research on artificial intelligence, drawing big technology companies into partnerships and easing longstanding reluctance to share vast and valuable data sets. Are expected.
The project, known as the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), is part of an aggressive government initiative called for by President Joe Biden last October to explore how the nation can take full advantage of the wonders of artificial intelligence. This is the early stage of NSF’s efforts to respond to the campaign’s call. Maximize the potential of AI while preventing its incredible risks.
The NAIRR initiative also connects major companies such as Facebook and Google, which have built globally dominant multi-billion dollar industries based on the collection of vast amounts of detailed data about individuals and their thoughts and actions. , born out of a history of conflict between academic researchers and academic researchers who desired it. Access that information to pinpoint new opportunities and threats.
A recent example is when the social media platform long known as Twitter sued a group of independent researchers who published research on the permissibility of hate speech. Facebook disabled all accounts, including faculty members, as New York University’s Ad Observatory project continued to attempt automated monitoring of the site. Joan Donovan, one of the nation’s top media disinformation experts, also said that Harvard University is abandoning Facebook after its owner offered to donate $500m (£400m) to the Ivy League. He accused the university of expelling him to please him.
These instances of corporate sabotage are accompanied by a drumbeat of warnings from experts about the potential for AI to bring untold benefits and dangers to the world. For this reason, Mr. Biden is determined to urgently strengthen cooperation in AI research. “We need to take control of this technology,” the president said in October when ordering a whole-of-government response. “There is no other way.”
As the U.S. government’s primary funder of non-medical academic research, NSF was tasked with creating NAIRR under Mr. Biden’s plan to bring together a host of academic and private sector partners to do so. Companies that have agreed to participate include industry giants Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, and IBM.
However, in its early stages, joining NAIRR does not require companies to make new commitments regarding data sharing, nor does NSF.
NSF officials said that’s largely because they are just beginning to develop the outline for NAIRR and don’t feel it necessary or even wise to jump right into a debate over the details of controversial data sharing. Instead, NSF officials said in interviews that they hope the NAIRR framework will bring companies and academic partners together and gradually build trust until such questions become easier to answer.
“That will continue to be an area of focus” for NAIRR, said one NSF official. “Ensuring researchers have access to datasets that are useful for their research is critical.”
Some researchers involved in such research are eager to improve access to corporate data sets, but said they understand NSF’s position at this time.
One of them, Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University, was at New York University in 2021 when she was among the researchers penalized by Facebook over the Ad Observatory project. She has called for federal legislation that would require such companies to share more data, but the NSF needs to demonstrate on issues that could anger the more partisan Congress that votes on budget proposals. He said he recognized the need for caution. .
“In an ideal world, this wouldn’t be a politicized issue,” Professor Edelson said. “But as far as who should push back, the NSF really can’t.”
Dean Freelon, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, also said he believes persistent demands for data access at this stage of industry-academia collaboration could limit NAIRR’s chances for long-term success. “There’s no question that a hard line on data sharing may have led to companies leaving,” he said.
And the urgency for such action in the United States may be diminishing anyway, said Kate Sell, senior climate change campaign manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists. That’s because of a new European Union policy requiring large online companies to make their data available to outside researchers, Sell said. So companies “will have to do this anyway,” she says.
Expanding data access beyond corporations is important, said Brandi Gerkink, executive director of the Independent Technology Research Coalition, which represents academics and other organizations that advocate the right to study the impact of technology on society. Stated.
“Technical companies have repeatedly resisted or obstructed voluntary efforts to provide data to researchers,” Gerkink said.
paul.basken@timehighereducation.com
