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The AAMC submitted a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on Sept. 1 in response to a request for information (RFI) geared toward developing a shared, national artificial intelligence (AI) research infrastructure that is referred to as the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR).

The RFI will inform the work of the NAIRR Task Force, which has been directed by Congress to develop a first-of-its-kind AI infrastructure that provides AI researchers and students across scientific disciplines with access to computational resources, high-quality data, educational tools, and user support.

In its comments, the AAMC expressed strong support for Congress prioritization of AI, which has tremendous potential to advance human health and usher in a new era of biomedicine. The AAMC also commended the aspirations of the OSTP and the NSF to develop an inclusive AI infrastructure that allows all of America's diverse AI researchers to fully participate in exploring innovative ideas for advancing AI, including communities, institutions, and regions that have been traditionally underserved.

The letter outlined strategies on how the NAIRR should reinforce principles of ethical and responsible research and development of AI. In particular, the AAMC underscored the necessity of building a NAIRR that identifies and addresses systemic inequities at the interface of AI and biomedicine, mitigates bias by promoting representative datasets and algorithms, provides users with a data management and sharing plan that promotes community engagement and transparency, and fosters a diverse AI workforce and leadership.

Given the vast amounts of data, industries, and applications that will converge with the NAIRR, the AAMC also noted the importance of a multisector approach for identifying, researching, and mitigating bias, discrimination, health inequities, and social determinants of health all components that currently preclude the formation of an equitable AI framework that benefits all communities equally.

Finally, the AAMC recommended that the NAIRR partner with diverse communities in the development of this framework, thereby culminating a diverse expertise and fostering community trust. On Aug. 18, the OSTP and the NSF extended the RFIs public comment period by one month to Oct. 1, providing further opportunity for researchers and academic institutions to respond.

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AAMC Comments on National Artificial Intelligence Initiative - AAMC

AUSTIN, Texas Ethics will be at the forefront of robotics education thanks to a new University of Texas at Austin program that will train tomorrows technologists to understand the positive and potentially negative implications of their creations.

Today, much robotic technology is developed without considering its potentially harmful effects on society, including how these technologies can infringe on privacy or further economic inequity. The new UT Austin program will fill an important educational gap by prioritizing these issues in its curriculum.

In the next 10 years, we are going to live more closely alongside robots, and we want to be sure that those robots are fair, inclusive and free from bias, said Junfeng Jiao, associate professor in the School of Architecture and the program lead. And because the robots we create are reflections of ourselves, it is imperative that technologists receive an excellent ethics education. We want our students to work directly with companies to create practices and technologies that are equitable and fair.

Called CREATE (Convergent, Responsible, and Ethical AI Training Experience for Roboticists), it will offer graduate coursework and professional development in responsible design and implementation.

CREATE is a collaboration among Texas Robotics, industry partners and the UT grand challenge research initiative Good Systems, which seeks to design AI technologies that benefit society. The program has been recently awarded a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation through its Research Traineeship Program, which will support 32 doctoral students to receive coursework, mentorship, professional development, internships, and research and public service opportunities.

Students will focus specifically on how to ethically design, develop and deploy service robots, which can make deliveries, work in factories and clean homes. They will consider factors such as how to design delivery service robots so they are more inclusive and can reach all people and how to ensure home service robots protect occupants privacy. Several notable robotics companies have also said they will offer students internships, including Sony AI, Bosch, Amazon, SparkCognition and Apptronik.

Researchers involved in the program cross many disciplines at UT, including computer science, architecture, engineering, information, and public affairs. Faculty members from these units will teach courses as part of the curriculum, and two faculty members will mentor each trainee during the five-year program. Additionally, each trainee will receive help with career development, grant writing, and exposure to local startup companies.

More than half of the programs trainees will be chosen from underrepresented groups in STEM education, including women and racial minorities, to help bring much-needed diversity to the field of robotics. The coursework component, which includes five classes in ethical robotics, will be institutionalized as a graduate portfolio program and will be available to all STEM graduate students at UT Austin.

This program will enable us to educate well-rounded roboticists who are not only grounded in the technical details of designing and building autonomous robots but also are equipped to fully consider the societal implications of their work, said Peter Stone, director of Texas Robotics and a professor of computer science. That is a missing part in robotics education in the U.S. and the world. We believe this is a game changer for the future of robotics.

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Ethical Artificial Intelligence is Focus of New Robotics Program - UT News - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

Championship tournaments for computer chess engines moved from onsite competition to online well before many human tournaments made the move last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years the Top Engine Chess Competition, which has been played virtually since 2010, has become the unofficial world computer chess championship.

In recent years, many of these competitions have been won by the open-source chess engine Stockfish, thanks to its ability to conduct deep searches of chess positions enabled by powerful computing. However, in 2019 the Stockfish engine was upended by the LCZero engine, which was developed using a very different approach, employing techniques that develop artificial intelligence. LCZero was launched in 2018 with no chess-specific knowledge other than the basic rules; it learned how to play by analyzing the results of millions of games played by volunteer users. This approach was extremely successful and led to LCZero defeating Stockfish to win TCEC tournaments in 2019 and 2020.

The Stockfish team responded by following the maxim if you cant beat em, join em. In late 2020, a new version of Stockfish was introduced that complemented its deep position searches with a learning function similar to that employed by LCZero. The improved Stockfish has regained its top position among chess engines. In the latest TCEC championship, Stockfish trounced LCZero, with 19 wins and only seven losses in their 100-game match. Other chess engine developers have taken note, and all of the top-rated chess engines now combine classical computing with learning functions.

In the recent match, Stockfish often outperformed LCZero in games that reached unusual positions where deep position searches proved to be more valuable than evaluations that relied on prior learning. In Game 68, the following position was reached after lengthy maneuvering by both sides. LCZero evaluated the position as even, but Stockfish found an opportunity to unbalance the game, to its advantage, by offering a surprising bishop sacrifice.

White to Move

(Stockfish-LCZero Game 68 Move 180)

180Bf6! If black plays 180gxh6? white has 181Rxh6+ Nxh6 182Rxh6+ Kg8 183Qh5 and white forces checkmate in a few moves. After further maneuvering, Stockfish intensified its attack on the black king by offering to sacrifice a second piece its queen.

White to Move

(Stockfish-LCZero Game 68 Move 191)

191Qg5! The queen cannot be taken; 191..hxg5 192Rh8 is checkmate. Black has no satisfactory response. The game continued 191Re8 192Rxh6! Nxh6 193Rxh6 gxh6 194Qxh6 when black must sacrifice its queen to delay checkmate.

Black to Move

(Stockfish-LCZero Game 68 Move 194)

194Qg7 195Bxg7 Rxg7 196f5 exf5 197Qg5. Black cant capture whites e-pawn; 197Rxe5? 198Qd8+ and white is about to checkmate.

197Rf8 198e6 Rc7 Stockfish now maneuvers its King to g5, freeing up the queen to harass the black king and rooks.

199Kc3 Rg7 200Kd4 Rc7 201Ke5 Rg7 202Kf4 Rc7 203 Qh4 Rg7 204Kg5 Re7 205Qf4 Kg7 206Qd6 Rfe8 207Qe5+ Kg8 208Qf6 LCZero is reduced to pawn moves, because moving its king or either rook leads to immediate disaster. The game continued until checkmate, per TCEC tournament rules.

208b6 209axb6 a5 210Qf7+ Rxf7 211gxf7+ Kf8 212fxe8+ Kxe8 213b7 Kf8 214Kf6 Kg8 215b8(Q)+ Kh7 217Qc7+ Kg8 218Qg8 checkmate.

(Stockfish-LCZero Final Position)

To view this game on a virtual board, go to https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/tcec-season-21-superfinal-2021/1/1/68.

Keith Holzmueller has been the head coach of the Evanston Township High School Chess Club and Team since 2017. He became a serious chess player during his high school years. As an adult player, he obtained a US Chess Federation Expert rating for over-the-board play and wasawarded the Senior International Master title by the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Keith now puts most of his chess energy into helping young chess players in Evanston learn to enjoy chess and improve their play.Please email Keith at news@evanstonroundtable.com if you have any chess questions.

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Rank and File | Artificial intelligence comes to the fore in computer chess - Evanston RoundTable

Sep. 10, 2021Updated: Sep. 10, 2021 2:41p.m.

An IBM researcher holds a silicon wafer with embedded IBM Telum chips designed to maximize artificial intelligence capabilities. The chips were developed at Albany Nanotech and made in partnership with Samsung. The Albany area was recent cited by the Brookings Institution for having the potential to create an AI sector.

ALBANY The Capital Region is one of 87 "potential adoption centers" in the United States for companies and researchers focused on the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank. The San Francisco Bay area is No. 1 in AI, while other upstate cities, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, were also listed as potential adoption centers.

The Center for Economic Growth in Albany highlighted the Brookings list as part of its own report recently published on AI research and development in the Capital Region at local universities and at companies such as IBM and General Electric.

Larry Rulison has been a reporter for the Albany Times Union since 2005. Larry's reporting for the Times Union has won several awards for business and investigative journalism from the New York State Associated Press Association and the New York News Publishers Association. Contact him at 518-454-5504 or lrulison@timesunion.com.

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Region's AI sector has potential according to think tank - Times Union

Arushi Kapoor

Many people considered it a formless blur of colors, an image that was abstract but slightly resembling a human face. The image isnt even properly positioned on the canvas, rather it is skewed towards the northwest.

In October 2018, this art piece: Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, an algorithm-generated print, was sold for $432,500, thus beginning the AI-Art goldRush.

Humans have always created and enjoyed all forms of art, for viewing purposes, for aesthetic purposes, and even for therapeutic purposes. Since the discoveries of an artistic shell carved by homoerectus, the art business has grown in leaps and bounds and become a highly profitable industry. Leonardo Davincis, Salvator Mundi went for $450.3 million, becoming the most expensive art piece to date.

Understanding and thriving in this industry is not as easy as it may appear, it requires a lot of knowledge, time, and exposure. 25-year-old Arushi Kapoor is the CEO and co-founder of ARTSop art consulting, is an entrepreneur who boasts all of these traits. She is also the founder of Arushi, a cultural center and art warehouse based in Echo Park, Los Angeles.In this article, Kapoor shares her knowledge of the art industry and the influence that tech and AI have on it.

Technology has impacted the way art is created and enjoyed for the better part of the last 100 years, the invention of portable paint tubes enabled artists to paint outdoors and sparked a contingent of stunning landscape and horizon paintings. Today cameras and software like Photoshop have redefined the way art is created and enjoyed.

Kapoor, who is herself a tech-enthusiast agrees that these advancements have been great, but insists that they have not changed the antiquated meaning of art.

I will always be grateful for technology and technological advancements, says Kapoor.I wouldnt have a business or be able to do what I have done in the industry since the age of 19, had it not been for technologies of various kinds.

She continues,However, in my experience, I feel that there is still and will always be that reverence in the hearts of art lovers towards handmade art and crafts. Technological creations have great utility and aesthetic value, but paintings and craft tend to have what I refer to as artistic glory. Human creativity is what art is all about. Technology is a help to it, not a full replacement for it.

Kapoors foray into the industry dates back to when she wrote her first book, Talking Art at age 19. With that book, she put the world on notice that art was not going to be just a fleeting interest for her. Kapoor grew up in India, Europe, and the US, and this multicultural exposure has certainly influenced her knowledge and understanding of art.

Kapoor is the director of Arushi, a US-based venture that made history as the first to present a sold-out all-Indian art show; Art of India, Reclaiming The Present.

ArtSop Consulting, a facet of Arushi, provides private art consulting to people around the world, buying and selling art for clients in the secondary art market. Additionally, ArtSop represents primary artists that are featured in the art warehouse, Arushi.

Kapoor is also a technology investor, who has done a lot of research and invested capital into AI-driven art startups that are moving the needle when it comes to the future of art tech.

Kapoor comments that the integration of AI and art has been received with mixed feelings.

Personally, I havent seen any extraordinary artworks created by AI exclusively yet, she says. I think there is always going to be some human intervention required to create out of the park art. I recently heard, DeviantArt is an AI tool thats helping find stolen artworks. Thats extraordinary and thats how I believe AI can make a positive impact on the art world

The success of the AI-generated Portrait of Edmond de Belamy seems to have sparked off a series of AI art creations all wanting to cash out on the AI intrigue among some high spending art lovers.

In a recent exhibition of prints shown at the HG Contemporary gallery in Chelsea, the epicenter of New Yorks contemporary art world, 20 prints were displayed as part of the Faceless Portraits Transcending Time.

The ARTSop CEO isnt necessarily intrigued by this development, Kapoors MO has always been about highlighting upcoming local and female contemporary artists who have no platform to showcase their creations. In the opening of her Invite-only warehouse in LA, she featured a local female artist, Lindsay Dawn, for her first exhibition. Kapoor believes that real art should be discovered and celebrated.

If AI prints continue to sell for huge amounts it may de-incentivize actual human creation and creativity, says Kapoor.

Arushi Kapoor

At the rate at which technology is being accepted in every industry, it is no longer difficult to imagine a future where fewer artists are creating because they lack platforms to sell. Arushi along with many other art companies and galleries, hopes to find a balance and to create an ecosystem where both kinds of art can co-exist in the future. This shift to accepting non man made artworks isnt widely accepted currently. I am optimistic that there would always be a large section of art lovers who prefer man-made creations or perhaps love both.

Artificial Intelligence wasnt initially applied to art as a creator but as an impersonator. The technique is called style transfer and it uses deep neural networks to replicate, recreate and blend styles of artwork, by teaching the AI to understand existing pieces of art. Alexandra Squire is an excellent example of how the very human process of making art is not easily replicated. Squire believes art is a universal language with vast meanings, and focuses on art that is substantial, open to interpretation, and rich in depth and texture.

The increased usage of all kinds of AI in all kinds of art suggests that it is here to stay. From the AI-written book, 1 The Road, to Anna Riddlers AI-generated blooming tulip videos, creators have found value in utilizing artificial intelligence.

The question then becomes, is AI the future of the art industry? Kapoor shares her sentiment on this pertinent question.

Kapoor adds, The more optimistic view is that artificial intelligence evolves into a greater tool for existing creators to enhance, discover and replicate their works. We all hope for a world where our technologies help us, and not replace us.

Kapoors perspective on the future of art and AI is probably the most tenable and desirable. There is a strong perception amongst art lovers that machines can not produce art in the real sense of the word.

This sentiment is partly true because so far, AI has only demonstrated an ability to study and understand existing art and to somehow enhance or combine them to produce something new, and in some cases, something better.

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Is Artificial Intelligence Set To Take Over The Art Industry? - Forbes