The mission of HAI is to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition. Led by faculty from multiple departments across Stanford, research focuses on developing AI technologies inspired by human intelligence; studying, forecasting and guiding the human and societal impact of AI; and designing and creating AI applications that augment human capabilities. Through the education work of the institute, students and leaders at all stages gain a range of AI fundamentals and perspectives. At the same time, the policy work of HAI fosters regional and national discussions that lead to direct legislative impact.
What’s unique about HAI is that it balances diverse expertise and integration of AI across human-centered systems and applications in a setting that could only be offered by Stanford University. Stanford’s seven leading schools on the same campus, including a world-renown computer science department, offer HAI access to multidisciplinary research from top scholars.
AI has the potential to affect every aspect of our lives and our civilization, from social bonds and ethics to the economy and healthcare, education and government. The faculty and staff of HAI are engaging not only leading-edge scientists, but scholars trying to make sense of social movements, educators enhancing pedagogy, lawyers and legislators working to protect rights and improve institutions, and artists trying to bring a humanistic sensibility to the world in which we live. Together we’re helping build the future of AI.
Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives at an important moment when AI’s influence on society has never been more pronounced. This year, we have broadened our scope to more extensively cover essential trends such as technical advancements in AI, public perceptions of the technology, and the geopolitical dynamics surrounding its development. Featuring more original data than ever before, this edition introduces new estimates on AI training costs, detailed analyses of the responsible AI landscape, and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI’s impact on science and medicine. |
A snapshot of what happened this past year in AI research, education, policy, hiring, and more. |
A new index rates the transparency of 10 foundation model companies and finds them lacking. Companies in the foundation model space are becoming less transparent, says Rishi Bommasani, Society Lead at the Center for Research on Foundation Models (CRFM), within Stanford HAI. For example, OpenAI, which has the word “open” right in its name, has clearly stated that it will not be transparent about most aspects of its flagship model, GPT-4. Less transparency makes it harder for other businesses to know if they can safely build applications that rely on commercial foundation models; for academics to rely on commercial foundation models for research; for policymakers to design meaningful policies to rein in this powerful technology; and for consumers to understand model limitations or seek redress for harms caused. To assess transparency, Bommasani and CRFM Director Percy Liang brought together a multidisciplinary team from Stanford, MIT, and Princeton to design a scoring system called the Foundation Model Transparency Index. The FMTI evaluates 100 different aspects of transparency, from how a company builds a foundation model, how it works, and how it is used downstream. When the team scored 10 major foundation model companies using their 100-point index, they found plenty of room for improvement: The highest scores, which ranged from 47 to 54, aren’t worth crowing about, while the lowest score bottoms out at 12. “This is a pretty clear indication of how these companies compare to their competitors, and we hope will motivate them to improve their transparency,” Bommasani says. |
The AI Index is an independent initiative at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), led by the AI Index Steering Committee, an interdisciplinary group of experts from across academia and industry. The annual report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizesdata relating to artificial intelligence, enabling decision-makers to take meaningful action to advance AI responsibly and ethically with humans in mind. The AI Index collaborates with many different organizations to track progress in artificial intelligence. These organizations include: the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University, LinkedIn, NetBase Quid, Lightcast, and McKinsey. The 2023 report also features more self-collected data and original analysis than ever before. This year’s report included new analysis on foundation models, including their geopolitics and training costs, the environmental impact of AI systems, K-12 AI education, and public opinion trends in AI. The AI Index also broadened its tracking of global AI legislation from 25 countries in 2022 to 127 in 2023. |