MIT發(fā)起MIT IQ項目 學術界意圖贏回AI領域主動權

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is launching an ambitious programme, involving hundreds of researchers across the university, to understand human intelligence and apply that knowledge to develop intelligent machines.

麻省理工學院(MIT)正在啟動一項雄心勃勃的項目，該項目涉及該校的數(shù)百名研究人員，旨在了解人類智力，并利用研究成果開發(fā)智能機器。

The MIT Intelligence Quest or MIT IQ, based at an institution that has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research since the 1950s, is a far-reaching academic effort to regain the initiative in AI. It comes at a time when the technology industry’s fast-growing research labs threaten to suck the field’s most talented scientists, engineers and ideas away from universities.

麻省理工學院的MIT IQ項目是學術界發(fā)起的一項旨在贏回在人工智能(AI)領域的主動權、意義深遠的努力。MIT自1950年代以來一直處于AI研究的前沿。該項目推出之際，科技行業(yè)高速發(fā)展的研究實驗室大有從各大學吸走AI領域最有才華的科學家、工程師和創(chuàng)意之勢。

“We plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from the private and public sectors for this effort,” said Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT dean of engineering. “We are having discussions with a broad set of companies that have shown great enthusiasm for the initiative.”

“我們計劃從私營和公共部門為該項目籌集數(shù)億美元，”MIT工程學院院長阿南塔•錢德拉卡山(Anantha Chandrakasan)說，“我們正在與一大批對此表現(xiàn)出極大熱情的公司進行討論。”

MIT professors say that tech companies have acknowledged concerns that they are poaching too many AI experts from universities, where they are needed to teach future scientists and engineers as well as carry out basic research. The industry is responding by increasing academic collaboration and funding.

MIT的教授們表示，科技公司已意識到了它們從大學挖走太多AI專家引起的擔憂。大學需要這些專家給未來的科學家和工程師授課，并從事基礎研究?？萍夹袠I(yè)的回應是增加學術合作和資助。

“Two weeks ago we had a symposium with several Google and Alphabet companies,” said Josh Tenenbaum, professor of cognitive science and computation. “We can see that industry is keen to replenish the well of ideas and people.”

“兩周前，我們與谷歌(Google)等幾家Alphabet旗下公司舉行了一場研討會，”認知科學和計算科學教授喬希•特南鮑姆(Josh Tenenbaum)說，“我們可以看到，該行業(yè)熱衷于補充創(chuàng)意和人才。”

MIT hopes to sign collaborations similar to that announced in September with IBM, in which the computing company agreed to invest $240m in a new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

MIT希望簽署類似于去年9月宣布的與IBM的合作協(xié)議。該協(xié)議顯示，IBM同意投資2.4億美元成立一個新的MIT-IBM 沃森人工智能實驗室(MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab)。

The MIT IQ programme sets out to answer two big questions, said Rafael Reif, the university’s president: “How does human intelligence work, in engineering terms? And how can we use that deep grasp of human intelligence to build wiser and more useful machines?” MIT IQ 項目旨在回答兩個重大問題，MIT校長拉斐爾•賴夫(Rafael Reif)說：“從工程學看，人類智力是如何起作用的?我們?nèi)绾尾拍芾脤θ祟愔橇Φ纳羁汤斫?，制造出更聰明、更有用的機器?”

It will aim to deliver the answers through two linked entities. The first, called “The Core”, will work on the science and engineering of human and machine intelligence in general. As well as gaining fundamental understanding of how natural and computer brains work, it will generate machine-learning algorithms for more specific applications.

該項目的目標是通過兩個相互聯(lián)系的實體來找出答案。第一個實體被稱為“核心”(The Core)，將在總體上研究人類智力和機器智能的科學和工程學。除了獲得對自然大腦和計算機大腦工作原理的基本理解外，它還將生成針對更具體用途的機器學習算法。

The second entity, “The Bridge” will apply discoveries in natural and artificial intelligence to a wide variety of disciplines including disease diagnosis, drug discovery, materials and manufacturing design, automation, synthetic biology and finance. Both will collaborate with research labs worldwide.

第二個實體“橋”(The Bridge)將把在自然智能和人工智能領域的研究成果，應用到包括疾病診斷、藥物發(fā)現(xiàn)、材料和制造設計、自動化、合成生物學和金融的廣大領域。這兩個實體都將與世界各地的研究實驗室展開合作。

MIT already has more than 200 “principal investigators” (senior scientists) working on aspects of natural and artificial intelligence, said Prof Reif. “We are amplifying this research by providing additional resources and connecting researchers more closely together.”

賴夫教授說，MIT已有200多名“項目負責人”(資深科學家)負責自然和人工智能方面的研究。“我們通過提供額外的資源和加強研究人員之間的聯(lián)系，來擴大這項研究。”

Prof Tenenbaum said he was looking forward to reproducing in a machine the way human intelligence develops from birth though infancy and childhood. His colleague Dina Katabi, professor of computer science, wants to build an intelligent home for patients with chronic disease, which would constantly monitor their health and predict problems and forestall emergencies before they occur.

特南鮑姆教授說，他期待著在機器中重現(xiàn)人類智力從出生到嬰兒到兒童的發(fā)展過程。他的同事、計算機科學教授迪娜•卡塔比(Dina Katabi)希望為慢性病患者建立一個智能之家，它可以持續(xù)監(jiān)測患者的健康狀況，預測問題，并預先在病情危急之前采取措施。

Adrian Weller, senior research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London, the UK national research centre for AI, said: “We warmly welcome this MIT initiative. AI has made great progress in the last few years but we are still very far from enabling machines to do things that our human brains can do without effort.”

艾德里安•韋勒(Adrian Weller)是英國國家AI研究中心倫敦艾倫•圖靈研究所(Alan Turing Institute)的高級研究員。他說：“我們熱烈歡迎MIT的這項倡議。在過去幾年里，AI已取得了很大進展，但我們還遠遠不能讓機器毫不費力地完成我們?nèi)祟惔竽X所能做到的事情。”

He added that he was particularly pleased that, like the Turing Institute, MIT would investigate the social and ethical implications of AI alongside its scientific and technological development. “If we are going to apply AI across society, we need to think hard about the ethical issues.”

他補充說，他特別高興的是，像圖靈研究所一樣，MIT在AI的科學與技術發(fā)展之外還將研究它對社會與倫理的影響。“如果要把AI應用到整個社會，那么我們就需要認真思考倫理問題。”