Universities don’t want AI research to leave them behind

livemint.com:

Universities are in a race for relevance in the field of generative AI as private companies, loaded with talent and pricey chips, drive the conversation. Outspent by Silicon Valley, some are turning their research focus to less computing-power intensive areas of artificial intelligence, even as they seek to build additional computing resources capable of powering bigger models. “Academic institutions are scrambling to get access to compute," said Hod Lipson, chair of the mechanical engineering department at Columbia University.

While basic university research has been critical to waves of technological innovation, generative AI research has been dominated by private companies, thanks in part to their access to the data and dollars needed to build and train models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini. OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said last year that training his company’s biggest models cost “much more than" $50 million to $100 million. The stakes are high as universities compete against technology companies for the type of AI talent that can bring prestige to their computer science programs.

Universities have a critical role in the talent pipeline for the tech industry, which has struggled in recent years to find qualified candidates for some jobs. It is also important for universities to be part of the conversation around generative AI and to help inform how it is used, academic researchers said. “I think it’s important that industry is involved in this.