March 13 — The Stanford One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, AI100, launched in Fall 2014, is an endowed, long-range investigation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It examines AI systems and the technological, ethical, and policy opportunities and dilemmas that they present to individuals, communities, and society. The AI100 Standing Committee (AI100SC) oversees the Study’s core activity: Designing and carrying out, on a five-year cycle, studies that assess the current state and future potential of AI-enabled computing systems. Resulting Study Panel Reports aim to inform and prompt action from diverse stakeholders as they navigate the promise and challenges that AI advancements raise for how people work, live, and play.

AI100’s first study,  “AI and Life in 2030”, was issued in 2015-16. The AI100SC, in preparation for its next study cycle, is pleased to issue this call for proposals to convene multidisciplinary communities of scholars and stakeholders. The AI100SC will select and host two focused studies – carried out through interactive study-workshops – over the next two years, providing $15,000 to each winning proposal. AI100SC may also choose to fund a third study-workshop. Results from these study-workshops will form the substance of the 2020 AI100 Report. The AI100SC invites applications on topics and issues core to its mission that bring together an international community of AI researchers and practitioners with a broad representation of fields relevant to AI’s impact in the world. The AI100SC is particularly interested in spurring conversations that connect and build on the expertise of computer scientists and engineers; scholars in the humanities, including historians and philosophers of ethics, science and technology; the social sciences, including anthropologists, economists, media scholars, psychologists, and sociologists; law and public policy experts; and representatives from business management as well as the private and public sectors.

Initial proposals for study-workshops, due April 23, 2018, should take the form of an abstract no longer than 500 words that briefly describes the questions to be studied, the rationale for the study-workshops, the intended range of disciplinary expertise and participation, a general plan for carrying out the study-workshop, and intended format for communicating study-workshop results. AI100 will provide financial support and organizational assistance for each study-workshop as well as resources to disseminate the workshop’s study results. Details about workshop scheduling, budget, review timelines, and criteria for evaluating proposals will be maintained at: https://ai100.stanford.edu/workshop

We look forward to hosting a lively and informative set of studies that will produce new ideas and enrich our understanding of AI and its influence on people and society.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the important dates that I should track?

1. April 23, 2018, 5pm PT: initial 500-word abstracts due
2. June 1, 2018: ten finalists receive notice requesting a full proposal
3. June 29, 2018, 5pm PT: 2,500-word full proposal due
4. August 17, 2018: all finalists notified of their proposal status
5. Early Fall, 2018: Public announcement of the study-workshops selected

What’s due, when? There will be two rounds of proposals and reviews before the final study-workshops are selected: this initial round of short proposals, intended to be simple to prepare, and a final round of more detailed, full proposals. To be considered for support, proposers should submit an initial proposal taking the form of a 500-word abstract (maximum length) to: http://bit.ly/2H192aT

The deadline for the initial call for proposals is April 23, 2018, by 5pm PT. All proposals that meet the submission word count and deadline will receive notice of receipt of their abstracts. Only submissions selected for elaboration and submission of full proposals will receive feedback and guidance, by June 1, on full proposal content from the AI100SC.

The AI100SC will invite a selected set of finalists (no more than ten abstracts from the initial pool) to submit a full proposal (2,500 words maximum) and budget, due June 29, 2018, 5pm PT. Finalists will receive notice of the status of their proposals by August 17, 2018. The study-workshops selected for support, based on their full proposals, to be funded by the AI100SC, will be announced on the AI100 website Fall 2018.

Additional info here: https://ai100.stanford.edu/workshop

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Source: Stanford University