The MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab will encourage MIT faculty and students to launch companies that will focus on commercializing artificial intelligence inventions and technologies
IBM and MIT today announced that IBM plans to make a $240 million investment to create the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab in partnership with MIT.
IBM and MIT said that the lab will carry out fundamental artificial intelligence (AI) research. The collaboration aims to advance AI hardware, software, and algorithms related to deep learning and other areas; increase AI’s impact on industries, such as healthcare and cybersecurity and explore the economic and ethical implications of AI on society. IBM’s investment in the lab will support research by IBM and MIT scientists.
The new lab will host over 100 AI scientists, professors, and students to pursue joint research at IBM’s Research Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts — co-located with the IBM Watson Health and IBM Security headquarters in Kendall Square — and on the neighboring MIT campus.
IBM and MIT plan to issue a call for proposals to MIT researchers and IBM scientists to submit their ideas for joint research in several areas, including AI algorithms; physics of AI and application of AI to industries.
The MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab will also explore how AI can deliver economic and societal benefits to a broader range of people, nations, and enterprises. The lab will study the economic implications of AI and investigate how AI can improve prosperity and help individuals achieve more in their lives, IBM and MIT said.
The new lab will also seek to encourage MIT faculty and students to launch companies that will focus on commercializing AI inventions and technologies that are developed at the lab.
“The field of artificial intelligence has experienced incredible growth and progress over the past decade. Yet today’s AI systems, as remarkable as they are, will require new innovations to tackle increasingly difficult real-world problems to improve our work and lives,” said John Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, cognitive solutions and research. “The extremely broad and deep technical capabilities and talent at MIT and IBM are unmatched, and will lead the field of AI for at least the next decade.”
