The following is a guest blog post by CCC AI and Robotics Task Force Co-Chair Greg Hager from Johns Hopkins University.  Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged into the public view as an important frontier of technological innovation with potential influences in many realms. Many recent symposia and workshops including AI for Social Good, Computing Research: Addressing National Priorities and Societal Needs, and Discovery and Innovation in Smart and Pervasive Health have highlighted both the progress and opportunities for AI and its potential to contribute to new products, services, and experiences. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that fielding real-world systems that realize these innovations will also drive significant advances […]

The following is a guest blog post from Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member Maja J. Matarić from the University of Southern California and past CCC Chair Greg Hager from Johns Hopkins University.  The New York Times released How to Make America’s Robots Great Again, an article that focused on overlooked realities of manufacturing and robotics. American factories hit a manufacturing record in 2016; 85 percent more goods were made than 30 years ago, but this success is due to automation, resulting in one third fewer jobs. At the same time, China is aggressively automating its manufacturing, with massive infrastructure investments in robotics and no public dialog about job loss. […]

The following is a blog post by Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council Member and contributor to the Robotics Roadmaps Maja Matarić.  In 2009, the CCC published a report, A Roadmap for US Robotics, From Internet to Robotics (a.k.a. the Robotics Roadmap), which explored the capacity of robotics to act as a key economic enabler, specifically in the areas of manufacturing, healthcare, and the service industry, 5, 10, and 15 years into the future. An updated version of the Robotics Roadmap was released in November 2016; it expands on the topics discussed in the 2009 roadmap and addresses the areas of public safety, earth science, and workforce development. It also emphasizes robotics […]

The Computing Community Consoritum (CCC) is co-sponsoring with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) one of several symposia in the AAAI 2016 Fall Symposium series on November 17-19, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia.  The Symposium on Accelerating Science: A Grand Challenge for AI aims to bring together researchers in relevant areas of artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning, causal inference, knowledge representation and inference, planning, decision making), high performance data and computing infrastructures and services, and selected application areas (e.g., life sciences, learning sciences, health sciences, social sciences, food energy and water nexus) to discuss progress on, and articulate a research agenda aimed at addressing, the AI grand challenge of accelerating science. Learn more and […]

This is a guest blog post by Greg Hager, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Past Chair and Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, with contributions from Eric Horvitz the Technical Fellow & Managing Director at Microsoft Research and a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). In a recent blog post, we summarized the report of an academic/industry roundtable, which, among other recommendations, advocated for mechanisms to support long-term, strategic, and sustained conversation between academics and industry representatives. Yesterday, one such mechanism came into being with the announcement of the Partnership on AI by a consortium consisting of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and IBM. From the press release: The objective of […]

Contributions to this post were made by Greg Hager, Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Past Chair and Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University.  In June, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a new Request for Information (RFI) on Artificial Intelligence (AI), to solicit feedback on how the United States can best prepare for the future of AI. According to the OSTP Blog, they “received 161 responses from a range of stakeholders, including individuals, academics and researchers, non-profit organizations, and industry.” All of the responses are now public and can be found here. The Computing Community Consoritum‘s (CCC) submitted a response, which can be found here, after […]