Center for Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This proposal describes an Engineering Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) committed to conduct research in basic AI topics and to apply AI techniques to selected application areas --- namely, oil and gas industry, agribusiness, and health. The Center will also fund studies on the social and economic impact of AI, and will carry activities aimed at technology transfer and knowledge diffusion. The Center will be built on the belief that the next ten years will bring unprecedented advances in AI that will depend both on the collaboration amongst the core areas of AI and between these core areas and applications. The Center for Artificial Intelligence will consist of two intertwined groups of researchers, both of them distributed across the host and associated institutions. One group of researchers, with significant international presence in the AI community, will cover central topics of AI, from knowledge representation to machine learning, with specific emphasis on text and natural language processing, particularly in Portuguese. Current international research trends suggest that the next decade will witness an increased interaction between knowledge representation, decision making, and machine learning; the Center for Artificial Intelligence will focus its attention on the combination of these areas of AI as they are not as closely connected as they should be --- the Center will position itself as a fundamental player in the collaboration amongst core AI topics. A second group of researchers in the Center will focus on three selected application areas with high potential and significant existing expertise in the host institution: oil and gas, agribusiness, and health. The connection between core AI research and application areas will work both ways: the core AI research will address large scale problems in the selected application areas, and will be informed by the large scale challenges in those application areas. A small group of researchers from the humanities is also included in the Center so as to conduct research on the social impact of AI and to identify paths that will guarantee the use of AI for good. The Coordinator of Education and Dissemination of Knowledge will organize video production with research results and will work through fairs and schools to educate the public in broadest terms. The Coordinator of Technology Transfer will work together with well established offices of the host institution to nurture initiatives that will transfer results to the funding entities and to entrepreneurship efforts. (AU)