ABSTRACT

Research on Artificial Intelligence, especially in the field of machine learning, has exploded in the twenty-first century. AI research in universities has long been funded by a combination of government and corporate sources. The funding of AI research in the contemporary university includes technology companies as both funders and generators of research areas. This paper looks at the links between technology companies and AI research in three areas: first, the ways in which technology companies influence both the content and practices of AI research in universities; second, how university research policies enable conditions that blur traditional boundaries between corporate and academic AI research; and third, how an ethos of ‘open science’, that is increasingly corporatised, moves ideas about AI from universities to companies. We conclude that technology companies influence AI research within established feedback loops in the transformed relationships between economy, society, research, and the contemporary university.

摘要

人工智能的研究，尤其是机器学习领域的研究，在二十一世纪呈爆炸式增长。长期以来，大学的人工智能研究一直由政府和企业共同资助。当代大学对人工智能研究的资助包括技术公司，它们既是研究领域的资助者，也是研究领域的发起者。本文从三个方面着眼于科技公司与 AI 研究之间的联系：首先，科技公司影响大学 AI 研究的内容和实践的方式；其次，大学研究政策如何创造模糊企业和学术人工智能研究之间传统界限的条件；第三，日益公司化的“开放科学”精神如何将人工智能的理念从大学转移到公司。