National Science Foundation, in collaboration with Amazon, awards 11 Fairness in AI grant projects
In 2019, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Amazon announced a collaboration to accelerate research on fairness in AI, with each organization committing up to $10 million each in grants over the ensuing three years.
Last year, NSF announced the first 10 projects to receive grants through the initiative. Thirty-five researchers obtained funds for the projects that addressed four broad research areas:
- Ensuring fairness in algorithms and the systems that incorporate them — which begins with the definition and quantification of fairness;
- Accountability and transparency in AI algorithms;
- Using AI to promote equity in society; and
- Ensuring that the benefits of AI are available to everyone.
This year, NSF has announced the next cohort of 37 researchers focused on 11 projects that cover a range of topics, including:
- Theoretical and algoithmic foundations;
- Principles for human interaction with AI systems;
- Technologies such as natural language understanding and computer vision; and
- Applications including hiring decision, education, criminal justice, and human services.
“We are excited to see NSF select an incredibly talented group of researchers whose research efforts are informed by a multiplicity of perspectives,” said Prem Natarajan, Alexa AI vice president of Natural Understanding. “As AI technologies become more prevalent in our daily lives, AI fairness is an increasingly important area of scientific endeavor. And we are delighted to partner with NSF to accelerate progress in this area by supporting the work of the top research teams in the world.”
Credit: NSF
“NSF is partnering with Amazon to support this year’s cohort of fairness in AI projects,” said Henry Kautz, director of NSF’s Division of Information and Intelligent Systems. “Understanding how AI systems can be designed on principles of fairness, transparency and trustworthiness will advance the boundaries of AI applications. And it will help us build a more equitable society in which all citizens can be designers of these technologies as well as benefit from them.”
More information about this Fairness in AI
program is available on NSF’s website, and via their program update. Below is the list of the 2021 awardees, and an overview of their projects.
