Excerpts from the Stanford 2023 AI Index Report Insights

The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Index Report (AI Index Report) is an annual report published by Stanford Human -Centered Artificial Intelligence to track, organize, refine, and visualize data related to artificial intelligence. The report covers various aspects of AI research and development, technology performance, policy, and public attitudes.

Main points of the report

1. Industry leads academia

Prior to 2014, most important machine learning models were released by academia, but since then industry has gradually taken over. In 2022, industry released 32 important machine learning models, compared to only 3 released by academia. Building state-of-the-art AI systems requires large amounts of data, computational resources, and funding, which industry has in abundance compared to nonprofits and academia.

2. AI has both benefits and drawbacks for the environment

Studies have shown that AI can be used to improve the environment.

In 2022, Google's AI company, DeepMind, released the results of an experiment in which DeepMind trained a reinforcement learning agent called BCOOLER to optimize the cooling process in Google's data centers. The results showed that at the end of the three-month experiment, BCOOLER saved about 12.7 percent of energy.

However, AI systems can also have serious environmental impacts. According to Luccioni et al, of the four language models, GPT-3, Gopher, OPT, and BLOOM, the GPT-3 training process had the highest carbon emissions, equivalent to 502 times the carbon emissions of a one-way flight from New York to San Francisco.

3. AI publications double in number

Between 2010 and 2021, the total number of AI-related publications more than doubles, from 200,000 in 2010 to nearly 496,000 in 2021. Publications in pattern recognition and machine learning have grown the fastest over the past five years.

4. Lower costs and higher revenues for companies utilizing AI

According to the findings of McKinsey's annual study, the percentage of companies utilizing AI more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, stabilizing between 50% and 60%. And, these companies report realizing significant cost reductions and revenue increases.

5. Policymakers' attention to AI is on the rise

The AI Index Report analyzed laws containing the term "artificial intelligence" passed by 127 national legislatures between 2016 and 2022. The results show that 31 of the 127 countries have passed at least one AI-related bill, for a total of 123.

6. AI accelerates scientific progress

Artificial intelligence models are beginning to accelerate scientific progress and will be used to help hydrogen fusion and improve the efficiency of matrix operations in 2022.

7. Public attitudes towards AI are mixed

In an IPSOS 2022 survey, 78% of Chinese respondents agreed with the statement that "the benefits of using AI products outweigh the disadvantages," the highest percentage of any country surveyed. China was followed by Saudi Arabia (76%) and India (71%), while only 35% of Americans agreed with the statement, a low percentage among the countries surveyed.