<story><title>M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1B</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/mit-college-artificial-intelligence.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randcraw</author><text>This sounds like a direct response to two things (mostly): 1) CMU establishing a &amp;#x27;department&amp;#x27; of AI (where MIT had merely an AI track within the CS program), and 2) Kai-Fu Lee&amp;#x27;s recent book on the rise and inevitable domination by China of all things AI-related -- inviting a new &amp;#x27;space race&amp;#x27; between the superpowers.  (A &amp;#x27;brain race&amp;#x27;?)&lt;p&gt;Yet I can&amp;#x27;t imagine why an entire &amp;#x27;college&amp;#x27; of AI is needed.  AI simply isn&amp;#x27;t a field that&amp;#x27;s deep or broad enough to warrant an entire college with a handful of distinct majors, like an engineering college or medical school.  Each of this college&amp;#x27;s AI degrees will span distinct problem or solution spaces?  Not likely.&lt;p&gt;Maybe this was the only way to ensure the gift of all $350 million.  Or to build &lt;i&gt;multiple&lt;/i&gt; new buildings...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>perennate</author><text>MIT&amp;#x27;s news article [1] has more concrete information. The NYT article is a bit misleading.&lt;p&gt;It is a College of Computing, not College of AI. Also note that MIT has Schools (School of Engineering, School of Science, etc.), not Colleges; so this will be something different.&lt;p&gt;For example, according to MIT&amp;#x27;s FAQ [2], EECS Department will likely continue to be part of School of Engineering, even as it becomes part of College of Computing.&lt;p&gt;In particular:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The College will reorient MIT to bring the power of computing and AI to all fields of study at MIT, allowing the future of computing and AI to be shaped by insights from all other disciplines;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Q: Why is this a college, rather than a school? What is the difference?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A: The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing will work with and across all five of MIT’s existing schools. Its naming as a college differentiates it from the five schools, and signals that it is an Institute-wide entity: The College is designed with cross-cutting education and research as its primary missions.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Q: What kinds of new joint academic programs or degrees are envisioned?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A: MIT has been making progress in this direction for some time; for example, we already offer undergraduate majors that pair computer science with economics, biology, mathematics, and urban planning. The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing will allow MIT to respond to the student demand the Institute is seeing in course and major&amp;#x2F;minor selection more effectively and creatively. It will enable MIT to pursue this vision with unprecedented depth and ambition, and will give MIT’s five schools a shared structure for collaborative education, research, and innovation in computing and AI.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mit.edu&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;mit-reshapes-itself-stephen-schwarzman-college-of-computing-1015&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mit.edu&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;mit-reshapes-itself-stephen-schwarz...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mit.edu&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;faq-mit-stephen-schwarzman-college-of-computing-1015&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.mit.edu&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;faq-mit-stephen-schwarzman-college-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1B</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/mit-college-artificial-intelligence.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>randcraw</author><text>This sounds like a direct response to two things (mostly): 1) CMU establishing a &amp;#x27;department&amp;#x27; of AI (where MIT had merely an AI track within the CS program), and 2) Kai-Fu Lee&amp;#x27;s recent book on the rise and inevitable domination by China of all things AI-related -- inviting a new &amp;#x27;space race&amp;#x27; between the superpowers.  (A &amp;#x27;brain race&amp;#x27;?)&lt;p&gt;Yet I can&amp;#x27;t imagine why an entire &amp;#x27;college&amp;#x27; of AI is needed.  AI simply isn&amp;#x27;t a field that&amp;#x27;s deep or broad enough to warrant an entire college with a handful of distinct majors, like an engineering college or medical school.  Each of this college&amp;#x27;s AI degrees will span distinct problem or solution spaces?  Not likely.&lt;p&gt;Maybe this was the only way to ensure the gift of all $350 million.  Or to build &lt;i&gt;multiple&lt;/i&gt; new buildings...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ChrisRackauckas</author><text>AI isn&amp;#x27;t a method, it&amp;#x27;s a field of trying to solve problems through an almost pure computational mean. People tend to think of it as machine learning, but there&amp;#x27;s a whole range of mathematics and computer science related to solving these kinds of problems. In this sense, PDE-constrained optimal control of power grids, parameter estimation of pharmacometric models, robotics and automation, and bioinformatic advances like automated cell detection for enhanced next-generation sequencing techniques can easily fit under an AI umbrella. That makes it a huge interdisciplinary effort that can easily span a whole college, and something MIT is very well primed to succeed in.</text></comment>