Stanford's AI100 project publishes second report on AI's progress and risks

On 16 September 2021, the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100), a long-term project hosted at Stanford University, published its second major report. Titled "Gathering Strength, Gathering Storms", it followed the first report issued in 2016.

The report was written by a panel of academics and researchers from several fields. It reviewed how far AI had advanced in the preceding five years, noting significant progress in areas such as language processing and computer vision, and the technology's growing presence in everyday life, business and public services.

It also set out the risks that accompanied this progress. These included concerns about bias and fairness, the spread of disinformation and manipulated media, surveillance, and the need for more thoughtful governance and regulation. The authors stressed that the consequences of AI depended heavily on the choices of the people and institutions deploying it.

The study is designed to be revisited at regular intervals over a century, so its reports serve as benchmarks for how both the technology and public debate about it evolve.